This is what Mail art looks like ...

…when it takes 27 years to make!

've known Jacquie since our son (now in his late twenties) with a babe in arms.  We have shared three countries  and she visited my mother on Cranberry Island when i wasn't there once. Until now, Jacquie has never exchanged mail art with me. To receive this postcard, so full of the joys of spring, it's light, abundance and temperature was a truly special surprise. Jacquie tells me this is her first foray with watercolours in fifteen years. If I'd known she could do this, I would have demanded a correspondence, long ago. 

May in the UK is a very special time and perhaps we are noticing it more now, confined to a small space. I don't know if Jacquie was looking at this or if she has conjured the image but it speaks to me of the stillness of this May.  I also see cultures merging and if you listen, I'm sure you can hear a great spotted woodpecker!

Thank you, Jacquie. Yes, it IS mail art.

Don't Mind me, I'm just a fan of Nancy Bell Scott!

Don't mind me,  VISPO, Asemic collage on book page, 13 x 20 cm

Nancy tells me she's back to making even though times have been tense. I am the lucky recipient of 'Dont Mind Me' a lyrical collage that is full of intrigue but in no way superficial. My eyes play tricks on me.  A kelly green 'o' makes me think she is writing about COVID.  Then it reminds me of the green of lead roofs and the flecks of gold feel like rain. Are we inside. The text goes up, down, back to front, It's like a walk on a winding road.  You think you might understand it but it is illusory, but not annoyingly illusory. I am curious.  I notice the remarkable quality of mark and the complexity of the writing. Words are not just pictorial, they are structural. We are surely on an architectural journey: Gaudi, Barcelona, a building, a castle. 

I can't help asking myself why I always think so literally? Nancy's piece is an abstract orchestration and all the elements strike the right note and coalesce to speak to me!

3-scrapper

I'm calling this one 'glare through the windows' because those words appear on the page and there is a beautiful sense of light in this 3-scrapper! 

3-scrapper b-side

3-scrapper

Nancy calls this one 'dark' , suggesting that life enters into art, even when you are trying to be loose.  I see it as STRONG not dark!  How can anything with peach pinking in from the bottom and a chink of pink light compelling me around the dark…. be dark?  To me it is hopeful.

3-scrapper B-side

You can't really tell that this piece has a very different surface.  The paper is handmade, the fibers are absorbent.  The surface is not smooth. It's amazing the way Nancy can exploit the surfaces to make different and equally beautiful marks. I feel twilight.

Nancy's trashpo stamps, wandering line and asemic stamping on that simple brown envelope is always exquisite and makes me smile! Thank you!

Life in Lockdown… a Pandemic Party?

So in the UK we are still pretty much in lockdown.  We can only visit with one person who isn't living with us. Most of us don't leave the compound. I have read about people having parties to 'get infected' (not around here) thinking that eventually they will be able to acquire a certificate that they have had the virus andwill be able to get on with their lives. Not sure whether that is what sticker dude is aluding to.  For me, being home with key people is not so bad, in guilty moments when we are sharing a meal we have made, I might even call it a party. 

I heard a newscaster talk about how masks can be fashion statements. I am finding this a no fashion time, and I don't see anyone so who cares, right? 

For me, not following fashion is freeing.  I miss my charity shopping but on balance I am in a free lockdown. I think Sticker Dude's lockdown stamp (Ed's?) is a visceral reminded that for some lockdown is unpleasant. 

Zoom in and read Sticker dude's note about mail art in the time of coronavirus. Relieved that no symptoms in Joel's house.

 Three great collaged ATCs and another toilet paper joke!

 I can imagine that John Prine was an influence on Sticker Dude.  I have to admit to having to google him to place him.  Once I'd heard a bit I could place him. They took me to a beer garden in the bay area and another near Santa Rosa. 

As ever, Joel's envelopes are full of detail that we can linger over. Yesterday I went to the post office and learned that they are only selling books of stamps with the queen's head on them.  HMM.  I'd rather have a hummingbird, or Mother Theresa any time.

Thanks Joel, and wash your hands!

Covid ad the English Channel

It's great to see that David Stafford's brain is playing accordion with a pinball machine… or was it the other way around? The fabulous abstract quality of this postcard couldn't be covid. It is much too beautiful.

And remember, you MAY NOT visit any beauty spots and are you really keeping adequate social distance. and it's never OK to take your coffee and monitor screen to the beach, yet. I love the way David's brain plays with words, ideas and current events!  Thank you David.

NO MORE Add and Pass and the Birx Bouquet

I can usually read a Cascadia A side at a glance. Cascadia is on the crest of the political news, and taking into consideration the speed of the mail, his visual commentary is always what I am thinking about Now.  So, this felt like Tofu St John, or a mish mash of books, I coldn't get my head aorund what newsworthy item this was a nod to. Luckily Cascadia helped me out.  This time Cascadia was making the news.  Look below and find the red rectangle with the idagonal line through it.  Zoom in. Cascadia has had it up to his skis with add and pass sheets… so he's shredded them and is no longer accepting them. 

Add and pass sheets are a quandary.  I file everything, and it is rare for me to add and pass something, but I still feel that bit of guilt when I come across them before they make it to my huge boxes of filed permanent mail art. I like a decision. 

Coronavirus ans flowers.  Ha, ha, but not so funny if you live in a meat packing state or in Cumbria, London or NY.  We certainly live in curious times and the divide in attitude between the UK (europe) and the US is pretty massive. Thanks Cascadia!