Everything has a purpose

Pelican postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

Gerda Osteneck and I exchanged years ago when I was active at IUOMA. It's great to see her again in the post. Sticker Dude sent Gerda some of my stuff, I think.  Sticker dude has sent me some of Gerda's mail art for the Guyver archive. 

Gerda plays with photos in this mailing.  She has hand-coloured (in photoshop) the pelicans above. In the chicken below, Gerda has scratched into her photo to enhance the chicken's tail to make it haptic and jauntier. 

 Tail Feather postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

List  postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

Do you ever see discarded list on the ground in the supermarket. I have and I would collect them and send them to our trashpo queen, DK. These days I look longingly at lists but trashpo just isn't the same in the time of Covid. It's great to see Gerda's beautiful trashpo list collage.

Everything has a purpose  postcard 2021 by G Osteneek

And this piece feels related to the list. the colour, the movement the use of scraps to make a coherant whole.

Swan atamps with personal message on back!

Thanks Gerda! Hopefully I will send you something (directly) soon!

 

Variations on a Passport

When I was at Uni, learning to paint, my professors wanted me to paint and draw like a kid.  They taught me to respond intuitively. That would result in the gold the standard, the authentic 'pure' stuff, they opined. Jon's mail art is not self conscious, but it is often about self, it is sure-footed and inate. His portraits remind me of photo booth mug shots.  Above and below are about the same size as a passport. Where are we going? (It's a beautiful collage, too).

What I have always noticed about Jon's mail art is that it is rooted in mail art.  It looks back and it plays forward.  His iconic tape transfers are Jon's unique selling point but his photocopies are always funny, unique and spot on.

Thanks Jon. Perhaps you will get something from me on Cranberry Island soon!
 

Forget you? No way.

It's my habit to hang onto my mail from Carina for a long time before opening it. We don't exchange mail that often these days but Carina is a very important correspondent, so I am very, very happy to get mail from her after a not very long interval. I have stamped all over her note to me because I am careful not to overshare Carina's notes.  But in it she tells me that this is a hand made stamp. This Character reminds me of a New Zealand school teacher. She is fierce, smart and determined. It is not Carina.  But can you see some wily humour?  That is Carina.

Do you know the song by the same title?

Forget me nots

Carina's post made me smile and hope she followed me with followit at the bottom of my blogger page so she knows that I have received and blogged her WONDERFUL work!  

It is darker earlier, already.  Summer is waning. The forget me nots have faded but I promise to write back before too long!

Thank you.