Katerina never misses a birthday!

 A birthday on the 28th of December is troublesome.  My family have found a way to make it work for us.  I cook all day and we have a ton of family friends over.  That ensures that I get at least a few cards but it's unclear whether the work/happiness ratio is absolutely right…  Katerina couldn't have missed a single birthday this year.  She was and maybe still is in the midst of birthday mania. You may remember that I was the recipient of Seurat, Picasso and others - terrific to learn the dates, now to remember them.  Guido sent me a calendar but I just can't get organised. So, now you know when my birthday is.  Maybe next year I'll get a few more cards? Thanks Katerina for giving me opportunity to self-publicize!  I'll just go and check your birthday…  Could it be February 7th?

New postcards from Daniel De Culla

Not sure if Daniel intended these for the Memories are Made of This call but he didn't specifically say, so I have decided to blog them here.  Daniel's charismatic drawings are full of stories.  Wondering if there was more I should know, I journeyed to his IUOMA page where I enjoyed looking at what looks like performance art portraits.  

I did notice that Daniel likes insects and wildlife.  The New Swimming characters seem to be playing a dangerous game.  I looked up Rosemary Menniger and discovered that there was a Rosemary Menniger of note who was the adopted daughter of Karl Augustus Menninger, psychiatrist, but I have no idea if that is relevant - to me the imagery suggests dreams. 

At the Bday of Bastards I notice how dysfunctional society seems to be; but Daniel's birthday makes me smile anyway.  Thank you! 

Ronnie Oliveras disc-collage

This beautiful visual poetry from Ronnie has me taken in, thinking that this astronomy of cassette building could actually work.  The cuisinare rod buildings add clout to the anecdote. I suspect that it's like one of those beautiful cookbooks that lures you into a recipe that doesn't actually puff the pastry or apple the flan quite right. A really satisfying read anyway. Thank you Ronnie!

Meeah gets me to think like an writer and artist

You can tell from looking at Meeah's mail art that she can tell a story. Her characters have character, they are carefully observed.  You want to know them.  They have something to say and we want to listen.

Meeah's big fat envelope begins with a card made out of water colour paper that she has drawn and use water colour (pencils, I think) to initiate me to her way of seeing.  Her first character is WG Sebald, a German who lived his later years in Norfolk England. Meeah has him in Brooklyn.  Did she know him? Sebald asks a question, 'What is it that undoes a writer?' I want to know… Meeah illicits the writer in all of us and her imagery and words work together to make me attend, know more and see deeper.  I love the variety of marks that Meeah makes.  This all must have taken a very long time! 

Because there is so much, and because I am listening to a storm howling around my head, at first I added the images in a somewhat random way.  Then I realised I needed them to flow in the methodical way Meeah intended. Nothing about Meeah's package feels random, although it also feels intuitive and fresh. Her envelope above points at her humour, her ability to easily cross barriers between genres.

 Meeah uses shapes so beautifully. At the moment UK stamps have dinosaurs bursting out of the stamp, in curves over rectangles.  Meeah has played with this idea in these pages 

Like Ingres, she makes us believe arms can really do that. Is this Meeah? I hope it is.  She looks so wise, so curious and intense. Or is this some literary figure, or painting sensation I ought to know?

With each page another surprise; this time a crossword quilt! On the back Meeah's brand of asemics, bubble asemics? Are these the words we can not find? Is that what undoes a writer?

 Is this tag a clue about some of the imagery? I don't see faces being 'wiped away' so much as morphing into new characters…

Or is Meeah saying that too many words, verbosity, is the scourge or the writer… the blankness on the other side, with it's haptic gesso, echoes this sentiment, for me.

Next Meeah delights with a little book of hodge podge.  

We find the faceless woman encircled by some big words  'earthquake, Agent, indepe, relevant, this planet, exist...'

This woman (Muriel Spark?) with bachelors on her chin tells me to, 'be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.  You must then live it to the full.' Excellent advice for someone like me who has had to re-invent herself in countries. I think Meeah may be responding to the card I sent her!

Jack Gilbert's contribution to hodge podge is,' I believe that icarus was not falling as he fell but came to the end of his triumph.' and 'anything worth doing is worth doing badly.' reminds me of Philip Roth in American Pastoral, '“The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It's getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That's how we know we're alive: we're wrong.” 

Will Barnet has more wisdom, especially for those of us with a dose of imposter syndrome, “You have to believe in what you’re doing. In the long run, you have to feel that what you’re doing, regardless of the trends, will have a lasting quality.” 

And Anais Nin reminds us of what it feels like when you are stuck, 

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” Lovely images, colours and disappearing words in this passage!

Meeah included a beautiful digital collage Sunmaid Raisins.  There is a quality in it that reminds me of things at Minxus Lynxus http://minxuslynxus2.wordpress.com Take a look and see what I mean. 

The fun and depth of the contents of Meeah's wonderful mail art are echoed in quintessential Meeah style on the other side of her envelope! And it all arrived in time to be displayed in the exhibit in Hadleigh, as seen looking in.  Thank you Meeah!

Mail art from Mailart Martha

Received these from Martha when my scanner/printer was on the fritz, hence the photo.  Martha talks about the weather in England not being so spectacular.  That's the great thing about the weather... it changes and to be honest I can't remember anything but the long sunny days and barbeques at the top of the field now. 

Martha went to St Ives and says it was beautiful in the rain. Her picture captures that.  Me thinks there must be lots of old tin mines in that part of England, Patrick has a way of sniffing them out.  As for cows, Ruby reds, or not.  I am fairly terrified of them. but this one is a charmer.

Love the signature Retalia figure and the envelope too.  Thank you Mailart Martha!

Kat's Sandpo

I'd like to know about Kat's technique.  I imagine her on the beach rolling sand  and paint... Thank you Kat, love the contrast of the sides of the postcard!

a memory update

Carmela Rizzuto (US)

Viviana Cernjul (Argentina)

Diane Keys (US)

Erni Ilis (Brasil)

Heloisa Sonaglio (Brasil)

Pál Csaba (HUngary)

Ryosuke Cohen (Japan)

Brasil

Claudette Picance  Soares (Brasil)

Lavinia Thys

Maria Da Glória Jesus De Oliveira (Brasil)

Elisabeth Karam (Brasil)

Consuelo Margarida Rubio Debiagi (Brasil)

Am trying to avoid blogging exhaustion, but thought I would post recent memories, mostly from Brasil. I think the pieces from Brasil are from a mail art collective, Selus.  At the next pop up exhibition I'll have a table for people to dip their toe in the world of mail art.  If you want to send work in for the upcoming Suffolk exhibition at Old Barn you still have about six weeks! Please label your work with 'memories' so I know. Keep up with incoming mail art form the memories project at: http://memoriesaremadeofthismailart.blogspot.co.uk