Vertical stories - from another Universe

Since I learned to read, I have assumed that symbols are to be read, receiving mail art from Marie challenges this tenet. She does this in an unambiguous way.  In a way that creates certainty even though it's make believe.  That is Marie's magic touch. 

Marie asks me to bring my imagination to her sythesis of text and imagery.  To read her story.  I wonder if I concentrate hard enough whether I will be able to hear words, whether she can send me a telepathic message.  I wonder if it would be in Japanese or French or English. Would I miraculously understand?

The first card is my determination.  The second is the right way to proceed, playfully in a fetching outfit.

 The first time I read Marie's note I read VERTIGO.  I am not sure what she means, perhaps you do.  I get vertigo when I look at Marie's work. It is just so other-worldly and so perfect.

I've had Marie's letter for a few a weeks.  I can't tell you how excited I was to receive mail art from Marie… I didn't open it until earlier today. Today was a drawing day, so I put Marie's letter in my still life and drew, it lives in many universes! 

New diagnosis for global warming: Bipolar Weather, from Marie Wintzer

Marie personifies weather in exactly the right way with her radiogram cut-ups.  At least I assume they are cut-ups…  Here we are all buttoned up and on high alert for mould. We have a forest of stinging nettles and the grass is verdant.I get an image of a whale in a globally warm sea. And those last two lines are pure regret! Brilliant. and thank you, Marie!

Every day honorific from Marie Wintzer

I saw on IUOMA that in Seine  received this same card from Marie a little while ago.  I had received mine, but have only just got around to blogging again because I've been whitewashing my studio walls. URGH. I read his blog but his reading was not going to be my reading, I was pretty sure of that.

I have been mulling Marie's Radiograms ever since I started receiving them. One day I will dig them all out and put them together to see what the reading is as a group. When they arrive as one message I hear them less as speaking but more as pleading.  A few words in capitals on an area that could take more feels very important.  It wants to be understood, or does it?

I had that feeling when you are doing the crossword when you sort of know a word, even though it's a word you have never used yourself.  I don't know a word of Japanese but when I read the radiogram the first time I thought it said EVERY DAY SENSE with an upside down exclamation mark, spanish style.  When I looked the second time  I said 'sensei' - I don't even know how to pronounce it.  One translation has  'a person born before another' and another translation has 'a teacher'.

I love Marie's inexplicable radiograms.  It doesn't bother me at all that they are so open-ended.  Marie is an enigma and what is meaning, anyway?

STORY:COMPLICATED - Radiogram from Marie Wintzer

Marie has a way of transforming our world into something other-worldly. Radiograms initially feel like safe, vintage items but Marie's cut-ups or code transform them and the world we know into something just the other side of Mars. This one makes me think of all the ageing rockstars who don't wake up one morning and we all miss. 

Fot another take on the same thing, visit IUOMA and see what Artist in Seine thought:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/marie-wintzer-radiogram-plot-simple

Love the Sumos and they way they seem to defy gravity.  Thanks Marie.  I'll have something to send to you soon

Marie asks another per-plexing question.

The thing about marie's mail art is that it is cerebral, or at least it makes you think you should be using your brain.  When she made boekies they were simple but precise, so these radiograms do not exist without the connotation of the previous. "I read the words, "You for the people or the paper want?" and I feel as if I am cracking a code, or not cracking the code, as the case may be. I rub my head and think about Marie's research on seahorses. I am taken back to Kenya and the refusal to speak 'special english' in order to be understood. Words out of order, cut up, regrouped. I am for the people. I want my paper too, ideally before breakfast. 

And anyway, "The town was paper, but the memories were not." From Paper Towns, John Green

Hangover-over love and kisses from Marie Wintzer

Marie isn't making her tactile, original, imaginative, intelligent and out of this world books anymore. she featured in the article that was written about me in December and I sent her a copy.  she told me she wasn't amking mail art anymore and then I was surprised to receive a few radiograms!

Radiograms are the perfect medium for Marie because she has a wonderfull knack for packing so much in a small space, with few words.  The cryptic quality is also a Wintzer trademark! I feel as if I left the party early and missed the excitement and am not quite sure how to tiptoe, but I'd sure like a 'happy snappy'!

In this second radiogram, Marie peppers the communication with words that come from my world… 'Maine' and 'bananas' almost trick me into thinking I am in the know.  But I don't know Peter. And now I'm convinced that Marie  got my radiogram mixed up with Major Tom's.  Are these cut-ups?

In another correspondence with Marie, I discovered that she has struck out in new directions!  Exciting new stuff by marie can be seen here!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/bijoucailloustore?ref=hdr_shop_menu
http://www.bijoucaillou.com

Pasta and the Gogoons - Marie Wintzer

Marie has created a whimsical hilarious game boekie that is for people without short-term memory deficit. 

Beginning on page 3 you are in Kapalumpa and which is in dire danger, a hectapus, of course, is about to swallow it. You have two choices.  I chose 11, because I'm brave. Well, sort of.  I would choose a last drink 'before leaving Kapalumpa so that's 94. Clearly I am invigorated, I would never set foot in a gym and hate treadmills. So I end up in front of the 'giant mushroom tagliatella' (66) All of these options could work.  I love the picture of cutting off a chunk and gobbling it up. 

And the game goes on! 

I like the idea of growing mushrooms.  I'm like that, intriqued and then I take a little detour.  But this detour takes me to a dead end.  BUT I DO HAVE GREEN THUMBS.  So I go back.

There is every temptation to cheat and find the perfect path through and I did find myself turning back and forth through pages, juggling double-digit numbers in my head and then in the end I read it straight through, imagining how Marie composed this.  Did it require a map? The images are perfect for the words.  It is the height of silliness, yet tells us so much about how we construct narrative.  This is a little gem!