COLLAGE OF LIFE with pressed flowers

If you have followed my mail art blog for a while, you will understand that Herman's mail art envelopes are Russian dolls. Each layer stands alone but together they are more than their singular selves. At the end of this blog you will find the external envelope that held the treasure.  The two pieces above are actualy a folder in which other beauties are contained.  This folder was sewn shut with thread and adorned with dried flowers. It is as though I opened a chest of a beloved's and found things they had kept safe and near their heart for a long time. The faces are worn with pathos, perhaps tired at the end of a long year, not yet ready to take on the New Year… or perhaps loved to death?

beau

These two (above) are the inside of the folder.  Herman has stamped his name in the fold.  If I had thought about that I should have scanned it as an opened page… Everything about this feels dated, authentic and composed with love, right down to Herman's stamp and the name, Hermanka etched into the plinth. I feel as if I am stepping back into time.  The sense of design belongs to an era and Herman's beautiful choice of paper makes the feel even more so.

Herman is a mail artist and an artist.  As happens when you correspond with someone for years, we share things about our non-mailart lives. I would like to see Herman's room and the waiting room!  Sigh, I will have to settle for images.

Herman is a correspondent and nothing he writes on is ho hum.  As a bonus, Herman adds another collage of a woman in the throes of movement which I read as sheer joy. This woman takes boundless energy into the new year!

I love everything about Herman's mailing. Happy New Year Herman!  And thank you!
 

'When no one is Looking'

 

Gerda sent me this exquisite unsolicited paper gift!  I am not sure which direction I shoud be 'reading' it but this way up I want to swim through watery caves.

Hope Gerda's foot is better and suspect the upside to the wild weather is you have time to make and the garden is at bay! As you can see, I have had this mailart for a long time. Apologies.  So many reasons, too boring to tell. 

Again, not sure about direction.  This one feels like a page of an atlas with the key in boxes on the right, but equally it is a landscape when turned 90 degrees. Both evoke water and have a calm beauty I admire. Also, zoom in and look at the marks, etched over the paint.

Thank you Gerda for my envie of lovelies..  I will reply, eventually!
 

Families and Rainwater

                                         

At about this time of year, as the temperature drops and the leaves fall from the tree. The people don their camouflage and it's creepy to walk the field edge at dusk or dawn in case you meet someone with a gun.  

Personally, I like a fleece and a deep bright blue gets my choice. It's a quandry, though.  I wash them often because I am messy and I worry that they leave their plastic fingerprints behind and what of our environment? And as for Scentlock is, it sounds like a guerilla odour.

This is the second of envelopes that  arrived from David lately. I am not an engineer and even if I were I doubt I'd be as smiley as the woman in the jump suit. Yesterday I had to help guide a bit of the landrover body over the gear shift and I was scowling. Our car rebuild is a family affair and I love David's family frolicking. 

I can't really believe that 1. David forgot his mask 2, that puddle-stain drawing was organic but who cares!  It's all brilliant.

 Thanks David.  II adore mailart from you!

Robin Chuter's exhuberant way of seeing!

Robin Chuter has sent me drawn-on photos before and they were beautiful, lyrical little pieces.  I have visited his website before Robin's website and admired his album covers, so it was exciting and delightful to receive two paintings, (one on paper and then framed and another on canvas) as well as a deck of cards from Robin in this correspondence. 

My husband tells me that this is the Argentinian rugby team but I'm not sure that matters. It is Robin's response that enhances the madness and fun of the scrum. 

I like the way Robin plays with scale here and the the charming otherwordliness that is adorable rather than frightening. Robin describes his work as, 'characterised by merging highly vibrant warm colours with what can be seen as bordering caricature and line art using Indian ink… ' He paints on everything!

Seeing Robin's work 3D and then 2D and then a useful object is absolutely perfect.

Thank you Robin. I like your mind!

 

Hanner Postcard Swap: Neha

 

What better way to feel cheered up on a dark day in October, in England, than to look carefully at a vibrant postcard, made lovingly by Neha, a member of the Hanner Postcard Swap. 

This postcard made its way halfway across North America, over the Altlantic and found its way to my mailbox! Three cheers for the post office!It looks like, for now it is safe. 

Thank you Neha!  Beautiful work.

Hanner Postcard Swap 4.0: Terry

Whoop, whoop, another postcard for the Hanner Postcard Swap! This time from Terry Owenby. I love the translucent quality of the background with the gorgeous pastel hues.  Old stamps and french text as well as the inking, or painting over create a unique and celestial feel.  I feel as if I am among the clouds and it's all good news I read in them. Thank you. On the flip side Terry stamps ' happy day to you' , POSTCARD and a bit of NYC washi tape acts as a dividing line.  what a fun postcard, the circular flower forever stamp is perfect too.

Dein Kampf - Your Fight

Dein Kampf

Always wonderful to receive mail from a new correspondent.  Jan Theuninck from Belgium sent me this beautiful printed postcard.  I am in fighting mode.  Even when cornered and injured, I suspect I would continue to fight for the things that matter: honesty, integrity and equality, to begin with!

You can see more of Jan's work here:

http://theuninck.blogspot.com

I wouldn't be sure... from Cathérine Petré

So much expression in this mailing from Cathérine Petré.  Not only has she created a 'Beckman-esque' character, look at the stamps!  Great to begin a mail art correspondence!