Mailart Makes the World a Town

I've been considering Cheryl Penn's 

http://cherylpenn.com/wpb/ 

mailart exhibition and celebratory zine for some time now.  I thought I was supposed to make four pages and I just couldn't find a way to do this until I got to Cranberry island. I borrowed and read a copy of the Black Mountain College pamphlet #4 about Ray Johnson and the final pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. 

I collected some lines from the pamphlet:

'Ray touched the letter 'm' which was an intitial of mother.'

Ultimately the most satisfying art for him was the art of friendship.'

'The signs along the street or highway were like art supplies for him.'

'He took a piece fromt he whole.'

Then I set off on a letter safari up the Crnaberry road.

These two images put together in a particular way form the first page.

Because I believed I was creating a series of four pages (hadn't read things properly) I wanted to create a progression towards the inevitable 'Mailart makes the world a town' and my world of lettuce was an image I began in England, dazzled by the leaves in my garden. There is also a nod to trashpo.

Marianne North was a Victorian painter/explore/plant hunter and her book Vision of Eden is a great read. She created a room of flower paintings a Kew in order to share the beauty of the world with all.

Finally the Island Mailart exhibition.

In order to make each pair of pitcures (Ray + salad) and (Marianne+exhibition) I had to integrate some of the imagery from the other pair.  If you are a Zine recipient - you might see how I worked it all out.

missing letter!

5/6 of these arrived on Cranberry Island for the Island Mailart Exhibition.  Apparentl 'L' is outstanding.  Why does that happen and how will it change things?

Island Castaway?

When I was in Kenya Sabra sent me a card of Christo's wrapping of Manhattan - one of my islands.  A paint sample colour took me to Christo.  The word castaway  made me hear the theme tune from Gilligan's island.  Did you know they only ran for three seasons? It felt like my whole childhood. As a teen Patrick Denver came to Cranberry Island, my real island, for the summer.  Patrick was John Denver's son.  John Denver was Gilligan.  We had Gilligan junior on our island.

Making Meaning with Abstract Ideas

I'm following the conversations on IUOMA more now and getting to know some of the artists and their work.  I find it inspirational! I get things in the post and these provoke reactions and experiments.  On some days i have an idea and I pursue it.  On others, everything that has been feeding me rattles around in that intuitive space.  I do much more abstract playing. This declared itself as a landscape, I called it Sea View.  But what if it were turned this way...

Conversation in Studio?
Conversation with inner self in studio?

Early morning. Not a creature was stirring so I needed to be quiet too. Nothing but a permanent marker and an envelope from the recycling house - gouache later.  Light, clutter, peace. Mother's day.

mail outgoing

My backlog of mailart had become a bit like the ironing pile. I will feel so light when I get these in the post. I could have saved 20% in postage if only I'd been more methodical. These backs show my new 'batches' approach to the B side of mailart.

Show us your Artspace still life

One of my latest Mailart 365 groups is called

Show us your Artspace

It is reassuring to see that most of the people making mailart, although attempting to order their world, look as though they work in a creative frenzy that creates a fair bit of chaos. I found lots of evidence of this in my own studio.  This mess still life pleases me.