More good mail

Cheryl Penn, a Vispo (Visual Poet), painter, mailartist was one of the organisers of the collaborative mailart book I made recently through IUOMA (International Union of Mailartists).  She sent me two pieces of vispo painted mailart today! I am trying to visualise her studio in South Africa...  It must be an exciting place! Two of the images are sewn pieces of the original canvas of the photograph sewn to the other side. Wow! Beautiful and original! But was my explantion clear?

Definately a good mail day

I get quite a bit of mailart these days, but this one from my darkroom pal, John Nordell, a Massachusetts photographer/art educator which came today is pretty special.  Not only did he have to spend a lot on stamps (it's letter/A4 size) he also must have spent a lot of time taking his christmas card envelopes apart.  Very tactile, colourful and fun!  Thanks John.

VISPO Collaborative book

Keep the cacophony

of

anit-figurative

noise 

at bay

Express emotional 

tonbality

in colour

Play with 

space

The VISPO (Visual Poetry) collaborative book project has helped me to reconnect with Richard Diebenkorn's work and I've learned much that I've filtered and tried to respond to in my pages.  

For Christmas I received Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park Series. 

For those of you who don't know, Diebenkorn lived in California.  He spent time at Stanford University, where I studied painting and drawing.  His contemporaries were some of my professors.  They were from the 'California School': Frank Lobdell, Keith Boyle and Nathan Olivera.  Olivera and Lobdell taught me to use monotype.  They also made monotypes with Diebenkorn. As I read the essays in the Ocean Park book I began to see my Stanford experience from a new angle.  familiar things I'd heard from Lobdell, Olivera and Boyle came back and fell into a new context. At Stanford there was a strong tradition of life drawing, a place that Diebenkorn came from.  Interestingly, Diebenkorn stopped working figuratively once he embarked on the Ocean Park series.  I am at a crossroads as have just moved into a big, beautiful studio with much light.  It was a similar impetus that triggered Diebenkorn's shift. I am curious to see the impact of a place on work, imagery and meaning. The back page (shown here) is an inkjet transfer of the view from my studio drawing table after I had completed the monotype for the front One of the interesting things I learned about Diebenkorn was that he was one of the first artists to see the world by air.  A govt scheme took him up in a plane to see the California landscape from a plane. those layers of experience do leave their mark... Not surprisingly,Diebenkorn's work was called 'visual poetry' by one critic.  One of the essays in the book is by Peter Levitt, poet etc... 'Richard Diebenkorn and the poetics of place'.  Wow what a piece of writing!  

So much fun to be involved in a collaborative project. So wonderful to have so much to learn and so much to explore ahead!

Playing with cake

The great thing about mailart (for me) is the permission it gives me to play and experiment with different ideas and materials.  I go through my day in a state of hyper-sensitivity to words and colours, hoping to be inspired.  I am now on # 72 of my 365.  Where else could I go with cake?

finding a little inspiration

Another mailart fitted into a busy day.  A deadline of 30 mins and NO IDEA what I would make.  As I looked under the table to select a box of scraps I noticed a magazine and what looked like a face.  It turned out to be a Sky magazine promo.  Sky turned out to be timeless suspended between art nouveau and the sixties.  Fun, fun, fun.

Decorative Mailart

When I was a pre-teen I have a zodiac colouring book - these are derivative and were lots of fun to make.  I have been so busy plastering, lime washing, working and today spending a delightful day with my Niece and nephew that I am empty when i begin my daily mail art.  I never know what will happen and am surprised again every day when I find something to say, even if it's just I that I love to play with colour!

Remembering an inspiring teacher

I was sorry to hear that Vita Petersen had died.  Vita was my first life drawing teacher.  I was 12 and remember Vita covering the window to the art room door with paper to keep prying eyes out.  With Vita I looked carefully at Matisse's Odalisque with Raised Arms and today when I go to my life drawing group, I hear Vita's voice in my head as I follow a contour.   #45/365 http://mailart365.blogspot.com/