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.

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.