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.

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/

Chantry School Mailart exhibition at Tesco Copdock, Ipswich

Mailart #23 - a warm hat

The weather is set to plummet but I have a new hat that i bought at the Cranberry Island non-fair sale. I have sent the mail art as a bit of island PR too.

It's the Big Draw at Bosmere School next Tuesday and I am going in to draw with young people in the school. Rod is a fantastic KS2 teacher who has an Art background and who infuses his approach to teaching with art. The day is his invention. Children will be off timetable and visit drawing stations. I have lots of ideas but I also have lots of kitchen implements that I want to use if I can... It's good to use the same materials in different ways! Figgy has just returned from Ethiopia where she climbed Ras Deshen (Simien mountains). She brought a coffee pot and some salad servers as presents. How could I use those as a stimulus? What material would capture it and appeal to a range of different aged children?

I want to create an experimental station at the Big Draw event that will lead to something different but also they are proud of. String, a pencil and ink... what do you think?