Gone Bananas!

In honor of World Banana Day (February 21st), members of the IUOMA "Bananas" Group, under the guiding hand of Deane in Seine, circulated banana mail art. While there may still be a piece or two on the slow banana boat heading my way, there are the gifts I have received to date:

1.From Lynn Radford

2. From Angie and Snooky

3. From Linda French

4. From FinnBadger

5. From Mom Kat

 

 6. From Mim Golub Scalin

Now that is a great bunch of bananas!!!  Thanks to my fruity friends.

"Mooned" by Linda Faye French. And it was good.

Linda French has been prolific and generous with her mail-art gifts. Yesterday brought me a sweet card and the front-side art is called "moons," for fairly obvious reasons.

The image is a collage of circular colorfully printed bits on a an equally colorful background all enhanced by twinkling and glittery little star.  The back side is equally colorful, but in a different palette, with a nice little collaged divider strip between the message and address blocks. The color is really well handled in this piece. I believe Linda is making this work by "monoprinting" from a gelatin or silicone "Gelli" plate which she paints on with acrylic colors. It is a quick and fun way to develop colorful fields, but it is also very easy to wind up with muddy results. Linda's color-blending skills and gentle hand show through wonderfully in this piece, which she has further dressed up with a selection of older postage stamps and a bit of wisdom. Thank you much, Linda!

It's Howdy Doodle Time: Mail Art from Amy Irwin and Diane Keys

Doodling is in right now. My spouse, a highly trained, greatly experienced fine artist is a doodler. Our gallery in Virginia is about to feature a crowdfunded doodle-art show featuring works by Robin and a handful of other professional doodlers. I've even taken to doodling some artist trading cards lately. Nonetheless, when I saw this nice big envelope from Amy Irwin in my mailbox, doodling was not what I expected. In fact, doodling was not what I found...at least not at first.

I love the "Gone Postal" stamp. Don't you?  

The first thing out of the envelope was this:

A fine collage on cardboard. Bits of cut and torn papers, pieces of text, a bluebird and a ground of dark paint strokes are all sealed under a veil of acrylic medium. Very nice!

But I dug a bit deeper and soon retrieved this:

A doodle bookie made on a folded postcard. Sweet!

Opening the little book one comes to two trifold folios that are stitched in. The first one is introduced with this little hand-drawn iris. Opening the folio brings you to this:

Three blank pages begging for doodle works. The second folio is made on green card stock, and it has blank front and back covers as well as the three internal pages awaiting some creative doodling. Attached to the book is a note from Amy requesting that once the book has been filled it is to be returned to her. So I have some doodling to to, and I need to find some doodling friends to add to this gem.

Now for more of the same, but completely different, and different is exactly what I expect to find on and in an envelope from Diane Keys, the Empress of DKULT.

 

"Not mainstream compatible in any way." I could not have said it better myself.  As is the usual case, Diane's missals are loaded with lots of materials gathered from the street or from has vast storage vaults of trash, and this was the case. However, the heart of the art in this mailing was a folio of doodles meant to form the heart of a collaborative project, not unlike Amy's book. 

Now the question with materials from DK is always: where did this come from and is it safe to handle without a hazmat suit? Are these trash gleanings from the local schoolyard? Is it Diane's original work? Or can we believe, as suggested by a closer inspection of the last image, that this is the work of Tony Keys, not Diane. I believe this is a signed masterpiece from the crown prince of DKULT.  Well, what it is may be a bit mysterious, but what it will become is anyone's guess. Between Amy's bookie (or Boekje in Dutch and Afrikaans) and these pages from DK, I clearly have some serious doodling to doodle!

Thanks Amy and DK. I'm so glad I'm married to both of you!

Playing catch-up: incomings from Linda French, Neil Gordon

Wowser, I just realized it's been a while since I've posted the beauties I find in my mailbox, so today there will be two posts. This one is about two singular pieces. First one arrived from Linda French in a fat envelope with a lot of other stuff, but the other stuff was mostly nifty snipped items to cheer me up and fortify me for the ongoing wait to be mobile once again. {Speaking thereof, I will be seeing my surgeon tomorrow, and if he doesn't release me from this hard cast on my leg I intend to be supremely, and loudly, annoyed!}

It's a very colorful and expressive non-representative work on paper. My guess is a monotype, or, more likely, a monoprint using acrylics, perhaps on a Gelli plate or similar. I like the layering of the translucent pigments. A fun piece for sure. Linda, your artwork was much more cheering than the cartoon snips. Thanks much!

Next is a recent arrival from Neil Gordon. I was happy to see that one in the mail, because I last received a piece from Neil a bit more than a year ago and I just realize that I have never returned that favor. Well, except for a special-occasion bananagram sent last week, but I owe him, and I'm happy to see he's still corresponding with me.

Neil's gift is a collage made on a vintage postcard of the famous image of Edwin Aldrin's mirrored visor reflecting the image of Neil Armstrong taking his picture. The location: Tranquility Base. The date: 7/20/1969.  Can such an image be topped? Of course it can. This is mail art, after all, and Neil has done so with a hint of cheesecake and a refreshing beverage that seems suited to relieving the symptoms of delirium tremens. A very cool card, Neil. I might even call it "far out!" Thanks. Now watch for your banana, sir.

Do the Funky Monkey: a quick response from Dave Stafford

I sent out some doodled ATCs just a week ago. The one I sent to Dave Stafford was a chicken...a funky chicken, specifically. Today my mail was graced with this fine envelope:

Dave, bless him, always sends mail-art missals to Rob and I together, and that is the best chance we have of getting Rob back on the bandwagon sending his wonderful creations to strangers everywhere.  At any rate, the chick on the 'lope is dancing. The monkey on the envelope assures me that David is still totally off his meds. Inside....

 

I have no idea what Dave does in the "real world," but I tend to think he is an illustrator of some sort. Well, not some sort,  a wonderful sort. I know from contexts besides mail art that he trolls the archives for inspiration from classical advertising and fashion illustration from the zenith era of traditional ad illustration, the 1930s-60s. This card comes with a wonderfully drawn-painted-collaged femme who might have stepped right off the envelope of a 1950s Vogue dress pattern. So few strokes and dabs can make so full an image!

Open the card...

and Mr Stafford the thoughtful cartoonist is waiting. I love Dave's penchant for story-telling. The back of the card...

reveals his cartoon alter-ego in a little self-deprecating cameo. Just fabulous! The mail was early today, so Rob and I enjoyed Dave's card with a couple post-lunch espressos and lots of smiles. Thanks, David!