Mailart 365 has moved

#339

#339a

Bits from broken up stamp Prestige Books, envelope & inners, envelope packaging insert and three more bold cushions!

Today, November 3rd, would have been the birthday of 2 of the greatest comics artists that ever lived. Many in the west would never have heard of them, but Osamu Tezuka, who's Black Jack series inspired this piece, and Goseki Kojima, the artist of Lone Wolf and Cub are Japans finest. Coinsidentally they were both born on exactly the same day.

This piece was inspired by a short story in Black Jack, volume 12 called Invader. In it, a young boy in hospital starts sensing that everyone around him has turned evil. He concludes that the doctors, nurses and his own mother have been taken by aliens and that the people around him are not who they want him to think they are. He falls asleep and in a dream is led away by a young man, who urges him to follow him to freedom.

As the story unfolds he finds out that he has a terminal illness (the right hand side panels) and that people around him had tried to hide that fact from him so as not to frighten him. This is why they were all acting strangelyl. The young boy goes in for an operation and as he slips into his drug-induced sleep, he sees the young man again (depicted in a later mailart piece) who tries to get him to jump across a chasm. It's then that he realises that his saviour is not who he seems, but is instead a messenger from the other side who wants him to come to his doom.

Realising that he is loved, he spurns the Invader and the story ends.

This story really stood out among the compilation and I read it again and again, with Elena noticing I had tears in my eyes at one point.

It is said that the best writers can convey a message that is universally understood by all people, and this story came as close as I've ever been to saying that someone understood what it felt like to be at deaths door.

If you've not read anything by Osamu Tezuka, Black Jack would be a great place to start

We've just come back from istanbul, where we spent a week doing nothing. That's not quite true, we just spent a week reading comics, cross-stitching, starting watercolour and drawing postcards, but none of that tourist stuff at all. It was great and just what we needed after a really tough 2 months of moving house and work nonsense.

This is the first piece I drew while out there, inspired by Naoki Urasawa's "Monster"

EVERY year, for the past 20 or so years, I send this postcard to my kids. I go to Florida in January. I am warm. They are in Massachusetts freezing. I send them this card, only ME is warm in Florida, and YOU is cold in the snow.

So this year, my daughter is in South America. She is in summer. We had our first snowfall, power outage, and school closing. I switched the labels, and it goes to South America.

I keep a stash of these on hand for such occasions, and so I can mail them before I go to Florida to my freezing friends up here in Massachusetts every January.

Advice for all those behind wishing to catch up: invite your mother in law over and ask her to paint backgrounds for you. Worked wonders for me and we had fun.

Painter with palette, easel, and a few circles. Ideas emerge."

November 3, 2011a+b. Now this card is real "trashpo" as it has tags
and receipts and all kinds of things that should go in the trash, but
which is recycled into mail art! Many items are from my trip to Paris
and London, 'just could not throw them away, and now they are mail
art!

 On my way home (early) in the dark. Look at the light, make a mail art about it and stop complaining!

I found this old postage dues stamp album page looking a bit sad and empty so thought I'd try cheering it up with a selection of colours, patterns, dots , a green jug, blue bottle and some glasses, go on, take a closer look!

"...Which came about as a result of a premeditated identification."

November 2, 2011 a+b. Vintage image of Paris, 1900, and my nice
memories of Paris, plus just having seen Woody Allen's "Midnight in
Paris"! Also a bit of London, with that Gatwick airport luggage
tag.This is a bit of "trashpo" as it is on an old food box(mashed
potatoes) and a bit of red sandpo added, too. The back side shows the
luggage tags and the bar codes..."they are human too" says Dean Marks,
and the card is sent to him.

When I saw this photo of Gary Snyder I couldn't help but make a poetic homage to him. The words are an excerpt from a poem of his.

From I Claudius to the dog in the corner, it's a case of bringing the electric colours!

I like Halloween as much as the next gal but, for me it's really all about Thanksgiving. I love being reminded to thank my lucky stars for all that's good. And today it's that I haven't forgotten how the watercolor.

evidence

Sent to Jennifer in Oregon.

memory ladder

Sent to Julie in Florida.

times old roman

Sent to Color of Inspiration in Rhode Island.

front

back

Sent to Mandy in Kansas.

don't forget

text reads: "and don't forget the dryer sheets"

This is ready to be returned to "E" in France it is an add and pass. He sent it with the red and green profile lines on the right side, I added some of the red hair and eye. I went to a collage workshop and passed this among some of the people that attended they added more elements, then I added more. It was fun to see how it developed, I love how it turned out.

#336 "Klimpt's girl stared out across Tiny Town. It was quite startling."

#336a "The giant bowl of fish created a bit of a problem for Tiny Town."

#336b "Sometimes the evening sky resembled a Gorky painting, which was actually quite pleasant for the residents of Tiny Town."

#336c "Her stern look had nothing to do with her kind heart. Tiny Town residents enjoyed Anna's visits."

November 1, 2011. New month! Kalo mina! But it is also the FINAL month
for my "365". We are on the final count down and here is a card with
memories of Paris...the Eiffel Tower and some asemic writing. Also a
listing of the months gone by (in Greek) and a vintage French ad.
Oulala!

The empty canvas and the time pressure lead to memories I didn't know I had.  Not always easy to translate - not quite resolved.

Happy Halloween.

I've heard this song by Pixie Lott called All About Tonight loads of times and every time I hear it I keep thinking I must "mailart" the line "Tomorrow doesn't matter when you're moving your feet" so here we are!