David Stafford's Blog (201)

Here is a better view of the "Real Art" at the bottom of Diane's box of half eaten chocolates. Chocolate Not It's a cool Trashpo diaphragm made from things Diane found in the CVS parking lot, all framed by a rave poster from the Church of the Light of Christ, a popular nightclub in Elgin.…

Sounds like a PBS special.

xx Jones sent me this lovely still-life of the Fleur du Mars. A martian can be seen in the lower right quadrant. (They are far more bulbous than we had previously imagined). Thank you…

Sorry David....it just flew out of my fingers like a kitten with sharp claws. Anyway, Dr. Beaverton is a pivotal role. And he gets most of the good lines. Okay,  sorry will not happen again. I'm determined to catch up here. I put these two works on the scanner without any regard for their blueness, Scout's Honor, and when I returned later to work on it the…

This blogging thing gets away from me. I've got stuff that goes back to the late Creataceous age. So...I resolve to make no more mail art until I catch up with my thank yous. What prompts this totally unworkable resolution is an amazing mandala that arrived today from Suus. Check it out. This is a person who can stay between the lines. After my lizard brain is through thinking:…

Haven't finished this yet but some lucky dog will find out what happens next...(as soon as I do)....

May everyone find their beautiful thing this holiday season....maybe even something you find in your hardt...

We missed Halloween this year so it was great when Vizma sent me this belated Halloween Boekie sans boner jokes. Of course, we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of boner jokes and she has since promised to include them under a separate cover. I scanned this extra big for maximal viewing so please take a look. The jolly roger is the cover.

And here's…

Actually I just threw in the part about Rocky Marciano...both for thematic consistency and because this bit of ephemera that Nancy sent me (see upper left) reminded me of fight posters. It looks pretty good on this A-Line number too. On the flip side Nancy asked me if I miss Gilda. Nancy, my reply is in the mail. Thank you,…

Received this none to early warning about the impending holiday. Unfortunately, it looks like Thom's wall is about to be breached by the Xmas Rocket, aka the juggernaut of capitalist excess. But if Thom could just get with the program and starting being a maker not a taker he could start his own line of products and be on the receiving end of that gravy train.…

A NEWSREEL

(crackling sound of old film going through a rickety film gate) VO: Behold! The latest in fashion from the couturier to the elite: Katerina of Thessaloniki. (Kettle drums go here) (cut in footage of Victor Mature knocking down a big ol' stone temple) VO: Katerina of…

The versatile Susan McAllister seen here in droll collage mode. Susan's work reminds me a bit of Svenja Wahl's stuff...They wield a taut scalpel. Well, they actually they would wield two taut scalpels. Four hands on one scalpel would be, by definition, unwieldy. So let them proceed with their wielding, if you please. (I'd like a nice brass band playing as though…

Cheryl Penn sent some massacred paintings with helps. Dense as I am I did not realize until I received this current offering that Cheryl's technique involves 1) Making the Painting 2) Photograph It (and possibly write the narrative story) 3) Cutting it up and sending out the pieces of the painting along with the photograph of the piece from which it…

Jay sent me this space cadet meets Southwestern basket mash up. There's no way he could know this but it just so happens that I have been raiding a comic book site called Comics Plus and trundling home like a overburdened bumble bee with all these wonderful comic book downloads (what a horrid word. It sounds like someone taking a shit). The…

Marie's work does not always lend itself to the scanner and this piece is particularly delicate. It's like trying to scan a dragon fly in flight. I'm speaking of the upper left quadrant here. It's a primitive kaleidoscope with images pasted on different layers of transparent film that you rotate. It's what they used before lenses came into view. Sorry if my scan…

I received this from Stephanie a couple of days ago but it wasn't until just now that I realized this piece contained something for the neglected sense of smell. Stephanie's Luck pieces according to the ArtForum article I read are "seemingly random images thrown together like coins in an I Ching reading but revealing, in the end, the path forward." Let's just…

Some time before the dawn of man, Suus sent me this little guy. It eluded my blog grasp until now. Those patterns....how does she do it? This is labor intensive art, people. Lots of magic markers, lots of time, lots of listening to Phil Glass in the wee hours of the night. Thank you,…

Alicia has sent me two pieces and before a third arrives I thought I'd better get on the stick. A greek chorus atop an electrical diagram and on the back side a personality switch swatch book. I was Tim for three weeks before anyone noticed the lipstick on my collar. Exclusions included.…

Way back in June Marie sent me this lovely poem. A Precision Collision of East and West, a silent sepia movie with libretto by Brion Gysin. Low comedy and high art. The order may be mangled but I'm not entirely sure the narrative thread suffers from the tangle.…

And away we go....

Angie has sent me two cards since I last blogged her stuff. Some of these go back to early Stonehenge. I favor the cow one as it has a certain musical quality and it suggests a collage made of old wallpaper…

Okay, an apology to those who have been patiently waiting for me to blog their pieces. I received the following yesterday.

As you can see there seems to be a theme which implies a certain urgency here. On the left we have…