Bifidus Jones's Blog – November 2010 Archive (24)

Created with his fingerprint. Cloning you is a tall order, my friend!

A dangerous photograph

never lies

put on your

Poems that draw blood

This is not a poem

it is haptic

when words refuse

to stay they leave…

Blunt and sublime work, Erni. All this haptic sugar accompanied by a psycho with a skull for a crotch and you got a humdinger of a piece of mail art. I'm talking level orange here. Danke…

I've gotten beastly results with ink so I was very excited to receive this in the mail the other day. At least I think it's an ink rendering. I would love to know how Douglas made it. To me, living here in Minnesota where the current conditions are cold and icy, it gives the impression of a distant mirage coming off a winter highway. Take into consideration the polar bear postage…

Jen has sewn a piece of bubble wrap inside a handmade fabric envelope and I can't stop popping it. This is a great haptic AND audio piece. Jen's sewing abilities never cease to amaze me. I"m mightily impressed that she sewed the Gene Autry stamp on and that the postal service gave it the go ahead. It's super to see how the idea of haptic poetry and art inspires and challenges…

This little rodent is on a mission to tell me about Kiera's open call for mail art. With a theme of culture and language, I will not be passing this one up. Thanks, Kiera!

Asemic poetry exists as an apparition of traditional poetry. The beauty of it is that while there is no language "to read" it still retains the sense of text and meaning. The controversial Marshall McLuhan, in his 1962 book, The Gutenberg Galaxy, predicted a post-literate society where reading and writing will no longer be necessary. I see De Villo's piece as post-literate because I know his mind is deep and wide and his…

Henry's little booklet is a short story about a poet who finds his poems expressed in paintings done by an artist who has never read his poetry. "And the more I see," states the narrator, "the more connections I find to things I've written this summer, I become really perplexed. I find painting after painting with titles or motives that are based on the poems I've written. It feels like I'm in a vacuum, everything else…

"Death is a low chemical trick

played on everybody except

sequoia trees."--J.J. Furnas

I don't know who J.J. is but what a trippy quote. And I don't know what kind of leaf this is either, but it's…

1960s light sabre indeed. In all it's habit-forming glory. Perhaps Jon's mail art speaks for the 60s when people of that decade, among other things, were trying to get beyond the habits of thinking that were pervasive and repressive at that time. Thanks, Jon

At last! Someone has sent me goat mail art. Docile sheep will soon take their places in nativity scenes around the planet while goats will be scaling canyons with their Munder full of titillating junk from some farmer's shed, and their souls giddy with all of life's mischief-making opportunities. I like goats, I pretty much like any animal…

I know people here at IUOMA give many reasons why they are involved in mail art--a couple of those reasons: for the uplift and happiness it elicits. Val's sealed envelopes never cease to express those qualities. A hat-donner himself, Val manages to find amazing hats on people in art. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud, and I get a kick out of the hand-drawn birds that always put in…

Marie's triptych trips the light fantastic:

onion row

single

F

I

L

E

Bow Tie

or

tying up butterflies (qui…

The postal service should give themselves a hearty round of applause for safely delivering this mail art--the paper is thin and old--what I would call fragile--and yet it made it its way across the U.S. with nary a rip. The handwritten calculations, stamps, and images are terrific. Thanks,…

It's always swinging, extraordinary, and visually experimental in heebeejeebeeland. If you haven't visited for awhile, stop on by. Thanks for another elegant and easy-going piece,…

With a quote by Lao-tzu: A man may know the world without leaving his own home. So true for mail artists. Thanks, Lisa!

Besides making films, Julian has been practicing the techniques of stone lithography using wax pencil and crayons from 1980s Russia. The mask is a compelling subject--I like the idea of it transforming the wearer into another being for another purpose. Why no mouth, I wonder. A thousand thanks for mailing this to me,…

As Deb explains, The words to this great piece say "I love your laughing face" which is a play on words based on the similarity of "waratah" and waratta. Arigato,…

Karen's work continues to wow with her personalized stylistic elements--the layers of indecipherable ledgers, net, word lists, and string. To me, this piece looks like something found, something washed ashore. I like it very much.

Defying society's expectations. Taking a stand for personal freedom even though…