A blog for Valentine M Herman The Cheryl Penny Red - A REAL ONE!!!

[cheryl penn]

Mail Art received now now.

You all know what Val's envelopes look like - right? Most of us at one or another time have had the pleasure of receiving his square missives - to be opened or not.

BUT!!!! I dont think any ONE of them has had a package like this.  Except mine.

Can you believe it?????

A REAL Penny Red. NOT a Cheryl Penny Red as Val fondly addresses my envelopes :-)  Ok, so I was having a haffy about not having received ANY Project 26 contributions.  But now, I'm smiling, I have a Penny Red. A real one :-) I think its the oldest thing I have. 1858. Val, I'm overwhelmed. I DONT quite know what to say... but thank you.

You know, maybe it was just because of the moan below I had :-)

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Mail Art Received Last Week of December 2010.

Val, when you said you were sending me the story of the Penny Red - I thought you meant the REAL ONE!

Mischief, Baked Cherry, Bronze Red, Drummond - what FAB names for red :-)

Incarnadine, Rectory Red (WWHHAAAT??) Radicchio, Book Room Red - NO!! Definitely not that color - my book room is Alazarin Crimson - I'm RELIEVED to see that color made the charts - maybe not the rock charts you lot are going on about (yes I'm following :-), but that red is chartered none the less. Eating Room Red, porphyry pink, ointment pink  - do they PAY someone to make up these names do you think?

o - another favorite - Scarlet Lake :-)

VAL!!! Tell me the other Penny Red story - pleeeze...

 

Mail Art Received 7th December 2010

Val has made ANOTHER Red Party contribution - this one written on the plane as he flew from France to England, back to the darkness of Darlington. A Dark Darling? Odd.

Some thoughts on Red:

 

The back of Val's envelope reads "Memories are great - but wouldn't you like to leave a little more? More what?" I'll tell you what - a little more focus - but I've photographed this four times now and your words REFUSE to behave. Yes, I'll be using this in my Red Book Val - thank you!

 

Mail Art received 2 December 2010

 

Valentine gets the gold star people! He's the first to arrive from IUOMA at my Red Party.

 

 

He invited 43 Queen Elizabeths. They said no on account of her busy diary but Val came - thanks Val!

 

 

 

 

A mail art book received 10th November 2010

I am the very lucky recipient of " Val's First, Not Very Good and Probably Last Book (sic) For Cheryl" - I hope its not the last - you are supposed to be hooked after your first book Val!!

 

My sympathy Val - I remember what all this feels like - hint - get your own Tool Box with a DO NOT TOUCH STICKER! You'll be RARING to go!! This woman looks like I feel!

 

 

I am NOT going to comment on this slightly... page!! "Woman Should Sew And Not Drive Tractors Inc". Confess I would rather sew.

 

 

Now this one - NO WAY!!! "Men should Go to The Bar and Leave Women To Sew Inc" - this will get you in BEEEEEG Trouble!!! (Sorry Trouble)

 

 

 

 

 

I know this was hard work Val - BUT I am very glad to get it - I think this and your Penny Black book are the best of your works I have got - thank you!

 

 

Mail Art received the week of 1 - 6 November 2010

ANOTHER envelope arrived from Val last week while I was missing in action.

 

Val - I am not going to try another Cinderella version of your envelope! This one I REALLY didn't get - I dont now if thats got to do with Monday morning lack of interpretive skills day?

 

 

The back reads - A cat may look at a Queen. Chocolate, Marshmallow and JellyBean look at me every day! They know what side their tuna is smeared.

 

 

Against all instructions to the contrary I opened the envelope - I HAD to look inside. I thought perhaps a whiff of knowledge was mingled with air from the South of France - No Luck! Attack the comments - we need to know!!

 

Val The Trial Run. I am having a difficult time keeping track of the mail art sent to me by various artists, so I have decided to update my existing blog for each artist. As I am uncertain of the results, Val has agreed (not verbally or textually) to be the guinea pig (I hope he is currently working on updating that phrase to incorporate mail art terminology). ANYWAY back to Val's postcard! - money money honey must be funny, its a rich man's world.

Its a card filled with Bearded Basil pesto's... with greetings from the Queen!
Thanks Val!
I HAD to ask Val about his closed envelope series. He wrote and said (this was stage 8|9 of his VERY enlightening treatise on his work):

8. An envelope that will not be opened seems to me to be more complete
than one that will be opened. If it were to be opened, then there would
be two envelopes --one unopened, the other opened -- necessitating two
approaches to a single theme. (But really a triple theme, because then
the contents would be relevant). I conceptualise my Envelopes in two
not three ways --what goes on the front, what goes on the back, but not
what goes inside.

"9. Then there is an element of 'mystery'. Is there anything in it?
Should I open it? Dare I open it? What if I do open it, destroy its
integrity and then find that there's nothing inside? (I never put
anything inside them, and always issue an Art Health and Safety Warning
'Don't open this!', so people will resist the temptation to open them.
I suppose I could put something inside, and tease recipients.)"
We recipients ALL know that feeling.
Mail Received 22nd October 2010.

HOT HOT HOT OFF the press!! Val added another point two minutes ago:

"Goede morgen Mevrouw! On the 'philosphical' aspect of the closed envelope (points 8 and 9 of our dialogue to date), there is another
thing I'd like to add concerning the 'mystery' element of point 9:

10) Do I really want to know what's in the envelope? I might be
disappointed -- it might be the artistic equivalent of the dreaded bank
statement or bill; the fear of opening a 'Dear John' letter from one who
you thought you loved and who you thought loved you; even the bad news
that used to come in a telegram (and only bad news seemed to ever come
in a telegram). Given that there are some things that it is better not
to know, it follows that there are some envelopes that it is better not
to open."

And so say all of us...

ANOTHER UPDATE FOR ENVELOPE RECEIVERS as at 17.53 South African time:

11) Although an Envelope is not to be opened now, it can be set up so
that it can be opened later. The first example of this is what I call
the 'Multi-level Envelope'. I recently sent birthday greetings to an
Austrian friend in an Envelope. I told her to open the Envelope on a
specified day. Inside it was another Envelope to be opened on another
day. And inside that a third Envelope, and a third day of opening. And
inside that there was a fourth, very small Envelope which she had to
open on her birthday. And inside that last one there were birthday
greetings. It can also be described as a 'Special Occasion Envelope'

12) The second example of an Envelope that is not to be opened now is
the 'Envelope-as-A-Time Capsule'. I 've submitted an Envelope to an
Australian Mail Art Exhibition called 'Ten Years of Boxes and
Envelopes'. The Envelope is sealed (with a real wax seal) and is not to
be opened for ten years. Inside it is a list of items that are special
to me. (Last year I put together a book called "AD 2059: My Life in a
Cardboard Box" in which I got about 15 of my friends -- and Bianca --
to list and describe up to 50 items that they would put in a 1 meter
cube cardboard box that would not be opened for 50 years. They had to
say why each one of the items was special for them. The box/time
capsule idea goes right back to the Pharaohs and the pyramids, and
includes space Time Capsules and Andy Warhol's Archives and Cardboard
Boxes. Sadly, one of my best friends and contributors to this book died
earlier this year. Before he passed away, he made up a real cardboard
box that he left to his children. he thanked me for giving him the idea
to de-clutter and prioritise his possessions. I was moved by this,
because what started off as one of my somewhat bizarre literary ideas
turned into something that became very useful to my late friend and his
family.

13) Then there is the case where YOU might be asked to open the
Envelope addressed to you, but to pass it on to someone else -- perhaps
after adding something to, but not in it. This is the
'Multi-Recipient(and perhaps Multi Stage) Envelope'.

14) A variant of this theme is the 'Envelope that can only be opened
at a certain location ' -- because the contents of the Envelope are in
some way related to the specified location.

Thanks Val :)
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What a gift I got today - Valentine was worried about post not getting to me - it did - two of!! He sent a wonderful contribution to my The World is a Town project - yes you guys - take note!

Its the story of the Penny Black Stamp - I'm wondering if he has one??? Or two?

Take the time to read what he is saying - its very interesting. Do you know the story of some potato stamp in Jamaica or somewhere that is VERY valuable Val?

I LOVE it.

AND yesterday

I received number 10 of his limited edition British Essay Stamps.

Thanks Val!! I could only but send him some bird stamps - because he lives with three 'chicks'.

[cheryl penn]

Thanks Val - I am looking at the envelope with new informed eyes - through the eyes of a cat actually - ALWAYS a good thing.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

The Artist Tries To Explain What The Envelope Is All About (while apologising for not being able to get his words into the IUOMA system properly last night)

Front side: this is made up of two elements. On the left are 14 things that I cut out of a painting (don't ask by whom, because I don't remember). I think the things are supposed to be goldfish, but I have 'transformed' them into mice by adding little tails to them. On the right is an elegant cat that is supposed to be like Cheryl's magnificent mogs. There must be a reason, somewhere, why Equatorial Guinea issued this stamp (as part of a series featuring exotic Western breeds), but I haven't a clue what it is, and anyway Equatorial Guinea and South Africa are on the same continent, but I don't have an atlas to hand so can't tell if the EG stamp cat has a realistic chance of visiting Cheryl's cats.
So, we have a cat looking at 14 mice. And now on to the reverse side of the card, where we find an adaptation of the 17th century English proverb 'A cat may look at a King'. This is unnecessarily exclusive: why can't a cat look at a Queen as well? It's not that there weren't any English Queens in the 17th century, because of course there were -- otherwise the royal line would not have continued. So we have 12 English Queens looking at a cat looking at 14 mice.
And last of all there is the quote by Don Addis that is related to cats and mice. I am sure you all know who Don Addis is so I needn't bother to explain his historical role in this (which I can't anyway, because I can't remember where I got the quote from). Instead here's another cat and mouse quote, this time from the American writer Robert K Massie, 'The cat does not negotiate with the mouse'.
I don't ever remember reading or seeing anything about the current British royal family of Kings and Queens and Hanger-on -ers (Liz, Phil, Charlie, whotshername from Weight Watchers International, oh yes Fat Fergy, Harry, Ted, etc) being linked in any way with cats -- they are dogs (corgi) and horses people.
God save the Cat!
Val (who, to be perfectly honest, doesn't assemble his material in the sort of 'logical/thematic' way described here, but rather starts with something that catches his eye -- in this case the goldfish/mice -- and then just builds things up from there.)
Thankyou for reading this far. There is no more. Yet.

[Valentine Mark Herman]

(something went wrong, and here's the rest of the reply) 'A cat may look at a King', but this is unnecessarily exclusive: why can't a cat look at a Queen as well? It's not that there weren't any English Queens in the 17th century, because of course there were -- otherwise the royal line would not have continued. And last of all there is the quote by Don Addis that is related to cats and mice. I am sure you all know who Don Addis is so I needn't bother to explain his historical role in this (which i can't anyway, because I can't remember where I got the quote from). Instead here's another cat and mouse quote, this time from the American writer Robert K Massie, 'The cat does not negotiate with the mouse'.
I don't ever remember reading or seeing anything about the current British royal family (Liz, Phil, Charlie, whotshername from Weight Watchers International, oh yes Fat Fergy, Harry, Ted, etc) being linked in any way with cats -- they are dogs (corgi) and horses people.
God save the Cat!

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear DVS, I agree with what you say. There are, should be, and must be, multiple interpretations to any single piece of art. One of the questions that this raises is, does it help in any way to have the artistis's interpretation, and if so, when -- at the start of a 'what does this mean?' discussion (which might influence other peoples' subsequent reactions) or at a later stage when folks have reacted?

One of the things I really HATE!!!! (feel the agro) about some artists' work is that it doesn't have a title ('sans titre') in French: if the artist can't be bothered to put some sort of label on it, my reaction is often 'well if it means that little to her/him, why should it mean anything to me?' I think it's a bit like not naming a child -- thoughtless and stupid (let alone illegal). (And a 'title' like 'Without title #24' is also pretty meaningless -- unless one can view the other 24+ in the series: which one almost never can.)

Regards, Val (who is a Valentine not a Valery, and a him not a her, but you could always refer to me as Genderless Val -- #25, of course!)

[cheryl penn]

Hey Marie, good to be visited by someone from Japan - another gold star for you! I'm giving up on the forehead stamps they dont stick like gold stars do and keep falling into my paint...

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Dear Cheryl, that's an amazing interpretation of the Envelope. None of that what you wrote occurred to me at all. Perhaps you shouldn't be an Artist/Bookbinder or whatever, but an analyst, a Freudian one I think. Help? I'll see if I can find something i sent to Ruud J at the weekend. Regards, Val

[Marie Wintzer]

Am I allowed a "LOL" on this blog? Because I really want to!

[cheryl penn]

You see!! This is why I DO NOT attempt any more to give meaning on my own to anything!! Let me tell you my version of your Cinderella Essay Stamps - I thought it was a revisit to the REAL Cinderella story (essay) in stamp form. When you look at the envelope, there is Cinderella, above the wicked step mother (w.s.m.) and lastly Cinders dad. The prince (the stamp below) sends to the w.s.m. an invitation to a ball via his man servant and a posse of soldiers. Turning over the envelope, the night of the ball arrives and princes dad (top left) informs his son that TONIGHT he announces his bride (in such shock he grows a beard). The one pound stamp represents the shoe (it doesnt look like all the other people stamps). After falling in love with Cinderella, he goes through the length and breadth of the land, going though all the lasses (bottom left) with his posse (pictured) looking for Cinders. And there he finds her being looked after by Val. And they loved happily ever after. Honestly, that's what I thought the Cinderella Essay stamps were all about - I NEED HELP!!!

[Valentine Mark Herman]

Hello Happy Readers! 'Essay' stamps occupy a strange position in the 'real' stamp world of postal authorities. They are prototypes or early designs of stamps that the authorities commission, but don't proceed with. They are a sort of artistamp, but designed within certain strict contextual limitations -- which means, I suspect, that 99% of IUPMA's artistamps wouldn't get a look in -- but then they are not meant to. The UK Essays I included on my limited edition Envelope were of Essays from the early years of Queen Victoria to the more recent ones of Queen Elizabeth. They are all designs that at one stage or another in the evolution of a stamp, and for one reason or another, never made it to the stage when they became 'real' stamps. Two (perhaps) interesting things about the Essays, and indeed all Great Britain stamps issued since the Penny Black in 1840 are, firstly, that they don't include the name of the issuing country, and secondly that they include the monarch's head. Essay stamps are also known as 'Cinderella' steamps -- because they didn't make it to the ball! Regards, Prince Charming (aka Val)

[cheryl penn]

Evening Val! I think its time to tell us the story behind the Essay Envelopes? I see they are an edition of 25 and I for one (actually 10) would like to know intent?