A Blog post for Heather Miller Poems in Hiding

[cheryl penn]

Mail Art Received Week of 13th December 2010

Heather has the knack of sending me beautiful words, in beautiful envelopes. 

Poems, Hiding in envelopes, hiding in pockets. 

Orchids by Theodore Roethke.  Roethke, whose father  owned a large greenhouse  later described the green house as his “symbol for the whole of life, a womb…”

Hiding too is  "Voices from Things Growing in a Churchyard”  by Thomas Hardy.

“In my feat of change from a coffin-thrall

To a dancer in green as leaves on a wall”

So wonderful Heather.

Then:

"The apparition of these faces in the crowd"

There is no country for old men.

A pale boy in a steamy room

Looking outside.

Thank you my friend x

 

Mail Art Received 6th November 2010

THIS I am extremely fortunate to get from Heather for the Red Mail Art call. I am sorry you lot are only going to see photographs and not share this book with me. An envelope PACKED to the brim. The outside an echo of the inside.

A Red Book with piano hinge binding. Excellent Heather.

More books on the inside to do with Valentines, Deep Heat Red, Embarrassment and Love

The Red of Hedonism and Wildness and Complete Abandonment. This is haptic sensuality at its best.

To mitigate the circumstances of her Red Book, Heather turns it on its head. Which ever way you look at it, this is a well re(a)d, well made, succinct, complete Red Book all on its own. AND its mine! I will be enjoying this for a long time to come. Heather my new friend - thank you! This is a gift one would only expect from an old friend!

Mail Art Received 22 November 2010

Heather contributed another portion to our book "Putting a Lid on It" I am not discussing the mail inside - I dont think Heather would want me to, BUT I do think you should see the envelopes.

Heather takes as much trouble with the outside of her work as the inside - they always work in unison. Form, intent and content are always very well balanced in Heather's work. Thank you Heather - you're doing great my friend.

Mail Art Received 16th November 2010

Heather does it again! Her envelopes are integrated beautifully with her inner content. The back of this envelope boasts a poem by e. e. cummings

ydoan
yunnuhstan

ydoan o
yunnuhstan dem
yguduh ged

(You dont understand).

So what is it we need to get? The question of being at odds with "myself and the world. I dont always understand what I am seeing." Yip - that sounds like the mantra of most of us today. A beautiful image Heather - in fact its a wow.

"Sometimes we have to look back in order to move forward. Images like a slide show in my head". There really is not a lot for me say on this, the work speaks for itself.

AND!

"Life would be so simple if I didn't care":

"The wrong stuff what has happened to the World".
Decisions, Choices, Integrity, Choices, Decisions, Integrity, Choices, Decisions Decision...
Heather I think I got to know you soon after you started your art career - I just want to say that your work has grown in unimaginable leaps. Every time I get a new piece from you it is better than the last - YOU GO GIRL!!!
Thank you and thank you.

Received 22nd October 2010
Heather and I have been corresponding for quite a while previous to IUOMA. I always appreciate the time and effort Heather puts into her mail art - it is generally thematic (we have been corresponding on 'being played') and the theme is always carried onto her envelopes.

 

I received two cards and I am putting them in my perceived order - Queue Here to play the game:

 

 

But her second card makes it abundantly clear she is not playing anymore!

 

She quotes a few lines from a Philip Larkin poem Church Going. The reverse of her card makes the viewer in no doubt that she is no longer the GAME PLAYER - her envelope reads R.I.P.

Thank - you Heather - keep the cards rolling - you and me are carrying on playing...

[Marie Wintzer]

What an envelope, a real candy!

[cheryl penn]

Chuffed I am - your work is ABFAB!

[Heather Miller]

Thank you for your confidence in me. I am so chuffed you like my work!

[cheryl penn]

Thanks De Villo - I am receiving some extraordinary work from the IUOMA members. It gets better and better :-)

[De Villo Sloan]

Cheryl, your concepts for the various book projects are always extraordinarily imaginative and seem to inspire the artists. I think the red idea is fantastic - partially because the results are so spectacular. This is amazing work. Appreciate the scans, even if originals are not possible.