Catherine Petre's long-awaited mail art arrives to great fanfare ...

[Nancy Bell Scott]

... in that I whooped and hollered, I'm so thrilled with it:

To me this is a really fine work that includes elegance, contemporaneity + history, and mystery. The red and black/brown giving the face its soft-tissue structure and expression are a bold move, one that I find very successful.  The eyes are fascinating and enigmatic -- sometimes I see them as spookily blank, sometimes as cloudy, sometimes as full and absorbing.  It's amazing how they change, even in the time it takes for one good look.  Other mysteries include the AE sprinkled about that in the dark shadows looks as though it might be melting into something else, asemic -- but it's not certain.  It's a fantastic piece, Catherine, thank you so much!  I love it, and it will keep me thinking.

I'm also in love with Catherine's envelope.  Has it appeared in others' mailboxes?  I don't know, but it's a work of art itself.  I'd like a whole wall of them please!  The day it arrived it was raining here, and our postman was not careful -- the envelope got quite wet, and while I thought that too bad, it was also a relief to find that the work inside was not affected.  Of course, then what the rain did to the envelope's ink soon started looking like it was meant to be -- I mean, it's not to be helped that the envelope's long journey took it through rain by a sloppy postman, and now that is part of its meant-to-be spirit.  I'm posting the front, which got the wettest, and the back, which was not much affected:

 

Beautiful.  Thank you again, Catherine ~

 

 

[Marie Wintzer]

Such a great blog, Nancy. You're right, one get drawn to those eyes....