Mystery Women from Jay Block

[Ana Kawajiri]

I recently received this card from Jay Block.  It has the painting of a woman - perhaps from the 18th century - torn, the center part is missing and one side is glued upside down.  Who is she, I wonder? What does this mean?

Then I accidentally found a piece of the mystery on Katerina Nikoltsou’s blog.  She has the complementary part of this piece!  How exciting it is that we can now see the woman’s face:

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/profiles/blogs/from-jay-block-2?xg_so...

I still don’t recognise the painting, thought.  Probably, that’s not what really matters about this work.  Maybe it would be wiser just to focus on the composition and the use of words replacing the woman’s face. Or even, the wonderful stamps on the flip side.  I like the tiny naked woman from a different time, falling on a giant safety pin.  It’s fun to imagine that she could just fly away on it.  Or maybe she’s already flying and is about to enter the curtains on the other stamp.  Or else, she’s flying to the moon.

[Ana Kawajiri]

Jay, thank you so much for your comment, it makes it all the more fascinating!

[Jay Block]

Glad that it arrived.  You have discovered something I have been doing for quite some time.  I like to do mirror cards, a sort of reflective pair that I then mail in separate directions.  The painting is by John Singer Sargent, known for his portraits of the wealthy.  He could draw with paint like no other of his time.  The words and images is a line of thought recently been thinking about.  Cognition is related to words, if we do not have a word, we cannot see... things become invisible because we cannot define it.  This is culturally centered, so different languages end up seeing different things... I love stamps and glad this card brought you some pleasure.  best j