RECEIVED: Asemic, Haptic, Vispo Compression Mail-Art from Karen Champlin (Highland Park, Illinois, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Karen Champlin (Highland Park, Illinois, USA)

 

March 1, 2011 - My dear friend Karen Champlin sent this work that renews my appreciation for her talent. She seems to be scaling things down from the earlier assemblages. This piece is about the size of a postcard. Karen is clearly becoming more comfortable with this medium, which is expressed through delicacy and meticulous attention to detail.

 

The piece above has numerous and fascinating asemic symbols, some of which appear to be playful variations on letters of the alphabet. Karen's one of the best there is in my book for achieving fantastic textural layering in visual poetry. This piece showcases that talent using great stamping. I think she has also been a pro at finding authentic industrial era stamps that add a kind of realism to the work. With different levels of cardboard, this is very much a three-dimensional work (hard to pick up from the scan) with definite tactile appeal. Factoring it in the ether, she synthesizes visual poetry, haptic poetry, and asemic writing. The reverse side is also interesting:

The arrows are a little confusing, which I like. It also reminds me how much things are posted upside down and sideways around here. More to the point, this backside looks a bit "found." (Certainly things can be made to appear found when in truth the scenario is highly contrived). It's amusing to me Karen sent this because I believe when all is said and done she is not really of the "found" camp, at least in its purest form.

 

Even here in the mail-art world, the "found" concept seems to be a point of contention in an environment where there is generally very little disagreement. It ultimately reflects some larger issues in the arts, of course; but it's interesting that this could possibly be THE issue because we know there are so many others. Anyway, Karen Champlin always does nice envelopes. This one I think is really nice:

She is doing more and more with stamping. And blue tape! The same kind I used when I was doing all my blue tape pieces. Karen probably doesn't even remember, but I'm happy to have that reference here with intended or not. So all in all, I tremendous mailing from Karen. Many thanks!!!

MAIL-ART PSYCHIC

Keep you idealism practical. Cy the Cynic wants you to switch Minnie's glasses. Poly-follower. Yes to the first no to the second. Lucky numbers: 1, 8, 13, 20, 22, 36

 

MAIL-ART COLOR FOR THEDAY: Emerald

 

MAIL-ART QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

This is from the poem "Chicago" [today in honor of Karen Champlin] by the American poet Lew Welch, who one day many years ago simply disappeared from the face of the earth. To this day no one knows for sure what happened to him. He worked in advertising before devoting his life to poetry and in many sources is credited with having created the marketing slogan "Raid Kills Bugs Dead" for a very popular brand of insecticide, although this is disputed other places. You are probably more familiar with Lew Welch's stepson than Lew Welch. He is the front man for the band Huey Lewis and The News. The annals of U.S. poetry are indeed strange:

 

You can't fix it. You can't make it go away.

      I don't know what you're going to do about it,

But I know what I'm going to do about it. I'm just

      going to walk away from it. Maybe

A small part of it will die if I'm not around

 

to feed it anymore.

[De Villo Sloan]

kc 9casey @ the bat hits home run

[De Villo Sloan]

No problem, Skybridge. In fact, thank you. I had meant to note Karen attached a piece of string or thread. It's amazing how much sewing and textiles are showing up in mail-art we see. I love work with textiles, so I'm enjoying this trend. I think your project is great! I never was one of the mail-art monkeys, no.

[De Villo Sloan]

Tina, I'm glad you saw this post about Karen Champlin. I've been trying to convince you forever some of your work could be considered visual poetry. Mail-art by Tina Festa below. Is this not vispo?

 

Skybridge - I'm glad you said "midwest postmodern industrial" instead of me, but I do think that characterizes "The Champ" very well. With Karen and me, you know, she's "The Champ" and I'm "The Chump"

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

'Can spend hours "reading" Karen's art. Really a great piece, Karen, and your asemic writing is at its best. I see A= alpha, and Δ = delta, and Σ = sigma, and Π = pi...all emerging from the cryptic characters. Fascinating! Thanks Sloan for a really informative blog. Great art, great blog!

[David Stafford]

ATC as Asemic Rosetta Stone...Good work, Karen and DeVillo....

[Tina Festa]

I like the work of Karen and your comments: it helps me to go deeper IN the piece of art.

[cheryl penn]

Great work, great blog as usual :-) u2roc

[Karen Champlin]

Lisa, I had the arrow in the wrong Dislexic direction.

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi KC, man, I think this piece is outstanding. Blue Tape! I had a feeling it was more than coincidence. I'll always treasure this for that connection alone. Isn't it sad? In this biz it's not about what you did, it's about "What have you done for me lately?" Well, you know I love your work, but you outdid yourself on this one. It all comes together.

[Karen Champlin]

Thank you for a wonderful commentary of my work.  I bought and use the blue tape to HONOR you my friend!  Yes, I'm that sentimental.  :-)  Your blog is wonderful.