RECEIVED: Mail-Art Stamps - Capt. Beefheart and Joseph Cornell - by MaryAnne (York, UK)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member MaryAnne (York, United Kingdom)

 

March 17, 2011 - MaryAnne makes excellent stamps, a world unto itself in mail-art. These she sent represent some beautiful work, IMHO. Scans of some of these stamps have been posted at the IUOMA and generated praise and discussion. I like the Captain Beefheart stamp especially. The Joseph Cornell stamp honors a very inventive "outsider" artist.  MaryAnne's envelope is interesting too: 

She included a nice note. I'm glad to be making more friends in the UK - there are always interesting things going on in mail-art in that part of the world. The usual suspect:

Many thanks MaryAnne! I enjoyed the discussions at the IUOMA about Frank Zappa, Warhol, Cornell - all the ideas your stamps inspired.

 

MAIL-ART QUOTE FOR THE DAY

 

from "Plutonium Ode" by Allen Ginsberg

 

One microgram [of Plutonium] inspired to one lung, ten pounds of heavy metal dust adrift slow motion over grey Alps the breadth of the planet, how long before your radiance speeds blight and death to sentient beings?

 

Enter my body or not I carol my spirit inside you,

 

Unnaproachable Weight,

O heavy heavy Element awakened I vocalize your con-sciousness to six worlds. I chant your absolute Vanity. Yeah monster of Anger birthed in fear

 

O most Ignorant matter ever created unnatural to Earth! Delusion of metal empires!

 

Destroyer of lying Scientists! Devourer of covetous Generals, Incinerator of Armies & Melter of Wars!

Judgement of judgements, Divine Wind over vengeful nations, Molester of Presidents, Death-Scandal of Capital politics!

Ah civilizations stupidly indus-trious!

Canker-Hex on multitudes learned or illiterate! Manu-factured Spectre of human reason!

 

O solidified imago of practicioner in Black Arts I dare your reality, I challenge your very being! I 
publish your cause and effect!

 

[De Villo Sloan]

David, MaryAnne's Cap. Beefheart is a gem. Wow, I dug out Ginsberg's "Plutonian Ode" because - even if a bit militant - now seems a prophecy of terribloe events now.. Ginsberg's book came out at the time of the Three Mile Island reactor accident in Pennsylvania, USA. Then later Chernobyl - it formed the experience of generations as much as the height of the Cold War earlier, I think. Yes, "Plutonian Ode" has been translated in nice editions in other languages. The original edition was with City Lights in San Francisco, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who published "Howl" also:

[David Stafford]

Mary Anne has the best taste in heroes...

 

re plutonium....from the Guardian, a description of Chernobyl heroes...

 

The firefighters] had had no protective clothing, or dosimetric equipment to measure radiation levels; the blazing radioactive debris fused with the molten bitumen, and when they had put the fires out with water from their hoses, they picked up chunks of it in their hands and kicked it away with their feet.... This heroic but utterly futile action took them closer to a lethal source of radiation than even the victims of Hiroshima...When they died two weeks later in Hospital No 6, Zakharov heard that the radiation had been so intense the colour of Vladimir Pravik's eyes had turned from brown to blue; Nikolai Titenok sustained such severe internal radiation burns there were blisters on his heart. Their bodies were so radioactive they were buried in coffins made of lead, the lids welded shut.

 

[Ruud Janssen]

Aha, So Simon Vinkenoog translated this. Recognize his signature. I know he did lots of those things. Lovely to see the two signatures on one paper.