Retrospective-In-A-Bag by Jayne Lyons (Lakeville, Minnesota, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail art by IUOMA member Jayne Lyons (Lakeville, Minnesota, USA)

 

April 18, 2019 - Recently Jayne Lyons celebrated her first year in the Eternal Network. This was, in my estimation, a cause for celebration indeed because Jayne Lyons (along with a group of new artists) is emerging as an engaging “mail art persona” & sharing art that crosses a wide spectrum & appeals to many friends.

The significance of one year in the network appears to shrink in comparison to the decades of accomplishment we see in, for example, Ruud Janssen,  John M. & C Mehrl Bennett, Anna Banana, Richard Canard, CrackerJack Kid, Ficus strangulensis, Mudhead, Sinclair Scripa (Tania), Carl Baker… you get the idea. Yet even a fledgling veteran knows a year is a long duration (sentence?) in Mail Art Time, which is not conventional time as experienced by “Normals,” as the SubGenius folks say.

Jayne Lyons has made important contributions to Trashpo and DKult; vintage, crafts, folk art-oriented mail art ( known as Mail Art Nouveaux at the Mink Ranch); and now she is involved in vispo & asemics. The pieces on display in this blog are a mailing of scale that provides a convenient retrospective of her work in the network thus far. The pieces are large & numerous.

This is yet another occasion to mourn the cost of mailing art. Once mail art was an inexpensive, egalitarian way to share material art lavishly with an appreciative audience. We all understand this is no longer the situation & thus appreciate more this tremendous collection from Jayne Lyons done in classic mail art form.

 

 

Stamp collage on the reverse:

 

 

Mail Art by Jayne Lyons (Minnesota, USA)

 

“Ode to Sloan” February 27, 2019. By Jayne Lyons

 

Mail art by Jayne Lyons (includes asemic vispo by De Villo Sloan)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

Ahhh, there's young (20-something) JBL playing the sax! Love this LEGENDS OF TRASHPO stamp!

Sure glad I jumped right in! Heck, I'm getting old and there's no time to waste! Haha!

But seriously - I am glad to push myself. I like trying new things. Over time I'll probably find that some aspects of m-a are not a fit, or I'm not very good at it. That's okay, though. I'm enjoying the ride, which is all that matters!

Yes, you DO support the eternal network! I appreciate that about you! :)

[De Villo Sloan]

Great mailing, Jaine. It feels like you've been in the network a lot longer than a year ;)

I think you hold the record for the most stamps made of you-about you in their first year. I don't think DK had that many stamps made about her that early.

Going right into Trashpo and not appearing at all intimidated to interact w/ the people was very good. Mail art is supposed to be like that. Sometimes I think newer folk are intimidated. Then you went right into asemics & vispo, which actually could be daunting. But again m-a is about equality & mutual support. (Sure you'll regret some of those early pieces someday ;) but you jumped right in.) I think it's great you are curious about the history because without it every new wave of people, every new generation faces "re-inventing the wheel" without some sense of where any of this came from.

You raise some interesting points. Real quick:

"one trick pony" - I don't want to be one either. But in art & writing you see a lot of very successful people who basically do the same piece over & over again. It can work. (Variety can too, of course.) I know poetry best so I can safely say it's amazing how poets write the same poem over and over again. I've always contended - much to the horror of others - that the great John Ashbery wrote the same poem over & over. Not the exact words, but a formula that always resulted in the same outcome of pulling a rabbit out of a hat & then being gone.

"long haul" folks - In the text I tried to name some of the at IUOMA members who go back decades, some to Ray Johnson himself & others to things like Neoism, the zines etc.  I make no claim to be a Richard C nor a CrackerJack Kid nor Ruud Janssen. I was in the network through most of the 80s & to the early 90s & saw some of the great eras of the network. I was connected to the zines in particular, which I believe are & were wonderful, But I left for a LONG time. I was pretty well forgotten (although people like JMB & Miekal And new me & I think Fike remembered - I've always been a Fike fan.) I know many IUOMAns understand the intensity of doing this non-stop. And I was gone a long time, so I'm not really on these Pillars of the Eternal Network but I am very pleased to do what I can to support it now because it had such a tremendous impact on my life. But I am no Picasso Gaglione or Sinclair Scripa & do not claim that.

"vintage ruler" - my parents were big antique people so about everything I have has some curious history.

Take care

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

BTW - Your old ruler caught my eye! Whenever I’m at estate sales I look for vintage rulers and yardsticks. Nice advertising pieces!!

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

Hi De Villo! As always, I appreciate you taking the time to feature my work in one of your blog posts. Thank you so much, friend! When it comes to art, I do what comes naturally to me - rubber stamping, collage, paper crafts, doodling. I I need to continue to think outside of the box. I wouldn’t want to be a one-trick pony. You and all who have been in m-a for the long haul have my deepest respect! JBL