"Seven Bubbles in Search of Cartoon Characters" by Carina Granlund (Petsmo, Finland)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Carina Granlund (Petsmo, Finland)

December 2, 2014 - I am thrilled to have found not one but two pieces of mail-art from Carina Granlund in the PO box. This postcard-size piece is the first I will share.

She has been circulating some very interesting work lately that is minimalist in terms of color. The pieces I have seen are drawings, mostly black and white, that have the associative quality of automatic writing and are filled with visual puns and absurd juxtapositions. This piece Carina sent me is a variant. My response is to see these bits of language as cartoon bubbles disconnected from characters. The result achieves the disruptions and disconnections found in the other related work by Carina. The blacked-out bubble is a particularly excellent inclusion.

So I see this as being “Seven Bubbles in Search of Cartoon Characters.” The overlays on ghostly levels of text provide depth and further random juxtapositions. The fact that Carina Granlund is fascinated with comics and uses them in her work makes my interpretation a little less far-fetched.

Many thanks to Carina Granlund. I will post more of her work soon!

[Carina]

Wonderful reference.

[De Villo Sloan]

Carina, if fragmentation does not come naturally, I would not recommend cultivating it. I don't think you're exactly doing realism either. I maintain this piece in particular stems from your interest in cartoons. Nobody seems to have gotten the title is a reference to "Six Characters in Search of an Author."

As for the other, I have great hopes for "The Last Petsmo Rodeo," and I will send it to you when it's done.

[Carina]

Thanks DVS! ha, I recognize myself in the title. I would like to use more distortions and disconnections in my work. But it's not the easiest thing to do...