Short Days, Much Mail Art

[Thom Courcelle]

Well, first off, I am one lucky turkey-butt for all the wonderful postal friends I have and for the mail art I receive regularly.  I could sit here and make plaintive excuses for why it is that at this time of year I seem less and less able to come visit my favorite web community, but nobody really wants to hear sob stories about ugly work schedules and keeping one's circadian rhythms as normal as possible during these dark, dark, colder calendar days. Ugh... one gets up when it is dark.  One goes into work when it is dark.  One possibly notices a tiny patch of light filtering through the rainy season skies during the few daylight hours.  Then one travels home from work in the darkness of night that has fallen too early.  Oh to be an Australian or a South Africaner in their southern hemispheric locales at this swing of the planet's cycle!  Alas, the only "down under" location I am doing this time of year, is the kind where I try to keep warm deep down within my flannel sheets at night.  And the nights are soooooo long.  Seattle woke up to freezing fog this Sunday morning--beautiful in it's own way--as it began to break-up over the Elliott Bay and Puget Sound and discretely started to reveal the jagged peaks of the Olympic Mountains--like a tectonic dance of the seven veils. 

But what I really intend to do here is create an appreciation of several amazing works of art that have been received in my postal box recently.  When the stress of work and the shortness of daylight start to nibble their defeatism upon one's soul, and hibernation-tendencies start curling around one's body,... a little work of art arrives in a mailbox, something that someone CREATED with their own two hands, proving that the human desire for DOING and MAKING ONE'S OWN BEAUTIFUL LIGHT cannot be suppressed.  Your art is the sunshine that makes my heart GLOW in the darkening day's gloom...

Nadine Wendell Mojica ALWAYS knows how to brighten my day.  Maybe it's because she's from "sunny" California?  Much of the mail art I myself have recently been working on has been sketching work, so it was wonderful to receive a sample of Nadine's handiwork in that medium. It's a SUPERB portrait work:

There always seem to be so many little parts to Nadine's mail gifts; she never leaves a corner unadorned or absent of art if she can draw another little character,...

Or incorporate some handmade paper, or a little quotation, or plant a little hand-made rubber stamp...

And merry Mary England created a postcard that tells two little stories... One fictional, noting that "In a plaid world there can be only one hero.":

...And one true to life:

Hoping to get several more "appreciations" posted in several blog posts to come.  Stay tuned!  I will also try to post photos of received mail on my IUOMA page's picture sets.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yes, very nice to see you, Thom ~ remember, in only a month the days will begin to get longer, boom, just like that.But before that happens, you will receive a letter and MA from Maine. MA from Nadine makes some of my best days too ...

[Thom Courcelle]

Hand-made rubber stamps on Nadine's envelope!...