WHY - from Nancy Bell Scott

[Marie Wintzer]

I have received this wonderful piece by Nancy a few weeks back. Life hasn't been a long quiet river for her recently, and I know that this work was her first attempt at getting back to art, at finding her feet in the studio again, so I'm really touched and honored that she thought about me. 
Nancy is making great use of what I call her "islands", and to me this work is about connections being made and being broken. The inevitable cycles of life. Islands and continents drift apart, rifts deepen and fissures extend (sometimes abruptly and violently). At the same time new ties are created, new elements are added to the chain of interactions (what I see on the left of the card). WHY, well, I don't need to go there, you know that WHY that is relentlessly trotting in your mind some days...
I know Nancy is starting to send out mail again, and for what I have seen it is as fab as it ever was, I am really looking forward to more correspondence with her. Muchly arigatoo my friend!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yah, but those weren't used here, it was magnetic paint.

Context plays a big part in perception--time/place/person--a change in any of these elements would probably make Marie or anyone perceive a piece differently, and her journey or interaction with it would be something else.

[Marie Wintzer]

I think Nancy has very cleverly used letters that have little magnets attached to their feet and arms :-))

You're right, perception is very different from criticism. I can only write about what I perceive. And most of the time what I see is only what I see. Maybe it would be different if I receive the same card a year from now? Or a year back? Or the same card from someone else? It probably would be.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

I like letter stamps too (have antique ones) and don't use them as often as I'd like because there is so much else to choose from on the table. It's mind-boggling. Thanks for stapling a reminder of them to my brain.

[De Villo Sloan]

I've only recently started using letter stamps w/vispo and concrete. Stamps are a staple (no pun) mail-art material, so I thought it showed solidarity. Actually, you can do a lot w. them - as your work shows.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Then I'm famous again--in Paris and in your head. Could it get any better than this? 

I started doing that with stamped letters (which I don't use too often) not long ago. Some is on the front + back of my vispo project pages.

[De Villo Sloan]

Hi Nancy, definitely a great cycle from artist, to intended recipient, to a larger community.

 

AND I am adding your "Organic Y Hooking Technique" to my (still mostly in my head) "Handbook of Concrete Poetry Composition."

[Nancy Bell Scott]

You're right, DVS, very well said. It's about the interaction for me too--a blog like this shows profound interaction. She made it more than what it is by itself with her own insight, which is one of the very best results of making art in the first place.

[De Villo Sloan]

This could only come from someone who's into concrete poetry: I like the way she connected the H and Ys - it looks like twigs or something.

 

Marie, you know I think how people perceive and respond to the work is an essential part of the process. I think what you wrote is documentation of how you interacted with the work. This isn't really the same thing as art criticism at all. I didn't see the work the way you did. You really opened it up for other possibilities.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Thanks CP and DVS. I like the "belated and condensed"--kind of describes my whole art life at the moment. (No worries about vispo pages, though. Almost six are done, and they pick up speed as they move along.)

[cheryl penn]

Great blog - and VERY pleased to see Nancy back in the game : FAB for sure ;- XX