David Stafford's Blog (206)

From the Musee Wakoshi Catalog, The Art of Marie Wintzer: Exile in Artville:

The radiograms of Marie Wintzer are absurdist bits of high drama which mimic the hysterical tone  of our media and at the same time make perfect sense. The lack of Kale Rooting Hormone could, plausibly, be the turning point in the collapse of our tenuous grasp on the…

Linda French of Tiny Two Harbors, MN sent this Clown Suit Pattern today. I've assembled the pieces so the average viewer at home can see what it could look like. Thank you, Linda. I'll send the Red Riding Hood costume pattern you requested…

I think, if you look closely, you'll see the foundations of much of the work that now finds its way into the Tate, the Whitney, the Elgin St. Vincent de Paul. A great animated cloud of pigeons erupts from St. Mark's Square.  Freeze Frame. A Non sequitur to clear the palette. So...I received this boekie from Rebecca and Diane who jointly filled this tome called…

From the venerable Richard Canard, a fellow curmudgeon. It's a somewhat sad commentary on the state of red state fashion. Thank you, Richard.

In certain mail art circles I seem to be the go to guy for climate disaster. At least…

Thank you, ladies.....and secret admirer. No card from Katerina would be complete without....

It's amazing how natural it…

Something very special from tictac in far off Starnsberg: A Large Cheese.

A card with cut paper relief that says "Say Cheese" unfolds to reveal an alphabet with letters missing here and there to give the effect…

This is Svenja's envelope which sets the bar pretty high for what's inside. Wham! That skull is aheadin' my way. Svenja has jumped on the Underwater Living bandwagon pretty hard. Both her inside and her outside contain watery themes. (You can just run with that however you…

Just got back from Diane Keys new show at the Elgin Museum of Modern Art (EMOMA). Wild stuff. I was surprised to see my name in the Catalogue:

Keys continues to burrow into the layer of duff on the urban floor, a sediment rich with meaning "para aquellos con los ojos." (Trans.: For those with the prescience to find the vision of…

The International Day of The Banana is now in the rear view mirror but even though I didn't enter the mail art call I did receive some entries including a Banana Surprise from Stripgoose who has never sent me anything before. Surprise! Thank you,…

For those few of you who missed Nadine's One Person Show at the Burbank Museum of Unnatural History, here's a quick review from the Burbank Gazetteer:

Wendell-Mojica's stinging portraiture produces a laugh and a wince when we realize balloting may be going on behind our own backs. Through January…

From the Catalogue:

Like Diane Keys and Nadine Wendell-Mojica, Bruns is a culler of culture, a diva of detritus who captures the zeitgeist daily in scraps of ephemera. The gestalt of the assemblage IS the art, a snapshot (or scrapshot, if you will) of a flailing culture amid which we flounder, up to our eyes in the onslaught of imagery that…

A very cool intro to the work of Frank B. Jones. Reminiscent of the early work of Larry Poons, this kinetic swarm of dancing colors looks as though it was handpainted by Mr. Jones. Quite a feat. Really amazing, Frank. Thank you.…

An envelope stuffed with goodies from Alicia Starr Ryan. The Widow Jane. (Not getting the reference but it doesn't matter. The picture is conjure-worthy). Love that sneer. The gun is fake as is the anger but I wouldn't mess with her either way. (Don't you love the way women in movies are never far from their lipstick, even while sleeping or tubbing.) Also a…

Received this week...from Katerina, a Christmas Card and one of the new patterns from the Nikoltsou Collection premiering in Milan this Spring. She also sent also some snaps from the 21st Annual IUOMA Cotillion Ball where she wore this very pattern. Katerina, I was sorry to hear about the buffet mishap. Thank you, and Mele Kalikimaka.…

Suus in Mokum sent me a packet made up of three of her musical watercolors. Of course, my relation with Suus in primarily a business one. She sends me the patterns and I help them find their way into the House of Suus collection. So far we've managed to net over 30 million. That's pixels but down the road they could turn into krüken (the official imaginary…

Christina and Jurgen of 5Blanks Studios have both sent me cool stuff recently. This is Christina's offering:

He seems friendly enough for a zombie. Or perhaps he's arrived for the Day of the Dead or perhaps he's a…

Some recent arrivals. First, just two of the jam-packed envelope of Diane Keys trasheratory. (Diane don't come round much here anymore so I can say pretty much anything I want about her.)  On the left is her artistic challenge by way of the Oats and Dairy Council. On the right, my entry. I broke most of the rules so I probably won't get my Tweets distributed…

Diane Keys and I are playing "Conjure This!" She said: Conjure Wonder Sauna Hot Pants with Batwings! and I complied (sorta, see below) and I said to her Conjure The Oily Doily, aka a moist towelette sold exclusively in steak and lubester restaurants and, well, see above. She also added some wonderful photos of her as a child. Luckily this stage has almost…

My friend Christie Green of Radicule asked me a couple of months ago if I wanted to do a show in September (the fifth) in her new gallery. I said sure not remembering that I'm not an artist (in any traditional sense), have nothing to tell people about the topic at hand and in general am…