Thom Courcelle's Blog (211)

Spring FIBER ART SEASON is upon us.  There have been some quilting league upsets, some sewing machine contract trade-ups, some promising rookie youths entering the fray... But Boo Cartledge--a hometown favorite--will always make the team!!

On this fiber mail art piece by Boo, some young feller from the Indiana Braves graces the front--I daresay that this work is hand-stitched!…

Many of you would laugh to see me sitting here on my sofa, typing this blog, SURROUNDED by mail art in layers and piles on every remaining inch of the upholstery that my butt is not taking up. I wanted to make sure that I had it all nearby as I tried to describe it.  I am having to use Nancy Bell Scott's recent invention of the "Blog Jam," which is, I think, an iteration of a tool used by Cheryl Penn in the past, and undoubtedly by others who've been overwhelmed by the blessing of mail art…

A light fell upon him as he contemplated the great Shroud of Elgin...

At first the light burned a little...

Then he was filled with the spirit of Trashpo, and De Villo Sloan felt compelled to share with the masses the miraculous…

In celebration of a fabulous IUOMA posting day yesterday--did you catch all the DKult action happening here yesterday??--and in honor of Lisa and KDJ's collaborative tattoo project arriving in my mailbox, I decided to have a celebratory dinner.  So I dove into the stash of tins that Erni sent from Hamburg, and whipped up a new dish! It is photo documented here for your salivating delight...

Many folks seemed to like the first recipe posted and some even sent themed artwork in honor of…

A couple of months ago, Dharma DaDa sent me an amazing package of foodstuffs with a special "task." The instructions were: "Prepare a meal using the [food enclosed] and do a little documentation for IUOMA to show those guys what real EAT ART is... Good Luck!"

Here's a clip from that original blog post:

An AMAZING PACKAGE that arrived from Dharma dada Erni Bär... Whoa.  If mail art provides me with…

There has been an abundance of blue in my mailbox.

A WHAT!???!!

You mean THIS???

No, No!... Not a Bun Dance in a Tutu...

Maybe THIS???

No, NO!!... Not THAT kind of a bun dance!

I mean the kind of…

Long overdue for praise is a Trashpo Boekie of magnificent standards from Amy Irwen... Changing the clocks for Daylight Savings Time made me realize I'd better do some postings--bad form to be so tardy with one's thank yous that the seasons change first--heaven forbid!!  

Amy's piece doesn't need much commentary; it's elegance in pictures will suffice pretty decently...  But for some background, her minature boekie is a "fatty"--so crammed with scrap-making material and goodies, and…

GOTIJ, INDEED!!  Some lovely women of South Africa have sent me enough art to roll around in!  No; I wouldn't roll around on it!  But it's plentiful enugh to make me feel spoiled!  Some solo work, and some collaborative...  And amazingly it all of it arrived on the same exact day.  It must have been a plot to overwhelm my ocular senses with artistic delight...

First to suffer the blow of my letter opener was a nice thick envelope from Lesley Magwood Fraser:…

"How?" I ask, "HOW...does she come up with such brilliant, delicate work to send through the mail?" Always so mysterious, so many details to be picked-through... I often want to attach some grandiose meaning or subtext to Marie's work because it so often seems like there is a great Story behind it.  It often feels like a top secret spy document encrypted with shadowy knowledge that will either change or save the world forever...

The relay from Agent 007 containing…

Many fond embraces from beautiful postal friends arrived for the celebration of St. Valentine's Day...

Did those hearts grab your attention?? That was actually a postcard from my Aunt Sally, who regularly sends me creative and unusual postcards... postal surprises must run in the family!

From Pretty Lily Sue, a super beautiful Valentines using…

Behold the latest hoard of magnificence!

From Angie, a sympathetic bow to the season:

Fortunately, Angie, the snow level has abated.  Still cold, but sunny--you can see the Olympic Mountains across from Elliott Bay today:…

Well, Seattle is experiencing what the news is calling "Snowpacolypse 2012."  Although, coming originally from snow-bound Vermont, it seems a mystery to me that this "light dusting" could cause so much distress.  Regardless, everything seems shut down: schools, businesses, bus routes...  I am able to walk to my workplace, but the building's heating unit went bust, and after working there a few hours couldn't feel my fingers anymore, and left early.  So today I'm working from home, doing some…

Received yet another astonishing piece from Guido Vermeulen recently... This one really "struck me" as fascinating, maybe because of the all-seeing eye at the center of the piece...

Guido titled this piece: "No Paseran!"  And how could one?  I was arrested by it the moment I saw it.  To me this piece evokes multiple imagery at once--the first thing I see is the…

Roberto always know how to brighten the corner where I am... because his works are always filled with color that celebrates the rainbow!  What an envelope!!  This is the biggest, brightest GOTIJ envelope I've ever got!

And special treats inside as well!...…

Some hand-drawn, some retooled and repurposed, all of them amusing...

From Nadine Wendell-Mojica in California, USA

From Val Herman, Sigean, France... I am supposed to share this one with my niece!

All kinds of little…

Ms. Wahl has sent another humorous piece to tickle my funny bone...

The text overlaying that funny print photograph says, "New mail art especially for you! Your dancing IUOMA friend, Svenja."

The reverse side of this hand-made card has another [actual] black-and-white photograph of lumberjacks... possibly doing a pole dance??!?...…

A couple of amazing Mail Art projects received in Book form... one from Marie Wintzer and another from Rob of Inkovia, both from the opposite side of the Pacific...

Marie's envelope was fascinating in and of itself--an impressionistic cityscape depicting people walking among the streets, between buildings, old and new, on a sunny-yellow day.  It's BEAUTIFUL…

Several mail art pieces have been incoming that are themed towards the Northern Hemisphere's Autumnal Equinox.  This year's fall season seems to be hurtling itself through the calendar days quicker than I have time to appreciate it.  So I am glad to receive mail from friends who have taken the time to contemplate and appreciate the season, and remind me that the Eleusinian Mysteries march onward through their ritual timeline regardless of whether I have time to observe them or not.  Here in…

Friends from South Africa have been thinking of me recently. A second mailing of South African provenance arrived of GOTIJ-standard caliber.  Strikingly, the format was similar to that of another South African compatriot's piece recently received--it was an accordion piece, and it also depicted an animal, though of the more aerie variety.  One really had to discover the avian fellow, however, as he splashed around in a bath of liquid alphabet characters.…

Galloping into my mailbox and rocking my world... or is that rocking into my mailbox and making my heart gallop?... was a stunning, double-sided, tri-fold accordion piece from Lesley Magwood Fraser.  One side depicting a block print of some creative invention--a black beauty on rocking arcs, and embellished by some intricately cut-out cartoons of a [less than] graceful, but comic, dismount.…