A Blog for David Stafford Women At Sea

[cheryl penn]

Mail Art received Last week of February 2011.

 

Confess I am sorry I did not make it to the evening of the book launch :-(

Woman at Sea.

HHHMMM!!! Selkie’s (seals that can shed their skin to become women) – not too bad to meet one of these if you’re THE ONE!!  Sirens (avoid these they cause shipwrecks). Loreley.

THALASSA primeval spirit of the sea (hardly  personified she is the body of the sea itself) so no escaping her etc.

But these look more to me like Debby’s and Sandra’s and Beyonce’s ?  You know the ones who look hard at the girl in the yellow dot bikini with envy???

Brats!!!

Then they just go and FAIL the Lady in Red.  aaaah! Life's Not a Beach. And this comes hard on the heels of Sandpo. Serendipity, she's a weirdo. A nice one of course.

David, your Coffee Table book is a Beaut - thank you :-)

I am making you something good - so I am taking the liberty of canceling this note! BUT in full understanding that no mail days are THE PITS!! :-) - just by the way - notes - they're one of my favorite things :-)

Mail Art received Third Week of January 2011.  See what the winds of the Kalahari did.

This is the first mail art I have received from David – and It’s weighty of course.  David sent an 8 fold booklet  with a favorite quote from Maurice Maeterlinck -  As soon as we put something into words we devalue it in a strange way.

We think we have plunged into the depths of the abyss, and when we return to the surface the drop of water on our pale fingertips no longer resembles the sea from which it comes.

We delude ourselves that we have discovered a wonderful treasure trove, and when we return to the light of day we find we have brought back only false stone and shards of glass; and yet the treasure goes on glimmering in the dark, unaltered.

Of course, In 1911, Maeterlinck was honored with the Nobel Prize for literary achievement. O, and lets not forget the South African connection over here.  Maeterlinck is said to have plagiarized The Life of the White Ant  from Eugene Marias’ The Soul of the White Ant. Marais was an Afrikaans poet and scientist.  As this happened in the 1920’s I’m not up for a debate on that issue. It was a little before my time. My quote for David from The Intelligence of the Flowers:

“Though there be plants or flowers that are awkward or unlucky,  there is none that is wholly devoid of wisdom or ingenuity”.  Substitute with beauty :-)

O, and the envelope - A watercolor "The jaws of life gets its hands on a potato" . Then what???

Thank you David, I look forward to trading.

P.S. I'm going with Stafford - The Sane Choice.

 

[cheryl penn]

I heard the rumor of course. Not sure though. If its cousin Debby, no definitely not.

[De Villo Sloan]

Wow, great David Stafford work. I like "The Lady in Red" best. Interesting commentary CP-SA. Debby? Didn't she burn Steve's jeans?

[Heather Miller]

love the retro slant!

[Jen Staggs]

This book is so awesome I want to have its babies.

[ejva:nsva]

spellbound.

[Marie Wintzer]

The association of text and images is somehow unexpected, but I guess that's what makes it special. 

Potato envelope is really cool too :-)

[David Stafford]

I'm always under the influence of something. Friday it was New York Times and coffee. Today's it's the Zenobit Invasion and the high of sending out 27 ATCs.

[De Villo Sloan]

The text is really interesting. Nice background, Cheryl. Plagiarism? You just call it something else, like influence. I imagine I see the influence of Jen Staggs in the selection of images. Were you under the influence, David?

[David Stafford]

Yeah, the real artists are the ones with the best taste in thievery.

[cheryl penn]

o, we're ALL plagiarists in one or another way, not so? I think its now called postmodernism for want of a better word :-)))