A Blog for Lisa Iversen, The World is a Town

[cheryl penn]

Mail Art received second week of February 2011.

 

Pieces of my dismantled book The World is a Town have been sent into many corners of the globe.  Sometimes I despair at receiving answers.  But then, a piece like this one from Skybridge Studio's arrives and the world is rose colored again :-)

Beautiful paper has been folded and sewn into a pamphlet type art work.  The text is a play involving Mark - Lisa, I dont recognise this at all - so I hope you are going to enlighten me??  Mark is a young man of 17/18 who during the course of ONE page endures all the agonies of youth with transparent disdain and an - I'm fine swagger.  Remember these 'hard-core days'?

"I didn't want to die, but living hurt too much.......I didn't want to feel much of anything anymore". Poor Mark - and this life is forever written in the lines of a play.  Plays are funny things really - they way they are acted in a loop forever.  The characters remain trapped in a piece of life and time that never changes. The actors change, but the lines don't - is the World Town like that I wonder?

Lisa also sent an old postcard she has had taped to the wall of her studio - I love it :-) In 1912 Aunty Laura wrote:

"Auntys failing.  I sent you a nice little package by registered mail.  How Aunty would have loved to see you today.  I will be here for a few days.  Kiss Grandmama, be good and I will soon send you some more nice things, your devoted Aunty Laura".

Did she know that the world would soon be locked in World War I?

Thank you VERY much Lisa and Joshua - my contribution to your project should reach you soon.

[Marie Wintzer]

Beautiful and relevant, what a great addition to the World is a Town!

[David Stafford]

I love Lisa's calligraphy...Lisa, is the text posted somewhere we could read it?

 

[cheryl penn]

Lisa wrote me an email about this piece - I think it gives the work more context so:

"Hi Cheryl,

This is a script my son wrote for a theater group in the midwest to raise awareness about the issue:

http://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=2eqzhfd

Glad you liked the work.

People do a lot to exclude people from groups and society. It's something that crosses religious and other boundaries. Your project, and now Michael's project with The World Is A Town has made me realize how pervasive and how much pain and grief these behaviors causes in society both today, and throughout history!

It's sad that people allow their fears to manifest as violence and hatred.

A few years ago we found a book signed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. while helping an elderly friend prepare to move into a retirement community. He asked us to help him sell it, and after getting an appraisal offered it on an auction site. You might be surprised to know how many hate letters we received. I was stunned. Although we also heard from a member of Dr. King's staff, which was nice."