A Blog Post for Marie Wintzer. No. 79. Regular Fortune.

[cheryl penn]

Mail Art Received 1^st Week of March 2011

In full understanding that she is just the messenger, when Marie told me she was getting me an uncookie fortune, I confess I was a trifle nervous, bearing in mind the No. 63 of a fellow IUOMAian.   Lucky it was just a regular, very vague fortune…

BUT its beautiful home, that was no regular place – it is a beautiful three fold book. In Red, my favorite color.

Marie, have you been taking book binding courses in secret??? The fold book is SO well made and the insert – a traditional Japanese 4-hole pamphlet stitch binding done with very delicate red thread. Within the covers -  the most fantastic images of tied-on prayers or fortunes - what are they Marie?  With images like these, cultural differences are visually so exciting. The formal qualities to Marie's aesthetic sense is also so well developed.

Also in the envelope , o,  I had seen these before – the Crimson Giant contributions.  It was actually great to see them again and to revisit that VERY successful project.  

So S.P.H.S. -  I’m CHUFFED by my supremely FAB!!!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mail Art Received Third of February 2011

I received this HUGE FAB from Marie - its really beautiful - and a note :-). Marie you know I love the notes.  A beautiful Marie envelope. Two men and a dog looking for light in the world.

This is a treasure. A piece which calls for light.  The World is a Town which needs light.  Lots of it.

Pieces of Japan encased in See Through Windows.  Music for the eyes.  When held up to the light I can see through Marie's world to mine.

Marie, this is beautiful - I'm' VERY lucky Sweet Pea :-)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mail Art Received Second Week of February 2011.

I think Marie’s note is a good way to explain the MOST wonderful package I received from her.  I think they’re artworks on their own :-)

Conceptually this photograph is a FAB Marie – the thread that echoes the mesh of electrical wires and cables – excellent!!   I am REALLY glad to have two Tokyo  Night pieces – I was fretting about one piece being in two places at once!

Marie and I are making books to hold each other’s artworks (See her Blog – Work in Progress).  She had already sent me a bookmark which has become the cover of my book (see further down), and beautiful paper as requested.  Then disaster struck – I ran out while collageing a binding and resorted to this vaguely pinky eek paper from the local paper store.    Marie heard my wails of distress and came to the rescue again  with beautiful old book pages. Take a look at the WHOLE package :-)

Pinky had a setback I’m relieved to announce…  The new work ensconced.

And ANOTHER treat.  In an envelope made out of old wallpaper (FAB!) I received another first experiment – her note said:  “Cheryl! I am trying out the tape transfer on you”

SO glad you did – I’ve been all smiles Sweet Pea – Thank you .  I’m still laughing at the ‘mini-fabs’ message – no, S.P. – they’re fab FABS :-)))

 

Mail Art Received last week of January 2011.

 

One of Marie's beautiful envelopes arrived on a windy January afternoon.  Hot and Sweltering, A red afternoon. Here its a red evening in Tokyo.  The heat is even reflected in the floor. 

I'm glad to say the holes are not over either :-)  I think red seeps through this man hole in Japan right the way through to my home.

This piece arrived in one of Marie's handmade envelopes - made from a map of her area in France. And a collage, featuring a  red fish. :-)

I love the notes that accompany Maries work - they are for me VERY much part of her art.

Marie posted photos of this work on her IUOMA page - the comments were great there too.

 

Mail art received 1st week in January 2010.

The Detective Story of the Traveling Hole:

There once was a tiny, comic little man who just WOULDN’T be put in a box – a box with all the other hilarious people on his strip.   So this French lady in Japan decided to frame him.  The story gets a bit murky here – WHAT exactly  he was responsible for aside from severe aggression issues remains a mystery.  Anyway, he boxed and pummeled his way out of most front and center situations she placed him in. The only thing left (aside from capital punishment) was to deport him.  So off she sent him to all corners of the globe , with instructions to the recipients of this tiny, little comic man to “please open the hole if it is closed”.  I suppose that’s so he can breathe?

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mail Art received Last Week of 2010.

There are but few men on the earth.  And they have no roots.  The wind blows on and through them.  Life is hard she said.   If he could have, The Little Prince wouldhave taken the desert flower I am certain, and pressed her between the pages of
his favorite book.  He would have kept
her forever, wild I am sure.  Because the
fox said, “you become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed”.  

 A paradox I feel.

Accompanying her beautiful page is a note from Marie.  Take the time toread it, and think about The Little Prince. 
Remember. “One sees clearly only with the heart.  What is essential is invisible to the eye”.

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Mail Art Received 6th December 2010
Sometimes one opens a package and the contents whisper. They tell you EXACTLY what to do with them.

I am making a book with Marie's fabulous mail art. I had asked her when next she was in the paper district to get me some Japanese paper for the cover - anything she liked. This see-through handmade paper is of the finest sort, a testimony to fine paper making skills. It is soft, strong and quite simply beautiful. Before we go any further the note - something I always look forward to!

The prototype book mark is for me! I may do as I please with the paper - o the joy. Lucky Tokyo? Lucky ME!

I was under instruction from the contents to make a cover before the next day was out. I did. Marie the book mark became a book marker. A Mark for a Cover. Front Cover.

Detail:

Back cover:

Hope you're happy! THANK YOU!! The Book has begun. I'm looking for titles now. Big in Japan is way to clumsy. When Paper Whispers?

Mail Art received 24th November 2010

A miniature book. Water falling in open hands of good grace, preferred above others.

Tears are water too, numbering our fears.

The ebb and flow between waters of friendship. To quietly hold your friend in front.

The Parcel of Verbal Promise.

No, S.P. You are in need of no lessons, you are making your way. Thank you.

Two Sanguine Super Heroins Sip Tea on a Rainy Day in Japan. They are joined by The Blue Crimson Giant.
Mail Art Received 15th November 2010
You know when you run your fingers over paper where a thousand fingers have been before. You know when you inhale the taste of another world. That is what Marie sent me.The place where the Giant is Blue. The place where he feels abandoned. The place where Babel has fallen. I am there. I am sitting
with the Giant looking over a world now populated with the results of
confusion.

Can this be where it all ends?

A desert where the language barrier is never crossed?
Beautiful, meloncholic work.

Mail Art Received 16th November 2010 in the drizzle.
I think its strange how in the middle of the rain I retrieve from my post box a joy from Marie about rain. A blue envelope on a grey day. A mountain for the top of a hill.

 

Marie sent me a note which told me she had made this triptych from her photographs taken on "a rainy day in Onomichi, a little city with countless temples"and thought of me. I would love to swop gold stars and tea with Marie in the real.

 

 

Yes thank you Marie - I fancy. The delicateness of the work and the intimacy of the piece take me straight away to a warm place as I sit right now in the rain.

 

 

Thank you Marie.

 

And then - a bonus - Rainy days and Mondays Never let me down.

 

 

How could the Monday be blue? This was in my post box.

 

 

Two views - Rain rain go away come again another day versus I'm singing in the rain, just singing in the rain, what a glorious feeling I'm happy again...

 

Thank you Rain Maker.

 

 

[Marie Wintzer]

No way! :-) amazing what you did with it, you make it look much much better than it actually is!
And sewing the leaf, OMG! Thank you, I think I'm the lucky one!

[Marie Wintzer]

I think your books are such an inspiration Cheryl, it just makes me want to do the same. In a different league for sure, but making them is very enjoyable.

[cheryl penn]

This is SUCH a beautiful work - I was getting overrun with superlatives and didn't like that!

[Marie Wintzer]

Thanks for putting up Cheryl, glad you like it. Hmmm, it looks like they tried hard to ruin the envelope at Wakoshi post office.

[cheryl penn]

Fantastic how material can evoke response - it goes back to the haptic discussion I suppose, and the curiousness of certain materials. Older papers have a magic that has been lost by the severity of modern paper production. Even most hand-made paper nowadays is machine made hand made paper - have you ever! But maybe we will go back there. You actually rescued that book Marie, and turned it into a work of art - breathed new life into a covering.

[Marie Wintzer]

Thanks! You know, I think it is all about the paper, it made it easier, I think I was just lucky to get my hands on that old book, or to enter that old book shop that was selling gorgeous old books ridiculously cheep.

[De Villo Sloan]

I just have to say, I've been coming back to Marie's TCG chapter here on Cheryl's blog for over a day now. I'm just struck by the beauty of it and the way it's going to contribute to the book. I have my chapter and will give some feedback what it means IMHO.

[De Villo Sloan]

Exceptional blog Cheryl! And Bifidus has a take on this too. I shall have to contemplate all this. Blue? Why?

[Bifidus Jones]

Great section for the Crimson Giant (now blue) book, Marie. I see the giant as being immobilized by the inability to communicate with others. Who has not felt like that before? Great universal representation, I'd say.

[Marie Wintzer]

Thanks for putting up, Cheryl, thanks for talking so nicely about it. It's true my Giant turned from Red to Blue. I'm a bit of a pessimist and it shows, I guess :-I
This book must have ben a hundred years old, I like the image of the thousands of fingers running on it, so nice picturing it!
And thanks for letting me be on the project, I feel very privileged!