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.

 

 

[cheryl penn]

I got this mail from Marie which I think really gives good insight into her work - with your permission Marie ' "Yes, it's got something to do with the blues of the giant, the difficulty to communicate with people in spite of the existence of a written code, language. Maybe because the "unwritten" code is equally important, but more difficult to sense. I live in a country where there a lots of unwritten rules, a strong sense of community, insiders/outsiders etc... hard work to decipher all this. It's about codes that you can't "see".
The paper is the cover of an old book, I liked it too, but it is the reason why I can't send the real thing to the other authors of the book, I just don't have enough of that paper, I feel really sorry about that. The little squares are the Tower of Babel, and the rest is done with carved rubber stamps.
(I'm loving Jellybean and the monkeys by the way!!)"
Thanks Marie, I always value the intent of the artist - its a better way to begin interpretation for me before haring off on ones own direction - this time we were both on the same page anyway!

A close up of the Tower.

[Marie Wintzer]

Thank you people!
The envelope is a page cut out from a magazine, it's a painting representing Mt Fuji. I like making envelopes, it's so easy and quick and rewarding.

[cheryl penn]

This one really talks to me too Jen. The envelope looks like a magazine/paper print - help Marie!! - but Marie made the envelope. As you say, the whole package is really beautiful x

[Jen Staggs]

What a beautiful, rainy moment caught in the facture and reception of artworks. The mountain piece is so evocative, I am calmed by it. Is is a painting on canvas? A linocut on paper? I wondered about the medium. So beautiful, and the triptych offers a beautiful warm glow too. Love the whole package!

[cheryl penn]

Seeing we're virtually swopping- two gold stars and a cup of tea for all of us here - you, me and DVS. We're making a huge world-triangle in the rain x

[Marie Wintzer]

It looks like the second stamp fell off during the trip, ahlalaa, this postal service....
We'll have to swop gold stars and tea in the virtual world for the time being, but who knows?....

[De Villo Sloan]

Marie's triptych is beautiful. I also like the way you wrote the blog. I think this one is great - have returned to it several times.