Catherine Petre's long-awaited mail art arrives to great fanfare ...

[Nancy Bell Scott]

... in that I whooped and hollered, I'm so thrilled with it:

To me this is a really fine work that includes elegance, contemporaneity + history, and mystery. The red and black/brown giving the face its soft-tissue structure and expression are a bold move, one that I find very successful.  The eyes are fascinating and enigmatic -- sometimes I see them as spookily blank, sometimes as cloudy, sometimes as full and absorbing.  It's amazing how they change, even in the time it takes for one good look.  Other mysteries include the AE sprinkled about that in the dark shadows looks as though it might be melting into something else, asemic -- but it's not certain.  It's a fantastic piece, Catherine, thank you so much!  I love it, and it will keep me thinking.

I'm also in love with Catherine's envelope.  Has it appeared in others' mailboxes?  I don't know, but it's a work of art itself.  I'd like a whole wall of them please!  The day it arrived it was raining here, and our postman was not careful -- the envelope got quite wet, and while I thought that too bad, it was also a relief to find that the work inside was not affected.  Of course, then what the rain did to the envelope's ink soon started looking like it was meant to be -- I mean, it's not to be helped that the envelope's long journey took it through rain by a sloppy postman, and now that is part of its meant-to-be spirit.  I'm posting the front, which got the wettest, and the back, which was not much affected:

 

Beautiful.  Thank you again, Catherine ~

 

 

[DKeys]

ahh, Thom that's hilarious. I will never look at it the same when one arrives in those "We care" envelopes

[Nancy Bell Scott]

It is hilarious and, alas, Thom deserves all the credit (see comment below mine).

[DKeys]

Mail art body bag----that's hilarious Nancy:)

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Some of them are great, though, Thom. A couple of years ago we received a little corner of a local-organization's newsletter in a tiny "body bag." Not only was it barely there, it was also four months late.

[Thom Courcelle]

Look at those amazing hand-made stamps! Nice blog, Nancy... and yes, I DEFINITELY believe that the postal system becomes part of the artwork. I think that's the whole point and challenge of mail art and why I like it so much--there's always the serendipity factor. I often used water-based pens in my artwork/mail art so that the possibility exists that it will be transformed into something new along the way. (Of course, it is also entirely possible for the postal service to go "too far" with its transformations... hate it when an envelope arrives in one of those little postal "body bags," torn to indecipherable shreds with the message from the post office that sympathetically declares, "We care...") (!)

[DKeys]

most ingenious use of stamps I've stamp. Love everything about this Catherine!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Isn't it, though. And there's a lovely note from Catherine on the back, too. Yes, Lesley, "happy accident" is exactly the right term. Always love those -- as if we don't experience enough surprises with mail art itself, we have the happy accident to look forward to occasionally as an added bonus. Traveling artwork is bound to have them ~

[Lesley Magwood Fraser]

Oh and the artwork inside this envelope is WONDERFUL! Painted faces always jump out at me.

[Lesley Magwood Fraser]

I find that often the collaboration between the rain and the envelopes adds excitement to the work - Happy accidents!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Thanks, Marie and Catherine.

You know, Catherine, the more I look at the front of the envelope, the more the "shadows" created by dampness mirror the kind of shadowing of the face in the art piece.  hmm ...