In PetrolPetal's heart Richard Canard is always #1 (South Africa)

[De Villo Sloan]

                                    Mail art by IUOMA member PetrolPetal (Kwa Zulu Natal, South Africa)

 

 

February 19, 2020 - Our hearts fluttered when we spied in the Glam Faction post office box this beautiful envelope from the FAB PetrolPetal in sunny South Africa.

 

Do Glamsters know South Africa is one of the happening places in the world for mail art? Cheryl Penn's South African Correspondence School seems to have launched the SA New Wave a decade ago. Since then, many artists have distinguished themselves. PetrolPetal is certainly among the faves.

 

The prolific PetrolPetal (PetPet?) is less familiar to us than old friends like Cheryl Penn, Lesley Magwood Fraser and Cuan Miles (to name but a few). We have admired PP's work from afar. And this piece is purr-fect for the Glam Faction. Welcome PetrolPetal! Thank you so much!

 

We adored the outside of this piece and discovered it is essentially a wonderful example of envelope art. (Nothing inside.) During our investigation we discovered an address underneath our address like a magic door:

 

 

 

Mail art by PetrolPetal (Wilton, South Africa)

 

Oh dear, PetrolPetal seems to have intended the piece for the grand Richard Canard! (Must we be condemned to dwell in his shadow?) Then due to a change of heart or a spell of shyness (we can only conjecture) our PetrolPetal changed her mind and sent the piece to Glam Faction.

 

Well, we feel fortunate to have the work. But we feel like the prom date who discovers s/he was a second choice. A "valuable life lesson" to you Glamsters: Sometimes mail art can feel like a popularity contest; so hide your tears and smile. Those awful MinXus folk said, "It's all about who has the best hair." Now we understand. You see, the piece has a romantic theme. Here is the reverse side:

 

 

Mail art by PetrolPetal (South Africa)

 

Beyond the broken hearts, party invitations and dance partners - it is about the art! And this work by PetrolPetal is great!And even more confusing (is this some kind of a&p?):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Same here, it turns out. Under my address on piece from PetrolPetal is the address for Margreet (Beemsterboer) of Netherlands. The piece is getting wispy, but I'm removing my address and sending it on to Margreet. 

[Yayoi S.W.]

DVS and Carmela, 

I also received the fab piece from PetrolPetal recently and after hearing what you are saying I had to check the magic door of mine. It actually has 1 + 1/2 addresses, Alicia Gil of Spain and another with the last name Sharp in Oklahoma. (It’s half piece of address) 

Interesting....I would like to know what PP’s instruction (if any) is. 

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Carmela.

Do I remember Monsieur Enfeebled? You missed my blog where he sent me an inked impression of his penis which now follows me everywhere on the internet. I'm pretty open to art but not wild to encourage penis stamps. How did he remove the ink? Otherwise, I think he's an excellent artist.

As for PetrolPetal. Yes, I'm coming around to the view that via the magic doors she has created a really cool add & pass concept. 

The Richard Canard cult of personality blinded me to larger conceptual points.

Would love to hear from PetPet on her intention!

Luc Fierens pointed out to me that Cheryl Penn did not invent SA mail art. No contest here. But both Cheryl & PetPet come from Kwa Zulu Natal (sort of a province?). So there's a connection/

Enquiring Glamsters want to know.

[Carmela Rizzuto]

DVS--just to let you know that I received a postcard from PetrolPetal recently. It is somewhat similar to  yours (I have not posted it yet). When I flipped open the 'magic door' of my address I found the address of Monsenhor enVide neFelibata of Portugal, mail artist and puppeteer (remember him?) I don't know if there is a meaning to these hidden addresses, perhaps it's the 'thrill' of discovery, or the stimulation of curiosity, or a prompt to send mail to that address--but it did make me smile and re-visit neFelibata's web site.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

It sounds like the blog format is now seen by the larger world as passe, like email? Everything, especially attention, is getting shorter and shorter. I just don't get the appeal of that path. Having never been on FB, I wonder why your blog and others' mail art photos are being banned there. Strange, at least from this distance. Anyway, I enjoy your blogs, including the serious analysis ones, but this Glam Faction one is so witty that I just couldn't not say so --

  

[De Villo Sloan]

Thank you. NBS!

I know these recent blogs are a departure from the IUOMA-Ning blogs I've done for years, which tended to be serious analysis.

What's happening is that I'm re-posting my Glam Faction blogs here. Glam Faction is a mail art blog to replace the 3 iterations of the MinXus-Lynxus blog.

Of course, blogging is not the growth genre that it was a few years back. But I like the format even if the mob has moved on to Instagram, Pinterest etc. and mail art documentation is now a single-hit affair involving views of a few seconds. And my blogs have themes.

Unfortunately, Glam Faction was banned on Facebook at a crucial time. And I was getting most of the traffic from FB.

So I post Glam Faction at IUOMA-Ning so at least other artists will know it exists. IUOMA-Ning remains an island of salvation, which is getting a bit crowded, but that's ok.

The internet seems to be growing less and less free. thx again

And Asemic Front is a separate blog.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Great blog, DVS. It made me laugh out loud in the middle of this night of insomnia. Several times, in fact. Made it worthwhile to actually give up on sleep and get up!