Mr. Twig and his Big Step, the Mr. Twig Studies, his artist's vision, and his artist's as-yet fruitless instructions: by David Stafford, who has the patience of a saint

[Nancy Bell Scott]

David sent me a huge box with the incredible following items back in March. The tale's main subject, Mr. Twig himself, reveals a tentative but brave grace as he starts up David's watercolor-painted stairway into a cave marked The Secret of the Ages: 

The painting is 14"x14", and Mr. Twig is haptic. He is real and strokable. And he is on his way up into something many of us seek but who would tremble in the face of this most profound of opportunities. David's note describes his vision of Mr. Twig's past (stuck in a Gap box in "Nancy's Garage," quietly gathering dust) and Mr. Twig's future (immolation, at the unlikely hands of myself). The Gap box and the note: 

(The Oil Painting book, from 1943, that David also included is wondrous--I love it and posted a full scan of the cover in a past blogjam.)

Before discussing Mr. Twig's fate (yes, I have had wine and had a friend over), here are the intimate, glorious, and well-thought-out Mr. Twig Studies: This mail art made the month of March. It just...made it. It's so inventive and far out, and caused laughter and trepidation in the household for many weeks.

However, I have not set Mr. Twig on fire. Yet. Why not?

1. Something like Superglue is sticking Mr. Twig to the watercolor paper, and explosion is a very remote possibility.

2. Do we really want a fiery exit to be the result of our search for The Secret of the Ages? What example would that set? (Really, David, maybe you should try MY meds.)

3. Possible fear of fire, from age 9, when I leaned over the stove in flannel pajamas to get the Cheerios for breakfast, sat down at the table, and saw + felt my pajama top burst into flames. Great place to keep kids' food, but that's irrelevant, although it did mean inability to use the Bunson burner a few years later in science class, so ... 

4. Mr. Twig has found his way into my heart. How many people or creatures you love do YOU set on fire?

In a holding pattern for many weeks, not yet willing to dispatch this guy to the ether and therefore also unable to blog the art of the fiery exit, I sent David two cool old matchbooks, and asked him to keep one for himself. The other he was to send back to me as the chosen sacred one with which Mr. Twig's time on earth would end--a pretty cheap throwing the ball unfairly back into his court, in my own opinion!

David hasn't yet sent back a matchbook, probably because he was just about to take off on some dizzying trip to the Continent. Or maybe he got tired of waiting for me to do my duty and then blog it. Maybe he isn't even speaking to me! :--} (We know that's not so.) In any case, it is in fact the plan to carry out his wishes, and if and when that happens it will be documented in a separate blog. I just don't know when.

Thanks again, David, for this stupendous mail art, one of my top all-time favorites!
 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Ah, finally the camera worked and the first blog photo, a closeup, is bigger and clearer. He is hanging on the wall now and seems happy. Here he is in context of a little stretch of the wall:

 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Thanks for your two cents, Svenja. He may belong on the wall, forever about to discover The Secret of the Ages but never actually encountering it, just giving in to permanent suspense. He IS one cool guy.

[Svenja Wahl]

I love it! You can't burn Mr. Twig, Nancy, he's way too cool!!

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Oh no, please no apology, David--I was 100% kidding, and believe I deserve nada for taking so long to blog Mr. Twig. But anyway, the blog gets finished, an hour later the mailman comes, and he leaves a great card from you! (Vegas, San Jose.) Zero rush on anything at all--I know too well the pressure of the blogjam, and know you're in one. Take it easy.  

[David Stafford]

Nancy, I'm sorry....I've got a blog jam going here and it's just beginning to unravel. I have not forgotten about your matches and everything....It's just that I want to catch up with the blogs before I resume normal mail art production. (things sent in the interim or sent from Europe may be classified as actual postcards, not mail art.)

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Ah, an understanding heart in you, Stephanie! Maybe David will release me from the unsigned contract if enough people implore him. I will follow the artist's final wish.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Scans of box top, hopefully readable: 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

All items in this blog arrived in a box 18" wides, 15" deep, and 13" high. The box top, very fun mail art all by itself: 

(Some of these photos are dam small because the cheap camera does not cooperate and so I resorted to the laptop's photobooth camera, which I now know issues woefully small photos. But better than none.)