RECEIVED: Asemics and Letter Art from Theresa Ann Alshire Williams (Bradner, Ohio, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Theresa Alshire Williams (Bowling Green, Ohio, USA)

 

August 20, 2011 - Theresa Ann Alshire Williams is a mail-artist who works in collage, poetry, and correspondence. This wonderful piece she sent me I believe describes through images and tonality a large portion of the mid-American landscape. The mail-art also reveals her increasing mastery of asemic writing. ("Kansas" was carefully wrapped in red tissue paper, which I included in the scan.)

 

For me, the images in the collage reflect the space and clarity of the physical landscape. As symbols, they express the dominant beliefs and values of the people who colonized that land and whose imported culture was changed by it, transformed into something else altogether.  Only in the more abstract images toward the bottom do I start to see a questioning - perhaps an opening deconstruction - of the images from the top.

 

I mentioned before to Theresa I thought her collage work was beginning to transform into visual poetry. The relatively minimal images are made far more complex by the overlay of asemic writing that, through its shapes, seems to seek integration with the images. She also included very nice pieces of correspondence:

 

 

I always appreciate receiving notes and letters. These give a sense what can be achieved with the form. After all, Ray Johnson founded a Correspondence School. First, Theresa presents the letter to Jim and then the letter to me commenting on it, an interesting approach.

 

The author Richard Brautigan is a major reference here. Theresa's writing mirrors what I think of as the journalistic, documentary style of Brautigan, or at least the part associated with Jack Kerouac in On the Road.

 

This ultimately ties "Kansas" to Theresa's correspondence: It strikes me as a communication from someone on that road, their thoughts of friends and fellow travelers intermingling with the landscape. The use of the typewriter (and Olympia is a brand as well as a place) strengthens the reference to that style and era.

 

This is a mail-art message with a great deal of resonance. I am thrilled to have received it. Many thanks, Theresa! I look forward to more exchanges. Theresa Ann Alshire Williams has a very interesting, ongoing correspondence project. It's definitely worth a peek:

http://theletterproject.wordpress.com/

[De Villo Sloan]

Has anyone seen the original black and white film made to promote Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues"? Speaking of the Beat Generation - Allen Ginsberg is in it and gives a humorous performance.

[De Villo Sloan]

I agree about the Siamese cat, Nancy. Dylan isn't known for a lot of popcult references and the real source is probably unknown. He definitely talked about the Cold War a lot, but specifically the potential for nuclear war, more along that line of that kind of paranoia. The stanza from LRS seems more like an echo from the more concise statement in "Subterranean Homesick Blues": "Don't follow leaders."

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Yep, you got me. There it is, can't believe it escaped me for one moment. I have big doubts about the connection to James Bond. Although plenty of Dylan imagery must refer either overtly or (more likely) covertly to Cold War paranoia and conspiracy theories because of his time (and talk about rich imagery!), what you've quoted below from Like a R.S. strikes me as more personal reference. And I could be wrong too.

[De Villo Sloan]

Nancy, think again about the Zimmerman masterpiece. Notice the reference to the Siamese cat in this stanza:

 

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

 

I've always felt that base image of the diplomat and his Siamese cat was taken from the James Bond films of the time. I might be wrong. S.P.E.C.T.E.R. and S.M.E.R.S.H. ( and the Ian Fleming novels are great) reflect not only Cold War paranoia but also international conspiracy theories that certain elements in the "red" camp and the "free world" camp were working in unison.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

It's time for supper, but whoa ... I know "Like a Rolling Stone" like ... anything in my house ... and Jelly Bean is not in there. He can't be. He'd have said something in response to Dylan by now. Now you make me sick with nostalgia just as it's time to eat.

[De Villo Sloan]

It's been niggling at me that I called Cheryl's crosspatches Persian cats. Are there such things? I've heard of Persian carpets. And I've heard of Siamese cats - places that no longer exist. Or is is Siamese carpets and Persian cats? I don't know. I think Jelly Bean appeared in the old James Bond movies, sighting on the shoulder of the guy from SMERSH - Dylan talked about in "Like A Rolling Stone." A very famous Siamese carpet.

[De Villo Sloan]

I agree, Nancy. A blog has run its course when I'm left here talking to myself. But, hey, from crosspatches to kaka, it was a good one. No point in horsing a dead beat, though.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Are you getting lonesome, DVS?

[De Villo Sloan]

It's a chinchilla. That's why they took the fur, to make a scarf or sweater

[De Villo Sloan]

cool possum!