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]

Nancy, we used to be so cruel (but not any more). When Cheryl joined last year she posted pics of her crosspatches (and they really are beautiful I think Persian cats). I almost had her convinced that in the US they were considered possums. But she's too smart and has been here anyway, but I had her going.

 

Theresa, I was wondering if birds were slang for women. Back in the era of the FAB Four - Beatles - that was British slang for girls. Such as the song "And Your Bird Can Sing." or Franz Kaka was not particularly popular with the birds.

[De Villo Sloan]

Theresa, as affirmed by the comments, the bird names are great. John Bennett was on a kaka kick a few months back; it is very primal. I thought of its a typo Franz Ka(f)ka

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Gee I don't know, DVS, it's all South African to me, but I totally agree: being an oxpecker has got to be a lousy experience. Can't think of anyone who would enjoy it, except possibly my mother. Crosspatch, now that I like!

[De Villo Sloan]

SA slang seems to be Austin Powers meets Prince Charles meets Crocodile Dundee on Gilligan's Island.

[De Villo Sloan]

Nancy, I'm fairly wrung out with all this South African chatter about ringing birds. I think we might be missing something, as I'm only beginning to understand "popping" and "gumboots," which I think are equivalent to "rubbers" or "galoshes." I would think being an oxpecker would be a lousy experience. What we call cats, they call crosspatches or something. I would like to see a monkeypecker, think they have those?

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Do you mean radio-tag them? There was once a cockroach I recommended for that.

[De Villo Sloan]

Those that are extinct. We call them dead ringers. They have a complex pecking order.

[cheryl penn]

Hey! I repeat I never ringed it! Do you ring birds in America???

[De Villo Sloan]

we have woodpeckers - really

[Lesley Magwood Fraser]

Oxpeckers are birds we get here in Aaaafrica - they sit on the backs of buffalo and peck stuff that they find on the buffalo....insects and things. Cheryl is oxpecking her mail art I suppose picking up bits and pieces that interest her and nourishing her.