RECEIVED: Vispo Collage Mail-Art from Thom Courcelle (Seattle, Washington, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by Thom Courcelle (Seattle, Washington, USA)

 

July 21, 2011 - Thom Courcelle is a versatile mail-artist. I gather from his excellent new blog postings at the IUOMA that he is conversant with many types of art that flourish in the network, including collage, asemic writing, and visual poetry.

 

The wonderful postcard-size piece he sent me uses favorites including maps, text fragments, and ripped collage that work together to suggest a narrative - ultimately a clever piece of visual poetry.

 

We have some wordplay: Iceburg is usually spelled Iceberg (acknowledged on the reverse side). We have the precision of maps contrasted with accidents of nature that cannot be predicted as well as a retro-seafaring setting he creates. This piece is great fun and keep drawing me back for more speculation. Thom Courcelle has beautiful handwriting and sends very nice notes. A great reverse side:

 

Many thanks, Thom! I look forward to more exchanges.

[De Villo Sloan]

Thanks Thom, I always appreciate it when the mail-artist shares their intent and/or the genesis of the piece. Do you see what these sleuths can do? A few of us were hung up on that iceberg thing. I didn't want to mention it, but there's also a brand of lettuce, Iceberg Lettuce, and I wasn't sure if it was some traspho, found material. The seafaring theme is great, and I get the connection to your part of the world. I thought of shipwrecks; my mind also drifted to "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" - so many possibilities. This piece just seemed to beg for a narrative to frame it, yet it's elusive, probably makes the work more inviting. Nice one. Thanks again.

[Thom Courcelle]

Thanks for posting, De Villo!  As for being conversant, I have my moments of being inspired, I suppose, for sure.  It’s easy when there are so many amazing artists here constantly sending their works out into the postal universe.

That “IceBURG” collage scrap was originally a clothing tag that came off a cheap fleece vest that I bought at a country store in Port Angeles, WA (on the Olympic Peninsula).  I knew that the spelling was different, and didn’t know what to think of it at the time, outside of using it for a quirky graphic addition.  I AM a HUGE fan of word-play, however, especially cross-cultural and cross-language-barrier kinds, ala such masters as Hélène Cixous, among others. 

It is SEAFAIR here in Seattle--a month-long celebration of  maritime history.  So the pirate ship seems apropos at just this time.

[Marie Wintzer]

I recently found out that you also have Table Mountains in South Africa!

[De Villo Sloan]

Oh, yeah, Johannesburg - forgot the obvious. Next to Monkeyville

[De Villo Sloan]

Thom actually drove me to investigate the difference between "berg" and "burg" - without any real conclusions. A lot of town names in the US end in burg: Trumansburg, Winesburg - or maybe in SA you could have Grootsburg.

 

SH, thank you for pointing out the great pic of the ship.

 

Interesting comments - Thom's card seems to want to be a story but I can't give it one yet.

[cheryl penn]

Berg in Afrikaans is a mountain - Ice Mountain :-) - but I guess you knew that ;-) X  What happens if paper ships run into text mountains I wonder.

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

kickass pirate ship!