TRASHPO: DO NOT THROW IN THE TRASH-HELP!?!

[Hilary Konrad]

hello all:

a while back I embarassingly but necessarily put it out there that I am totally a newbie and unaware of what all the cool kids are/have been for some time now up to, creating with, etc-and that is TRASHPO. But so now that I'm finally starting to dream about it, collecting constantly, clipping, gluing, etc etc etc-MY MOTHER KEEPS THROWING MY ART, CLIPPINGS AND PRECIOUS BITS AND PARTS IN THE TRASH! Anyone else have this problem? She's the type of mother who fills your cup before your last gulp and is ready with the scoop before the cat even arrives at the litter box-AKA: I feel like I'm going insane. I'll spend hours on something and then see it in the garbage covered in soup-I live sadly in a town that cut the funding for regular paper recycling a couple of years ago so in Kennebunkport, once your recycling is gone it's like landfill gone. ANY IDEAS?

[Hilary Konrad]

Awwww. Your apology is extremely kind-hearted and understanding. I'll admit you did scare me off. Off from making Trashpo perhaps but not for the reasons you might think. Your words also just made me stop and think too. I withdrew and and then also had other stuff on my mind.

I find it hard to make or participate in anything called or considered "art" when I feel fenced in. I do not believe in marriage or organized religion for my own life either, I just have always been called an artist and therefore pursue it from all angles when I feel inclined to. I am an eternal student and I look things up. I also sometimes forget looking things up and reading is maybe also just a little bit less important than the little bits of information you get from real people, AKA: YOU?

What I learned by myself about Trashpo was very limited, especially in comparison to the minimal things you have directly told me on this website thru comments and discussions. For example: I am so sorry for you and anyone connected in any way about Diane Keys having disappeared, that is serious stuff and I'm sorry for acting a bit playful about it all at first. 

Let's start over-oh, and by the way: from what little there is out there I liked it almost always had your name somewhere on it I swear it, every gosh darn time there it was! So yeah...like your style from what I saw. What's the next step-in your opinion, and in everyone's opinion? Can I still stick around and learn about Diane Keys, Trashpo, maybe even this Lord Plegm you mention, all of whom I know nothing about and have so far nowhere to learn it from tht I've found myself or know of-even if I still paint and draw and sometimes write traditional style too? What is your opinion on for one Intermedia and associated ideas linked with mail art and the original Fluxus concepts? Interdisciplinarity? Just curious. No need to apologize, and/but THANKS, you're all right by me.

And now? 

H.

[De Villo Sloan]

Dear Hilary Conrad, I am so sorry for telling you that you can't discuss Trashpo and need a permission slip from your mother. I was out of line and I don't mean to stifle someone with questions about Trashpo. Worse, you seemed to have listened to me!

Diane Keys just disappeared over a year ago and I don't know what to do without her on the Trashpo front. It's not your fault or the fault of the Trashpo Nuevo folks. Lord Phlegm died before she disappeared,

I did not mean to discourage you,

DVS

[De Villo Sloan]

When Diane Keys was the Queen of Trash here at IUOMA, every aspiring Trashpoet was assigned to a veteran, accomplished Trashpoet who was likely an Official Legend of Trashpo. Your mentor was called your "Trash Buddy." This system worked in the sense that we never had a Hilary and her mother situation.

Can some lurking "Legend of Trashpo" adopt Hilary Conrad (and her mother) and see them through this situation and others that plague new Trashpoets?

Please join my: HILARY CONRAD AND HER MOTHER NEED TRASH BUDDIES!

And no - I don't see Richard C as a desirable match for HILARY & Mom.

[De Villo Sloan]

Dear Hilary Conrad, please desist from creating "Trashpo" or engaging in aesthetic discussions of Trashpo until you have an (authenticated) letter granting permission from your mother. The letter should be posted publicly on your IUOMA-Ning. You can have it notarized to establish your mother wrote the note.

How can I do this? Because I was close to Diane Keys. Diane believed in motherhood & the power of the gynarchy. DK wants your mother to approve of Trashpo, DKonrad.

The problem is Hilary's mother, not Hilary. Trashpo is collected by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Hilary's mother needs to contact MOMA and apologize for destroying Trashpo. I have the address. I think the woman in the archive collects Trashpo.

[Richard Canard]

10.12.20 Dare Ms. Hilary Konrad,.....I remember from my early high school days( l956 or l957) sitting in the local high school football stadium & hearing somebody in the crowd shout  "That was a beautiful tackle!" Immediately I was struck by the irony of of the phrase even though at that time, I doubt that I could have explained the meaning of "irony". Art covers a wide territory of human activity. Given anyone's own  personal  limitations of understanding,  compassion,  sensitivity, aesthetics, etc., etc.,(& in dealing with everybody or anybody & everything)---- it seems that it is all just "par- for- the- course". My habitual comeback nowadays ( & sometimes I have to shout it) is: Most people wouldn't know "a work of art" if it slapped them in the face...as it often does. SinCelery, Richard Canard

[Francis Lammé]

This one really gets to me. My dad threw away one of the biggest paintings I ever made, because it was in the way. His excuse was: I thought someone else made it. The main thing is: it was not yours to throw away. (?!?) I once spend a whole day coloring in all the pieces of pressed wood on a panel. My boyfriend sawed it up and turned it into a piece of furniture. Also: it was not his material to alter! This hurts deeply.

In conversations I like to turn it around and maybe exaggerate a bit. Saying things like: imagine I don't like your stuff or see it's value and thus I throw it away or paint on it? Can I draw mustaches on your pictures? How would it make you feel if I threw your collection (of the preciously stupid...) in the trash? I want to make it clear in all kinds of ways: my material is mine to do with as I please. You may not understand it, but unless it has mould on it, you can't throw it away. I am responsible for my stuff. I don't mess with yours. If you don't like it being in your space: put it on a pile/ box with my name on it. Please leave it to me to put it where it belongs. 

I hope that your mother will understand things better in terms of ownership and responsibility. Measuring stuff in terms of stupidity is too relative and therefor not a practical standard. 

Good luck!  

[Hilary Konrad]

Ummmm....Yeah. So I brought up this whole deal to my mother and her immediate answer was this:

"That's stupid."

My response to this was this:

"And?"

By "And?" I am just waiting for the rest of the reason because just saying something is stupid is not enough of a reason not to do it in my humble opinion...a lotta stuff is pretty stupid of course it is and that is not really the point here, to get out of doing anything by stating something so simple and unadorned to me is the stupid thing, no? I love my mum. She does what she can which is a lot. She fully supports mail art and any art I'm into she's into but honestly I don't think she would recognize art if she were entirely coated in it, at least not from the artist's perspective. Patrons to the arts tend to want to give me money for the work I do which is great I mean yeah I'll take it but it kind of changes the nature of the art that is being made when that type of exchange happens. She does not and will never understand this. She is a perma-adult and I do respect her as a mom and a human being but De Villo: I am going to have to forge my mommy's signature (which I'm disturbingly good at) on my Trashpo permission slip!!! Will I get kicked out of school? Well then so be it: detention, here I come...

[Hilary Konrad]

To De Villo Sloan:

Might I enter into this situation ALL of my mothers or only my biological one? Just wondering because I've got a few and they're all stellar mom figures and they're all incredibly different from one another...De Villo, I love your statement concerning Oedipal Trashpo and the isngular and sweet image you put forth what with butterflies emerging and what all...mostly because I feel like a thunderfooted ogre a lot of the time here on IUOMA amongst all you officianados and certified anti-artists...I do on another sort of note feel psyched and honored to be the baby here, since most of my life I've spent just trying to convince my friends family and associates that mail art is really a thing, that I'm not making it up, that yes it all DOES sound too good to be true but all you really gotta do is sign on and let the wind blow you one way or another and your in...in contrast to instagram and other sites like it, IUOMA is actually quite welcoming a place and welcoming of all kinds, even itty bitty newborn baby bombshells like myself.

My mother's full name is Dr. Shelley Cohen Konrad. Good luck finding her on the web-no, actually, I do think she does have an instagram page with like a picture of our dog on it or something, I'm not sure why she favors instagram over facebook or IUOMA both of which I consider to be much less competitive/snoooooze boring a platform than instagram but whateves to each her own.

I will-once she gets out of the endless barage of zoom meetings she takes part in daily this evening-attempt to engage her in said sort of permission slip so that I can officially begin my life with trashpo. She is not an artist or even the artist type by any means but she is the classic "patron-to-the-arts" figure and just might enjoy this whole song and dance-or she might give me her mom look of ice cold steel and turn the other way without a word and that will be that. I'll let you all know asap how it turns out-and De Villo, go on the net and harrass the shit out of her with art, I officially condone any/all art fueled escapades from here on out, let it begin! Back soon with more...Sincerely:H.

[De Villo Sloan]

In the last decade of Trashpo we never had a situation like this - Oedipal Trashpo.

Hilary Konrad is emerging into Trashpo like a beautiful butterfly. But Hilary needs a signed letter from her mother if she is to continue making Trashpo.

You can post the signed letter from your mother here. Hilary.

Diane Keys has three kids (or 4?) so mothers and daughters have been central to Trashpo.

What is the name of Hilary's mother?

[Hilary Konrad]

To Debra & De Villo Sloan:

First of all HAHAHA you two are the best. Debra, I both laughed out loud and felt some serious connections with you when you stated how so many psychaitrists just so happen to need therapy themselves- this is not just a wise statement but to those who deal daily as either patient (me) or daughter of (me) psych peeps-a seriously OBVIOUS one no one ever dares point out! Thanks for that. De Villo, as for getting my mom onto IUOMA well I'll need some further pointers for that one...one time I posted to my own brother's page an old pic of my mom jokingly playing a drumkit and headbanging (and on account of the headbanging and a strategic cymbal placement you CANNOT SEE HER FACE or tell who she is I might add)-without using her name or tagging her or anything well both me and my bro were in big trouble for that one...I try to tell her just how un-serious a place fb is and that no one cares in the end anyhow...she fully supports my dealings on IUOMA because it clearly fulfills me in a way her strict rules and Judaism she brought me up with never has but still even I as her daughter (who lives with her) have to schedule formal appointments just to talk about logistical roommate and family issues let alone ART! Art to her is secondary; I have to deal with psychaitrists as a patient only cuz I have a chronic illness and my medication list requires me to-but my REAL therapy comes from people like all you IUOMAers out there, my artist and non-artist friends-and anything art-related which to me is anything everything and nothing-I think you get my point: anti-art! When I caught her one day pulling brown paper bags out of my pre-clippings box (oh how I do love thee cardboard & brown paper bags forgettabout TrashPo uses, as a painter they're priceless and cheaper than canvas or archival paper) I followed her around until I could slam it in her face the statement that she had just without realizing the irony and beauty of it "TRASHPO'D HERSELF OUT" I laughed and she just crinkled her brow and went back to her job she hates dealing with other people's shit...I remember having to choose classes and a major back in my school days and I did take that psych class and after a week of it saw all the potential art and laughs that could come out of it and dashed myself off to the art department, doing my final senior project on absurd comic art some of which poked fun at how crazy I she we all were growing up. Anyhow thanks and cheers to both of you and De Villo-please let me know your proposed strategies I am terribly terribly curious and quite honestly I wish YOU were my psychaitrist right now, LOL!

Sincerely: H.