Volume #18 in Sharon Silverman's 50 Mail Art Books Project (Massachusetts, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Collab book by IUOMA member Sharon Silverman (Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA)

& IUOMA member De Villo Sloan (me) (Auburn, New York, USA)

 

 

 

October 5, 2019 - Sharon Silverman is a visual artist from Massachusetts, USA, widely admired in the Eternal Network. She also has a talent for creating, managing and documenting mail art calls of great inclusiveness and depth, a rare skill that is always needed. Her Face of Jesus call (do not be dissuaded by the title!) - now concluded - is worth your perusal; documentation can be found online.

 

More recently Sharon Silverman has launched another ambitious project that is producing impressive results. For instance, I think her book series collabs with Nancy Bell Scott are fabulous.

 

Sharon plans to publish no less than 50 collaborative books. At the time of this writing, I estimate she is approximately half way through the editions and that participation is a "hot ticket" in the network; but you can contact her if you are interested. Here is her call from IUOMA-Ning:

 "I am inviting MailArtists to send me 10 original pieces of work. Any theme. Artwork must be no larger than 8.5 x 11 inches. I will scan your artwork and combine it with 10 pieces of my work and create a one of a kind MailArt Book for each of us. I have done 7 [outdated] books so far and would like to work with as many Artists as possible. I will mail your original artwork back to you with your book. Mail to : 50 MailArt Books, c/o Sharon Silverman, P.O. Box 1212, Haverhill, MA 01831 USA."

 

 

 

 Collaborative book by Sharon Silverman & De Villo Sloan

 

 

I have admired Sharon Silverman's work for a long time, so I sent her a sequence of ten concrete visual poems (with asemics!) for the new project. I received this book via snail mail, and I assume documentation will appear in some form online. (However this is a HUGE effort she is undertaking, I understand, so participants will hopefully help share in the documentation.) I am thrilled with the pieces Sharon Silverman made in response to my sequence. As is my usual practice, I will not reproduce the book entirely. I will present a healthy selection of excerpts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                        Collaborative book by Sharon Silverman (left) 

& De Villo Sloan (ghostly concrete right)

 

 

 

 

 Sharon Silverman (left) & De Villo Sloan (right)

 

 

 

 

                                                    Sharon Silverman (right) & De Villo Sloan (left)

 

 

 

 

 

 Sharon Silverman (left) & De Villo Sloan (right)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sharon Silverman (left) De Villo Sloan (right - asemic writing)

 

 

 

 

 Sharon Silverman (right) De Villo Sloan (left)

 

 

 

  By Sharon Silverman

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jayne Barket Lyons]

Nicely presented, DVS! Wow, Sharon has cleverly combined art which is quite simpatico with what you submitted. Everything jives so beautifully! Love the colors! Of course you know I'm a huge fan of your concrete poetry / asemics works, and I am glad to gain knowledge of Sharon Silverman's artistic talent.

A while back I had seen the fabulous book NBS did with Sharon, and I knew that I wanted to participate. But somehow I forgot all about the project. So thank you for sharing your wonderful book. You have reminded me of this project, and I am setting out to create 10 pieces of artwork to send to Sharon.