WHY - from Nancy Bell Scott

[Marie Wintzer]

I have received this wonderful piece by Nancy a few weeks back. Life hasn't been a long quiet river for her recently, and I know that this work was her first attempt at getting back to art, at finding her feet in the studio again, so I'm really touched and honored that she thought about me. 
Nancy is making great use of what I call her "islands", and to me this work is about connections being made and being broken. The inevitable cycles of life. Islands and continents drift apart, rifts deepen and fissures extend (sometimes abruptly and violently). At the same time new ties are created, new elements are added to the chain of interactions (what I see on the left of the card). WHY, well, I don't need to go there, you know that WHY that is relentlessly trotting in your mind some days...
I know Nancy is starting to send out mail again, and for what I have seen it is as fab as it ever was, I am really looking forward to more correspondence with her. Muchly arigatoo my friend!

[De Villo Sloan]

Nancy, well-written & excellent contributions to the discussion. Cheryl & I seem to have an ongoing disagreement on this intent-interpretation issue, which might be the result of us not completely understanding each other. I did not mean to polarize the discussion by suggesting you support my point at Cheryl's expense, although I think you support my point at Cheryl's expense because Cheryl's point is untenable.

 

Yes, Cheryl's projects are great. That's why I have partnered with her on several, if uou will recall. However, the fact that she organizes good projects doesn't mean she can't stubbornly hold an untenable position on another topic, such as intent-interpretation. Although I'm glad to join you in praise over her managerial abilities.

 

Yes, Marie. Art for me is "a meaningless mass of paint and ink." I haven't the slightest idea what will happen until I enter into the process. When I enter into the process I'm thinking about whether I should use a chunk of a cereal box here, splatter ink on it, or both. (If something is working on a subconscious level, that is something else.) I don't ever consider it might mean something because, to me, it doesn't. I want to finish fast or I'll get bored and not finish it. I imagine Cheryl and I really don't connect over intent-interpreatation because my own position is so extreme.

[Nancy Bell Scott]

What?! It's past 11 p.m. and the reading and writing started at 9? Stop being interesting, I need some sleep. 

[Nancy Bell Scott]

Earlier conversations, I don't know enough about to be a part of now.

DVS, you're identifying with just one part of my "viewpoint"--probably the one most often at the forefront when I work. Generally, I like that broad approach, which to me means other people's responses to an artist's work are extremely valuable and valid, and I do not feel cheated if people get something valuable to them out of a work that was done with different intent in mind. Actually, I count on that and am very, very interested in it.  

But this is not a comment or judgment on others' approaches to art or mail art.  Cheryl does incredibly fine and thought-provoking work--I think she's amazing--and in everything she does I see intent. It may not be immediately identifiable, but that's one reason I love it--her work at first sight sparks imagination and thought. She makes you want to know exactly what she had in mind, and she makes you want to search for it. Her work strikes me as very purposeful yet without there being a precise and obvious intent that could be put into one sentence (or even fifty).

This is one reason I'm drawn to projects initiated by Cheryl. She somehow leads you to develop your own intent and work from it. Not that I can't or don't do it on my own, but she inspires me to do it more often than when left to my own devices. You also have a ton of inspiration and understanding to offer, which is why your thinking about any works you comment on always interests me, without fail, plus you actively and verbally encourage people to explore new media and methods when you perceive potential in a certain direction, which you're very very good at.

Hey, I'm just lucky to have found this place, meaning IUOMA, when the "real" art world around me is so full of crappola. It has its moments, but its philosophy is often lacking as is the way of life artists often end up pursuing because of it. 

[Marie Wintzer]

Who doesn't like a pinch of provocation with their morning coffee? Hmm, I'll be hiding somewhere when Cheryl wakes up ;-))

[De Villo Sloan]

Lorsque le mur sombre fait un nouveau chef-d'œuvre, il se demande «Qu'est-ce que je peux faire ce que va honorer la vérité et la beauté de ma fleur de cerisier?

[Marie Wintzer]

You have NO intention when you make something, that cannot be true, DVS!? So you're saying your art is just a meaningless mass of paint and ink! that cannot be true....

[De Villo Sloan]

Jumping back a few spaces. I also appreciate what Nancy wrote and identify with her viewpoint. I have no intention when I make something, so I have trouble comprehending Cheryl, who must go into it with some intention in particular.

[Marie Wintzer]

It would be pointless stealing street signs here. You would have a collection of 654-7-34-21 and 1072-54-4378-4 etc.....

[vizma bruns]

Thoroughly interesting comments.

[De Villo Sloan]

CB, I thought you'd like those NYC shots. In one of the comments, I had to laugh, someone reported one of the streets has been re-named "Joey Ramone Place" (of THE Ramones) and it's the most popular street sign to be stolen in the city. And I DID think of your Tokyo shots. That late 1940s jazz scene gave birth to the Beat Generation that gave birth to... and that was Ray Johnson's world too.