new Queens, old JFK, new correspondences

Its the end of the year, things have moved on, things have stayed the same, things are the different and they are the same as well.
The festive period is over, the new year is still to come, but I know that it will be great. I am a firm believer in living each day to its fullest, work hard and play hard.
I have chosen to show the aerial view of JFK's funeral as it is one of my favorite images from this year, it captures my idea of the idea of the sublime.
I am planning big ideas for 2011, I have been obsessing over the idea of correspondence, and what this means to us all, the idea of actually writing, not emailing or texting but actually writing; putting pen to paper, to feel the ink flow, the nib pressed into the surface, absolute bliss. Not quite as good as drawing on the soles of your slippers with a Bic Biro when you were a kid, but nearly.
The year ended on a high with the Au + Ag show at Trove in Birmingham, with Justine Moss, the show looked great, glitter, gold, candles. I have also started to think about pushing the Queens further, maybe taking them to Queens, New York, I live in a certain dream world sometimes.

Au + Ag , Show at Trove, Birmingham

The show at Trove has just opened, it was so exciting. I went up on the Thursday for the opening, it was the coldest night I have ever experienced, it was -7 degrees, but this didn't deter the art viewing public of Birmingham. I was really happy with how the glitter on the floor worked, people walking through it and then walking it across the gallery, one of Justine's old friends footprints are a great memory of where he walked.
I am obsessing about the idea of the trace, a memory of where you've been, that has a physical reminder in place. There was glitter tracked out to Newhall Square and beyond. I would love to have covered the gallery floor completely, but that would require big sponsorship.
The glitter took on a life of its own, it behaved like a liquid under your feet, almost like a safe version of mercury.
I thought the candle lit framed images where representational of family portraits on a sideboard or pianoforte, very Victorian.

The Royal Family and Sequins.

Here are 2 new Images for the show Au + Ag at Trove, Birmingham, with Justine Moss. I am very interested in interfering with the surface of imagery, these are just 2 examples of this idea. They are found postcards (my friend Annabel Dover found them, thanks Annabel !) with silver sequins on the cards and then another layer of sequins on the glass, the sequins are deliberately miss-placed, off-centre in the second layer. I have always liked the heightened/altered/adulterated colours of postcards, the 1970's is a particularly rich source of inspiration and colouring. I have put them in some of the cheapest frames I could find, the dodgy chrome-look really appeals to me. The idea that traditionally, images of Royalty are painted in oils and in Baroque hand-carved and hand-gilded frames and I am re-inventing, to a certain extent, these ideas.
I have made a few of these and reckon I have stuck on a couple of 1000 sequins, the smell of glue pervades my studio now.

Lawrence of Arabia and the snow

My partner loves the snow, always wishing for it, waiting for it and then being over excited when it arrives. He was out and about in it at 7.30 this morning, he has made snowballs, snowangels and I guess, any minute now, a snowman. The cat and I hate the snow, we are trying to stay warm by sharing body warmth snoozing in bed. I am reading books about the desert in a vain attempt to conjure up some warmth in my bones, I dream of the Namibian coast line and of Lawrence of Arabia. In particular the scene where Omar Sharif's character rides out of the desert in one long shot that takes about 5 minutes from its mirage-like starting point to his arrival at the camera. I can feel the shimmering heat now, bliss.

Trove, Goldsmiths and Dust.

I spent the weekend on a gallery site visit to Trove in Birmingham, had a great conversation with Charlie Levine. We spent ages talking about our love of glitter and, my own personal love, postcards and how the postal system is a complete mystery to us, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Often not working if you try to post anything with HRH Princess Diana on, I have discovered, anyway I digress. The visit was very productive, we talked about the placement of the works and the use of the original plinths that have been left behind from the Old Science Museum exhibits. My friend JR remembers that this room contained a full size railway engine, I can only imagine the wonderousness of this.
Charlie and I also talked about how when the Gold and Silversmiths of the Jewelry Quarter sold up, they would sell the floors separately as this is where the slivers of precious metal end up. The floors would then be burnt and the metal salvaged. They also banned the use of Brilliantine on the goldsmiths hair as the workers used to wipe their hands full of gold dust on their hair, the dust would stick on and when the workers got home they would wash the gold right out of their hair, supplementing their income. I like this idea of trace, moving a miniscule amount of the world around.

Tape,tornados and Tory-blue stitches

I think my friends are jinxed.
This week my sister returned to where her car was parked and discovered it was all taped off with crime scene tape, she thought the worst, however it turned out a tree had fallen on the main power cable into town. So the police, the fire brigade, the electricity board and the council where all looking at it and all she wanted was to get home to her friday pizza tea. They eventually let her move her car, the tree got moved this morning after consultation with all of the above and the land owner ! Pfaff.
My friend H was having a haircut at her friends, a mini-tornado struck, the green house lifted off, they rushed out to rescue it, a concrete tile flew off the roof and hit H on the head she got rushed to hospital and now has 6 Tory-Blue stitches in her head, then she came in to teach drawing, hard-core. I relayed this story to my sister who suggested H wears a crash helmet and to disguise its rather ungainly lines by sticking on a moose, a birds-nest and some eggs ! I have no idea where she gets her ideas from.
I now can't even talk to my other friends just in case.

Amsterdam

Everyone else I know, well nearly everyone, have gone to Amsterdam for the week. I have been on that particular trip 13 times now, so I have experienced most of what Amsterdam has to offer. I have stood infront of the Vermeer's and been overawed by their beauty and wonderousness. The physical scale of Van Gogh's paintings has always astounded me, their intimacy, their colour, this does not come across in reproduction, the images of the cherry blossoms trees are a particular favorite of mine.

Men in Brogues

I have a wish, desire, possible fantasy about men in Brogues. Men wearing proper shoes is very nice, very sexy and very right. Please.

Things in threes

They say that things come in threes, so far this week I have had a broken washing machine, a flat tire (caused by a maliciously placed screw) and some one has cloned my credit card. So I am slipping into a state of melancholia, so have decided to be very Edwardian and take to my bed for the rest of the winter. I feel that this is the safest place to be, I am never going to get money out of the bank, drive anywhere or do any laundry ever again. I think that this is for the best, as I feel that I have the opposite of the Midas touch now. I am wondering whether I should even be using my lap top or even thinking about that might jinx it.
I feel some slippage might occur, but I have a show in Trove in Birmingham to focus on, so this is what is keeping me out of my bed. I am applying silver to my entire world, but I have always liked silver in all it forms.

Mistley viewing

I have been to my friend J's house today, discussing our forthcoming show in the Trove Gallery in Birmingham. We did talk about silver glitter being all pervasive and gold-leafed suitcase interiors. We also talked about; her neighbours' dog who left muddy footprints on the newly washed kitchen floor, the beagle who made whooping barking noises and the man who walked by with a huge rucksack and a pram full of what looked like a life times belongings and the large lorry with an enormous tree on it. She has a great way of working, upstairs in the morning with the sunshine and then downstairs in the afternoon with the passers-by walking their dogs and the view. Then we came back to gold words on newsprint, silver point drawings of Queens, candle-lit interiors and torches. It was a great afternoon, thanks J!

Funny Sister

Been busy this week. I had lots of coffees in Starbucks, where I overheard a conversation and all I can say is "Move to California ! Become an artist ! You will never regret it " to the old-before-his-time worrier who sat opposite me.
I saw my sister, who has dislocated her ribs again so she can't lift anything or drive very well, but she can't reverse her car anyway, so not a lot of difference there anyway. She also tried to have a shower but the water was cold, its only been 5 years now. She is the funniest person I know, odd-funny, funny-peculiar and funny-haha. She makes me and S laugh uproariously and smile wryly.

Sat-nav and silver on the moon

I have been writing on my other account about this internal sat-nav that I have. It is supposed to guide me through life and tell me when I have taken a wrong turning, tell me when to do a U-turn, all of those things that are a map to your journey. Mine is annoyingly, at the moment, getting it wrong. I am stuck up a blind alley with a cold and have no memory of how I got here and how to get out. It also seems to have got stuck on a weather girl voice over loop, permanently chirpy and smiley in the face of tornadoes.
I have just seen on ITV news that for technical reasons they can't do the weather today, that's because the weather-girl is running around in my head shouting out incomprehensible instructions to my cotton-wool stuffed head. I will try to get her out for the evening news.

And they have discovered silver on the moon, how timely is that.

Meetings and Museums and Taxidermy

I have spent today in meetings and museums, I have to say the latter was much more exciting. The museum here is one of the very few Victorian museums left. It is slightly dusty and the exhibits in the cases of the taxidermy animals and birds are brilliant. I always like the cases full of hummingbirds and parrots, the slightly squint eyed look that follows you round the room.
I have a particular passion for the more macabre exhibits, the snouts from the Swordfish, the seal where the stuffing is coming out, the Sea-eagle that is attacking a nest of chicks, the mummified cat that looks really surprised, the cagoul made of seal skin, the full knitted body suit from Africa, I could go on for hours !
I think museums and their contents are under-rated and we should celebrate their quirkiness. I love drawing in them, always seeing something new on return visits, looking and re-looking.

Sunday and silver

I have spent my Sunday doing exactly what I want. I have tried to think about how to make work about being quiet and calm. Not to busy and cluttered on one hand , but on the other hand complex and complicated. I have always tried to make my work out of these diametrically opposed thoughts. I have no idea wether or not I have ever been successful in this, but I try over and over again. I feel that this is what drives me forward everyday, to achieve this seemingly impossible ideal, or I might just change my mind and try to achieve something else in my art, maybe the perfect drawing or two.
I am hopeful of my success. At the moment my ideal of perfection is silver queens.

The deep south

I have been thinking about the Deep South recently. I am strongly influenced by my surroundings and, at the moment, these surroundings are representational of the deep south of the USA. It is hot, humid and a bit fetid. I keep imaging white anti-bellum mansions with wrap around porches approached by avenues of oaks with hanging moss. I have visited Savannah and I can see and feel the humidity still. I spend my days in a studio with very little air, lots of glass and as the day slips into evening the glass heats up and the studio gets warmer and warmer and more and more airless. This means I have to go to the pub a lot at the end of the day to quench my thirst, but mainly on lager and not bourbon on the rocks, maybe I should drink the latter more to recreate the south.

Awkwardly wanting to look.

I have just been reading about the sublime again, I am amazed at how often I am drawn to these ideas, as described by Joseph Addison in the early eighteenth century, as something "that fills the mind with an agreeable kind of horror".
I really like the idea of something that gives you the chills and also that frisson of naughtiness that gets you excited in ways you want to, most of the time, keep private. I have always been interested in that awkwardness of wanting to look but trying not to, because of your own prejudices or history.
I am obsessive about that awkwardness; to look or not to look; to re-look to make sure you weren't wrong in the first place: then that horror/shock/tremble of feelings that make you a bit hot under the collar and an inability to explain that rush of heat away.
Awkwardness is, for me, that agreeable horror of the sublime. I like teetering on the edge of what Wordsworth called "the blank abyss". I love the idea of these emotionless blank areas of life and thought, of being on the edge of these thoughts and where we can no longer say what is happening to our own thoughts.

Glitter and black paint

I have spent the afternoon working with lots of black paint in a darkened room, so why, oh why do I have gold glitter under my fingernails ?
Even if you worked in the most sterile environment in the world I am absolutely convinced there will be a single flake of glitter there, I am also convinced that at the end of world the last thing standing will be a little tower of glitter flakes.
If you open anything with glitter on it, it will get everywhere, you will end up sneezing it.
Going back to the black paint, I was working with students on tonal drawings in a dim and darkened room. I love the idea of blocks of tone on tone building up images with an idea of abstraction. Maybe drawings using blocks of tonal glitter should be my next port of call.

Silence by the sea

Sometimes in life you just need to hear silence, so my partner and I went up to Walberswick yesterday. We timed it just right, after September 30th so free parking and dogs on the beach, and before the rain drenched afternoon set in. We walked on the only sandy beach in Suffolk and then in a fit a rashness or intrepidness we went paddling in the sea. It was remarkably warm, well not really but my feet some became so numb it didn't matter. My partner is made of much hardier stuff than I so he stayed in for ages.
We then had lunch in the pub garden with someone else's dog tethered to our table (who was lovely), whilst the owners read a Paul Auster novella at a table some distance away.

wi-fi connections and my sister

My sister just phoned me up to declare that the magic wi-fi fairies had been in over night and her friend S had picked up this magic network on her phone. My sister was astounded that this modern technology had landed on the village that she currently resides in. I should say that the magic of telephonic communication and gas have only just arrived there. Anyway I digress, she was so excited that she had to phone my partner, who is on hand for 24 hour technical support, to gabble excitedly about this wonder; he had to deflate her somewhat by explaining there are no magic wi-fi fairies or pixies and infact he had installed it last time he visited. Her bubble was slightly burst but she parried well and asked if her friend S could be a PA in their new venture, as long as my sister had a longer job title in said new venture. I think some semblance of ,dare I say, normality, or at least a balance has returned to my sister, the village, S and above all to the magic wi-fi fairies.

Diving in the Desert

I hate the damp weather, it gets into your bones and keeps you cold till the spring.
I have always understood that Englishmans need to escape and go live in the desert. That need to experience the emptiness of the deserts, thousands of miles away from the green and lush lands of England. I am always amazed at the daredevil/heroic attitudes of those Victorian explorers, that devil-my-care attitude.
I have just re-read the book "Desert Divers" by Sven Lindqist, about people who drown in the wells of the Sahara, how do you compute that ? drowning in the desert were water is impossibly scarce, it is unbelievable.

Diligence and Obsessions.

I have been working diligently on some new ideas, I seem to be in an odd maelstrom of completely incompatible starting points. I am currently thinking about 70's patterns, the Twin Towers, airplanes, space missions, soap operas, dancing by myself and metallics. I have no idea how or why or when any of these ideas will conglomerate together or wether they will just coagulate like off milk. I also want to some how shoe-horn in my other peripheral obsessions for sleeping, eating marmite on toast and bears. Maybe these should stay on the periphery, all of these things may prove to much and over-indulgence might occur.
My life reflects this mixed bag of ideas, I have absolute obsessions that are all consuming for, in some cases, years and most likely months and then I have these bolt on ideas that consume me for hours or days that extinguish themselves really quickly and then I move on.

Beautiful paintings and Ewan McGregor

In London today I had two encounters with beauty, the first was at the National Gallery, I am always awed by the immensity of the wonderousness of those galleries. The second was Ewan McGregor being filmed under the OXO tower, he was looking very beautiful in a dapper suit.
A day of beauty in all its forms.

Tableau Tales

A bit like the Canterbury Tales, but not.
All of this week we have been recreating a variety of images, using nothing more than cardboard, sheeting, gaffer tape, pins, paint and a selection of charity shop finds. The results are nothing short of miraculous, they are exciting, interesting, innovative and very silly.
The participants, who only met each other 3 days ago have bonded over some poster paint, some very odd costume choices and a lot of laughs.
So today I have seen; a cross dressing Samson and Delila, a floating head Medusa, some very odd use of dark brown tights, The Charge of the Light Brigade in white leggings and martingales, a very cute Snow White (thanks A.P.), a lot of yellow body paint and some very brief red speedo's.
A great day overall. Thanks everyone.

Silver/Silver/Silver

Silver is great, it is shiny and dull and mirrored and subtle and kitsch and has inherent stories woven around it. I love the way that all silvers are different, some are almost golden, some are pewter like, some are grey, some look leaden, there are a myriad, a plethora of possibilities. Some silver is heavy, dense and weighty, it can be fragile and feather-like, woven into shimmering fabrics, it can be sturdy and strong, it can be made into the most delicate of jewelry.
Silver is seen as somehow lesser in the hierarchical precious metal charts. I am always looking to support the underdog, to champion the lesser cause. So by using silver I feel I am somehow doing that, pushing it to the cusp of beauty, teetering on the edge of greatness.
All-over silverness is mirror-like, reflecting the viewer in a distorted plane, so it its hard to see who is looking and at what.

Damp weather

I really dislike damp weather, why can't it make its mind up ?
Too hot for winter, too cold for summer, too damp for sandals, too warm for boots, impossible.

Anyway , I am working on Diana and some wallpaper ideas now, upping the scale of my works. I saw a show in Porto years ago now with my great friend N.B. of Andy Warhol's work and also Takahashi Murakami's show at the Serpentine, these shows featured art on matching wallpapers. I like the idea of the full immersion show, the all-overness that this entails.

The Tip and coffee

Today has consisted of; the removal of a large overgrown Honeysuckle, via a Temple of Doom style, spider infested, side snicket to the municipal tip. Of course making sure no spiders or snails where harmed in this moving process. At the tip, as we cannot resist , we rescued a very usable, but slightly Heath Robinson-esque, rake for our new endevours in the garden.
This was then followed by the drinking of coffee in a town centre emporium with AD and AP.
I now might draw.

Leamington and Dr.Who and my sister

I have been sending my sister text instructions this morning, as we are convinced they are filming Dr.Who in Leamington Spa today.
I have made her stand in Clarendon Park Square in the rain getting soggy and she assures me that there is not a sniff of a Dalek to be had. She says that the only things around are a pile of grit and some vintage cars, my partner is slightly disappointed and my sister is slightly damp.
You can see from the picture that there seem to be no aliens, time machines or even a BBC catering van in sight.

Fabulous Felixstowe

We have just spent a few glorious hours in Felixstowe, drinking coffee, eating chips on the promenade, paddling in the sea, collecting memorabilia , buying cheap postcards, hunting for an elusive book on bees, cycling up Convalescent Hill (AP did, no-one else), buying blackout fabric, eating olives, sending blank postcards, drawing on day-glo stickers, picking up driftwood, drinking diet coke and not going onto the pier, as its still closed.
It doesn't get any better, and the sun shone.

Thinking.

I am thinking about my new collages for tomorrow. H and A went to look for still-life objects and brought me a book called Man-made Wonders of the world from the early 80's. I am re-working the images, and adding a bit of royal blingness on top of all of it. The glitter may have to come out.
I am trying to break free of the boundaries imposed by the postcard and then challenging the conventions of the image and the imagery, using conventional college techniques.

Diana as a barrage balloon

I am imaging a whole flotilla of 40 metre high balloons of Diana over Suffolk, the idea that this county of contradictions is decorated with her image. The idea of re-creating an, almost, wall of 3-d images that can separate Suffolk from itself and the sea. Looking forward to the future, but back to the near history of the second world war and all of the abandoned air strips and the idea of Zeppelins. (I think that these where built in Martlesham, I am going to look at this more).
Of course this is all fantasy on my part.

Bank holiday monday

As its Bank Holiday Monday, we have been out to the, oh so, English seaside. People eating ice cream and swimming in the brown murky waters of the North sea. This trip has inpsired me to make some new work based on Princess Diana (of course) on holiday, in my head she is floating out of the house in the clouds in Suffolk and maybe going to meet Dodi. I can also see her as a ginormous inflatable head tethered to the life boat station in Aldeburgh, guiding shipping into Felixstowe, or maybe that's just me.
And just now I have acted as the photographers assistant for my partner, but of course this all has to take place in the front garden, with the sunshine, neighbours, cyclists, gale force winds and dog walkers all having a good gawp. The images are of glamorous day-glo Victorian gentlemen for the Inky Goodness show in Brick Lane next week.

New Images for Ana

These are the postcards that I have re-sent to Ana, one of the Paris Correspondence School artists. I do have to admit I have made the images very busy, layered and visually complex, because I wanted to include all the elements I have used on the original cards. I used day-glo, strawberry and mint scented gel pens, stickers, images of Notre Dame, Postcards of figurines from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Miro and The Queen. All of these are linked only in my head and now, on these cards.

Recieved postcards No. 3

Over the last few days I have 4 more postcards from my co-corresponders via Paris. They discuss many things, holidays, travel, day-glo, fruit, relatives.
The backs say,
1. FATHER
2.FROM DAZ
3.PRINTED WITH HAND PICKED BLACKBERRIES BY TOM & LIZ
4.Dearest vix
Summer has just been work work work ! saving up for my MA ! yup. See you monday ! And I just LOVE dayglo! Makes me happy !
lulu

I am now parceling up the sent postcards and my digital D.I.A.N.A.'s , as the originals haven't arrived and some Notre Dame works.

Ana's wrong address

One of the participating artists in the Paris Correspondence School address was wrong, so some one 10 houses down from her has received some very interesting post this August.
I have tried to make up for this error by creating 6 postcards for Ana Bellnoch tonight, they have all the elements of my other cards, but in one set. They are very busy, a bit confused, but I feel interesting. I hope that she like them and receives the whole compliment of postcards this time !

D.I.A.N.A update

I have emailed Paris and the 9 D.I.A.N.A. postcards have not arrived, I am very perturbed about this, who would want to confiscate, eradicate, remove this great icon of modern times from her rightful place in a gallery?
I only want to put her in a glamorous and sophisticated environment.

I can only hope that where ever she is, she is being looked after and given the respect she deserves ! As the 10th person in this crowded relationship I feel let down and abused.

I am trying to track her down via the post office complaints procedure.

New cards for Paris

I have received, from Paris, a card from Charlie Levine of Notre Dame with a beautiful crinkle-cut edge. Written on the back is,

La Poste 38276A
17-08-10 FRANCE
.... manufactured according to a photographic template, appeared 3 years after his birth.
5/17

I am currently responding with photographic-type techniques to the imagery on the card and then sending them to Charlie at Trove.

5th set of cards for co-parisian artists

These are the 5th set of postcards for my co-artists in the Paris Correspondence school. I have used a selection of original cards sourced from Felixstowe, Paris, Blackpool and Ipswich.

The Blackpool and Paris postcards where a gift from a friend of mine, Annabel D, who has traveled a lot more than me this year. When ever a friend goes away I ask them to bring me some postcards back for me to work with. I really like the idea of involving others in my work, my sister does a lot of work for me, working within the rules I set her. The removal of the hand of the artist is something that has always interested me.

The cards of Felixstowe required a day trip to the tourist office, a walk on the promenade and an ice-cream.

The Ipswich cards only required a trip to the tourist office and a cup of coffee.

As the project has developed I have really enjoyed the conversations and discussions that have developed between us.

Recieved postcards No. 2

Six more postcards have landed on my doormat this morning, here is a transcript from the backs of the cards. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I have.

No.1
Hi Vicky,
I hope you enjoy the sights of Nuneaton. If not the man with his dog is quite amusing. Jo. It wasn't me !
(Middle right)

No.2
18 AUG 2010
York Stone (in a pink triangle)
with love from suffolk to yorkshire + back again H x
(Top left)

No.3
Dear Vicky,
what a shame that the fountain was closed. We'll have to try visiting again later.
Love Sam
(Bottom left)

No.4
'FOR WHILE NOSTALGIA IS BY DEFINITION PAINFUL, IT'S BURNING IMPULSE IS UTOPIAN.'
-emmett
(Middle left)

No.5
'EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM SUGGESTED ONE WHO DABBLES.
IN THE END, HE WAS SILENTLY MURDERED BY THE WALLPAPER.'

lulu x
-emmett
((Bottom right)

No.6
From Vicky Cull
9th August 2010
From Lulu Horsfield
18th August 2010
OPEN
Things I've done in Paris
Names of cats I know
Artists Ive been reading about
my precious items
People I find interesting
Famous women who havent had children
Friends from other countries
things I have no experience of
First ten things I do in the morning
things I have argued with Jim about
secrets of other people
things i do in secret
meals I remember having
places I have lived. injuries.
ANSWERS.
(Top right)

Fourth set of cards for the artists

The cards use see-through stickers, stars and glitter circles on water-colour paper or day-glo paper.

These are the fourth set of postcards I have created for Paris Correspondence School. They are split into 2 groups I feel that they are both minimal just using different colour schemes, one very white and the other very Day-Glo.
I write on the back of each card to each artist in question, each set of cards follows similar themes, these all talk about endings, the others have spoken about shape and line, position, JFK, communication, to name a few topics I have touched on.

Postcards from the Paris Correspondence School Artists

These are the 4 postcards I have received so far,
Top left; Martyn Cross
Top right; no name but the postmark says east London
Bottom left; Anna Francis
Bottom right; Tom Butler

This is what they say on the backs:

No.1, Top right,
Send on to Charlie to reassemble with the following message (Imagine you are Frank E.) [speech bubble]

No.2, Bottom right,
There was once a girl called vicky
who, one morning, felt a bit sicky.
"snake bite, you see,
does not agree with me,
I'm off for a chocolate biccie"
Tom Butler

No.3, Top left,
Hello Vicky,
Went to the quarry today and chipped a bit of celestine for you. Then I'll take you back a stick of rock !
love,
Martyn
2a,2b,1216,1968
and Martyn Cross
Text translated by Google translate. English-French-English

No.4, Bottom left,
Dear Vicky,
Postcards sent from exotic places like Bournemouth or Margate, those Love Anna
1

Dissapearing D.I.A.N.A's

I have posted 9 D.I.A.N.A images to Charlie Levine in Paris over 10 days ago and not one of them has arrived.
I am very worried that somewhere in a sorting office en-route from here to Paris there are 9 images watching the postal service do their day-to-day work, I hope that they are apprieciated OR like with the D.I.A.N.A sent from New York they are all in the hands of some security service, I just don't know. Is there some sort of obscure law that says you can't post images of Diana? If so, why sell postcards of her in the first place.
It is odd that the Queen postcards have arrived unmolested but D.I.A.N.A is obviously shy of the postal service, or maybe she doesn't want to return to Paris.

Felixstowe postcards

I am thinking about how you can combine images of Felixstowe and the Queen, but I seem to have very little difficulty in putting these two disparate elements together. Whilst pondering this dilemma my sister has been rearranging the hand lotions at work, she is bored, I don't know which is odder, the queen vs felixstowe or soap arranging. She is also complaining about the lack of HobNob's which I don't mind, as they make me cough.
Returning to the Queen for a moment, I am really looking at the badges of office, the jewels that are given as rewards, the emblems of hierarchy, and then applying these ideas to the images, through glitter, stickers and tape.

Queens for Paris

These are die cut, tourist postcards embellished with stickers and tape. I have sent a series of these to Paris to the curator Charlie Levine, who is leaving the images as interventions in and around Paris.
I have been concentrating on how to accentuate the "queenlieness" of the image. Adding layers of decoration, adornment to discuss the wearing of jewelery as badges of office to let the viewer know who you are and your rank within society.

D.I.A.N.A. and the Eiffel Tower

Here is a link to the Paris correspondence school blog, curated by Charlie Levine. She is travelling around Paris creating interventions with a series of postcards and the landscape of Paris.

So D.I.A.N.A. has gone on a tourist trip to the Eiffel Tower and is in the lift falling to earth.

http://pariscorrespondenceschool.blogspot.com/

Paris Correspondence School Part 2

http://pariscorrespondenceschool.blogspot.com/

These are the set of postcards I have sent out to the other 16 artists who are participating in this collaborative event that is being held as an intervention in Paris, then a show in London and Birmingham.
It was really odd doing these cards and writing to, on the whole, complete strangers. I have to say, though I have enjoyed writing to these strangers, to try to discover common ground is very exciting. The imagery is made up of a combination of things I like to look at; Queens, Diana, Ipswich, Paris, and the others artists own postcard imagery.

Paris Correspondence School D.I.A.N.A. 2&3

These are the first two images I have posted to Charlie Levine @ the Paris Correspondence School Show. They are both postcards the I have embellished with stickers and gold tape. My partner thinks they look alien.

Paris Correspondence School

I am very excited by the idea of this show, I am sending postcards of Felixstowe Port Terminal and H.R.H. Princess Diana to Paris, as I feel that the French capitals art scene will benefit from both these images.
I really like the 'old-fashioned' idea of the postal service, precious artworks that can be man-handled and put through archaic machinery, then sent to somewhere that you only know through letters and numbers on a page. The postcard is delivered, hopefully, to its correct destination in Paris a few days later.
The idea that you can look up the address on a map so you understand where your postcard will end up; that I will not experience that same journey is fascinating to me.

Fluxface in Space with NASA

Major William A.Anders, USAF, Apollo 8 Mission.
Found Imagery and stickers.

These are a selection of new works that I have created for an exhibition in USA . You were asked to submit images to do with space, be it travel, exploration, planets or what ever you wanted it to be. I decided to work with found imagery of the Apollo 8 space programme, embellished with silver, gold, black and white glittery stickers, so it looked sci-fi and space like !
As part of the exhibition I was asked to take a photo of me holding my image, I decided to become a subtle part of the art work.
http://vickycull.com/index.php?/project/apollo-8-space-mission/
http://www.fluxfaceinspace.blogspot.com

New Ideas

I have recently co-opted my sister into helping me with my postcards. She goes out for half an hour a day, from her busy job, and buys my postcards and stickers for me. She does all of this following my texted instructions, what to purchase, how much to spend. She then posts all the new images to me so I can then work on them. I then re-post the completed images to her so we close the circle. My sister lives over 100 miles from me.
My sister is not an artist, so this is a test for both of us.

Queen Elizabeths I & II

Here are the companion pieces for Prince Charles and D.I.A.N.A postcards. You can see more of this work at the show 'Paris correspondence school' in and around Paris in August. you can also see the work on my website.

The postcards designed by participating artists will be used as interventions around Paris during August whilst all artists and curators involved will write to each other using the postcards as well as alter them and re-send them on etc.

The postcards will then be exhibited in London in September in association with Minnie Weisz and in Birmingham in December at TROVE.

Lost In The Post ( or intercepted by C.I.A.)

Prince Charles arrived in the post from USA recently, but his companions The Queen and HRH Princess Diana have mysteriously not arrived. I am worried that they have been intercepted by USA forces and I am now on some bizarre watch list held between C.I.A. and MI6, life is always full of little surprises. Watch this space for up-dates to see if they arrive and are not just on a cruise in the Med.

D.I.A.N.A

These are two new images inspired by my time in New York, I was looking at all things Gold, Times Square, Fanelli's bar and The Empire State Building. I bought a myriad of new stickers as well, and found a few on the street to use. I am really excited by this new work.

New York Queens and Birds

These are some of the ideas I have been working on whilst in New York. I have recently been thinking about birds and Queens and how they are completely unrelated, apart from in my head and their visual aesthetic. You can see the full updates here

New York New York

What a wonderful city it is, I close my eyes and see gold and bright, shiny objects. I have made a whole set of new work whilst in New York, buying even more day-glo, shiny, sparkly stuff to affix to my postcards. I posted these from New York, so they are a-winging their way to England, some how. Some have already arrived, so they will be appearing here soon.

Felt dots in Felixstowe

Felixstowe postcard and felt dots supplied by Luke Hyland.

Hvolsvöllur volcanic eruption

These are some drawings and ideas created in response to the volcanic eruption on Iceland in march 2010. They are deliberately playful and experimental. The full series can be seen on my website www.vickycull.com

Post

New work for Post in the Co-Exist gallery at TAP in Southend. All work is viewed in the dark with the aid of torches in plan chest drawers.

A Book about death, MUBE Opening night, Sao Paolo.

Here is my work installed at the MUBE Gallery, Sao Paolo. I am really pleased with how the show looks, you can see for yourself by watching the opening on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGIc3FOvVyg

New works

These are a selection of new works. I have been working my way through a book of postcards of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 and lots of day-glo stickers to try to talk about the surface of the image and how to interfere with it.
Alongside these, I have been working with images of JFK's funeral and laying in state.


Please go to http://www.vickycull.com to see all of the updates.