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.