I made these cards based on the now famous British World War poster “Keep Calm and Carry On”, which is in the public domain. You can read about the history here. Rip-offs have become something of a meme. Mail artist and brilliant typographer Keith Bates created the font, based on the original poster series.
keep calm and mail art
love respect and mail art
please do not ever feed trolls
The last one ‘please do not ever feed trolls’ may come in handy, when confronted with internet trolls appearing in internet forums. You are free to use it, whenever you feel the need.
TerrorDome custom creates images of people cut out from maps mounted inside a wood shadow box. What I love about the idea is that every person is cut out from a map from the place where they spent their childhood, and the exact location will always feature just above the heart of each figure. They can be ordered through Folksy, the UK based art and craft community similar to Etsy. This reminds me of other memory maps of childhood places, Sara Fanellis My Map Book, and especially of Margaret Mackey’s inspiring work on Space, Time and Literacy, as presented on UKLA conference 2010 and 2011, where she mapped out her childhood experiences tying physical places and texts. This is from her abstract:
The concept of literacy is often represented iconically in a schematic drawing of a head, a book, and perhaps a pair of hands. But literacy is always grounded, located in a particular place and time. At the same time, our literate behaviours are suspended in a network of multiple texts and other readers. Our interpretive lives are plural; the texts that we read, watch, hear, play, create, and exchange impinge on each other; we do not interpret a single text in cognitive and affective isolation from all the others that we encounter. Often we are also affected by other interpreters of the same material.
Where are we when we engage with a fiction? We enter an imaginary, interior world – a cognitive achievement we still do not fully understand. Actively or passively, we gain membership of a community, virtual and actual, of other interpreters of this text. At the same time, we remain “earthed” in the daily lives of our own senses, our own two hands and feet, our own political position and awareness. All of these factors are woven into the ultimate achievement of interpretive understanding. This presentation will offer a rich and complex two-part picture of situated literacies: a 360° portrait of a single literate child, and a broader look at the mental and physical spaces that affect contemporary literacies.
My grandfather (may he rest in peace) fell in love with a younger woman, back in the late 1940s, early 1950s – while being married and father of four young children. My uncle found out about this only a few years ago – through serendipity he got hold of some 40 passionate love letters, written by my grandfather to this young woman, who was well into her eighties by that time, and still heartbroken. I only learned about this a few days ago. There is something to be said for letters written with pen and paper. Is it likely that fifty, sixty years from now a family secret like this will be revealed, through the unexpected discovery of some cached facebook postings?
If you want to get in touch with people fond of analog letter writing, envelope stuffing and stamp licking go to Make Every Day a Good Mail Day.
This is great, bringing back childhood memories: watching records spinning on the turntable and dreaming about being a hippie when I would grow up, living in a world of love and peace . :-)
Funny project: Ali Alvarez started a collection of lottery scratchcards, however he does not scratch them, ever, he promises. He was thinking about how playing the lottery gets “your hopes high, dreaming, escaping, and then usually being let down.”, which he says; “happens to me on a daily basis WITHOUT the lottery’s help.” He started collecting scratch cards, as an experiment, and showing them to people he found “it makes them a little crazy. I think I’m onto something here.”
Last year these love banners were created by 10 New York designers to be displayed on Times Square. I cannot find the site, where I found the images, so apologies, and please let me know if you do.
I did not get to go to the cinema often in my childhood, but one lasting impression was the animated movie Yellow Submarine (1968), an all time favourite. The Beatles, on their psychedelic journey to save Pepperland from the Blue Meanies beat Alice in Wonderland any time.
There is a current exhibition about Robert Indiana at the Museum in Wiesbaden, Germany. However, I love to see how people interact with art and go to Flickr: So many of my favourite things. Best word. Sixties pop art. Street Sculptures. Gardens. Over 1600 images tagged Robert Indiana.
Come rain, come snow, summer and winter, in the day and in the night, in the country and in the city, all over the world – LOVE prevails! :-)
I love browsing flickr photos and seeing what people are up to, not just for the photos but also for artwork such as children’s drawings. Here are some love letters by little people.
word and image 