From Guieu to Sigg

Just before leaving for Yellowstone, I sent an image to Ivan and his family.

Dear Friend

Bright day with Ivan Sigg and his family at the house last week-end, visiting from Paris via San Francisco. Ivan brought us some treasures from France: a colorful poster he created with artist friend Eric Meyer, two books of enigmas he illustrated: Enigmes Litteraires Spectaculaires and Enigmes Litteraires Extraordinaires, and a novel: "Chroniques de l'Oiseau a Ressort" by Haruki Murakami (The Wind-Up bird Chronicle).

And yesterday, we received a wonderful letter in a beautiful envelope!

More envelopes for the non profit organization "Une Vie, Un Arbre"

Association "Une Vie, un Arbre"

Related posts in this blog:
Association "Une vie, Un Arbre" / Non Profit Organization "Une Vie, Un arbre"
My contribution to the association "Une Vie, Un Arbre"

From Joelle Paris

Received a beautiful card from my friend Joelle Paris who lives in Paris. I wanted to know if it is wood carving or else.



She sent me two images to show me the technique: one image of some of the erasers she carved (she carves both sides not to loose any space).




And one photo showing this year's image and the image she made in 1995. Same technique, 16 years apart.
Joelle writes: "Entre ces 2 versions, 16 ans se sont écoulés, il y a 2 enfants de plus sur l'image et 1 chat en moins..." (Between the two images, 16 years passed by, there are two more kids and one less cat...)

I love the bold result and the simplicity of the material!

At the time when 2000 post offices are about to close in the US, I feel sad that today what we get in the mail is essentially junk. It always brightens the day when I find a "real mail" in the pile of catalogs, fliers for fast food and offers for car insurances (which go directly to the recycling bin).

Thank you my friends!

From Eric Meyer

Merci Eric pour cette très belle carte arrivée dans ma boite aux lettres hier! C'est vraiment sympa de recevoir du "vrai" courrier!

Check out Eric's blog and also the new issue of the magazine KUU.
Eric created KUU with Ivan Sigg.

Association "Une vie, Un Arbre" / Non Profit Organization "Une Vie, Un arbre"

I sent two envelopes this year

Each year the non-profit organization "Une Vie, Un arbre" (literally: One life, One Tree) organizes an exhibition of mail art in Vienne, in France, to benefit ill children. The organization is asking artists who are willing to participate to send one or several envelops to bring some comfort to children who are going through rough times.
Send your mail art before March 31, 2011 to the following address:
Association "Une vie, un arbre"
BP 32
38781 Pont Eveque CEDEX
France



Chaque année l'association "Une vie, un arbre" organise une exposition vente d'Art Postal à Vienne dans l'Isère au profit des enfants malades. L'association lance donc aujourd'hui un appel à participation à tous les artistes qui souhaiteraient par l'envoi d'une ou plusieurs enveloppes apporter un peu de réconfort aux enfants qui traversent des épreuves difficiles.
Envoyez vos créations postales avant le 30 mars 2011 à l'adresse suivante :
Association "Une vie, un arbre"
BP 32
38781 Pont Eveque CEDEX
France

Association Une vie, un Arbre (le blog de l'association)
Last year's contribution

Happy New Year / Meilleurs Voeux from...

Lori Lipsman (San Diego)


Eric Meyer (Paris)



Guillaume Mary (Paris)


Sylvaine Dampierre & Bernard Gomez (Paris)


Dominique Pivin (Paris)



This is an animation, click on the image to watch it
Ellen & Ellemine BURO - GDS (New York, Paris)

A National Park for the coves near Marseille, France: "Les Calanques"

Les Calanques: Sormiou, Le Canape, cove's left bank

My mom is 76 and she is doing an amazing job working endlessly (at least for 20 years now) for the creation of a National Park near Marseille, France. She lives there, that's where she studied biology at the University before I was born. When we go to France to visit her, we always go to the Calanques. They are a breath taking place, one of the most incredible ones I know - but dangerously close to the town of Marseille.



"Les Calanques", the site my mom and a lot of dedicated people want to transform into a National Park, is a very special place along the Mediterranean sea: white cliffs plunging in the water, secluded coves, old pine trees and a reach flora and fauna.

My mom goes to the Calanques very often (as I did when I lived in Marseille) - she hikes there and she also guides group of people to explain the geology of the site. She is very passionate about the subject, goes to meetings, writes letters, participates in conferences. It takes a great amount of patience, of work, to convince so many people that the creation of the national park is an absolute necessity or the site will be constructed and anything can happen.

She sends me photos she takes, different days, different lights. Here are some of them.


Maïre, Cap Croisette


Sugiton cove from the trail


Rosemary

I hope to have her energy if I reach her age.
Mom, you are an inspiration, thank you for what you are doing! And I hope the National Park for the coves near Marseille will be a reality very soon!


Sugiton cove (where I spent lots of Sundays when I was a child -
one hour hike to get to the cove)


Les Goudes, Ile Maïre (all photos Denise Guieu)

If you want to read more (in French!) about the creation of the National Park, please visit:
"Un Parc National pour les Calanques".

Mails to Eric Meyer and Ivan Sigg

Envelopes I sent to Eric and Ivan

Eric Meyer and Ivan Sigg just published the first issue of their magazine KUU.
If you order one, it costs 20 euros (+ the shipping) and it includes an original drawing by Ivan Sigg + Eric Meyer. Please email Ivan for more information: ivansigg@free.fr

KUU #0!

KUU #0

My friends artists Ivan Sigg and Eric Meyer created KUU, an art magazine! The first issue is available online. The magazine is about their collaborative work, their mail exchanges, their notes, their thoughts, the magazines' covers they transform. I am honored to be the first artist invited! There will be 2 issues per year.


From Ivan Sigg:

"KUU se prononce Cou-ou, ce qui signifie "le vide" en Japonais, et c'est le nom que nous avons choisi de donner à notre revue.

Bonjour à tous.

Voilà un an qu'avec mon ami peintre Eric Meyer nous travaillons à ce projet avec l'idée de coucher sur papier ce que nous développons pendant l'année : échanges plastiques et graphiques, boomerangs postaux, carnets-blogs quotidiens, métamorphoses de UNES, observations sur la vie, typographies, couleurs... tout cela compilé en une revue ouverte et imprévisible.

Le numéro 0 vient donc de voir le jour, il est dès à présent disponible. Chaque exemplaire est accompagné d'une oeuvre originale réalisée à deux mains par Eric et moi-même (sur la quatrième de couverture restée blanche). Chaque KUU est donc un exemplaire unique !

Souhaitant ouvrir l'espace de notre revue à d'autres artistes еt à d'autres échanges nous avons invité notre ami peintre Michele Guieu à participer à ce premier opus.

Nous pensons éditer deux numéros par an.

Pour tous renseignements complémentaires et pour commander la revue KUU :
www.ku-u.org.

art-mitié"
Ivan

France: Ko Siu Lan’s installation censored

Ko Siu Lan’s installation only stayed a few hours on the building of the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts de Paris and was then removed.

On the left of the image one can read: "WORK" "LESS" and on the right "EARN" "MORE".
The 4 words play with a slogan used by the President of France Nicolas Sarkozy when he was campaigning: "Work more, Earn more."

Voici l'article publie dans Liberation (I don't think the link appears correctly in my comment).

Philippe Apeloig: [Portes], gravures @ Atelier Didier Mutel, Paris

Philippe Apeloig

Une Tres Belle Annee 2010!

From Eric Meyer, Paris.
Merci Eric! Une tres belle annee a toi aussi!

Meilleurs Voeux a Tous!

From Christine Maigne, Paris.

Dali's house in Port Lligat, Spain

Dali's house in Port Lligat, where he lived and painted
from 1930 to 1982

My mother sent me those pictures. She just came back from Spain where she visited Dali's house, 100 kilometers away from Barcelona. I went there in my childhood. My parents were fascinated by Dali's work.

The family often took trips to Spain in Fall or Spring, and although I do not remember Dali's house (I may have been too young), I remember my first strong encounter with paintings: I was 6 or 7, it was in Madrid, in the Museo Del Prado, I was mesmerized by Jerome Bosch, specially "The Garden of Earthly Delights". I was standing very close to the paintings and I could see all the amazing (and disturbing) details.

I also remember El Greco, I thought the gaze of the people in the paintings were following me while I was walking.

I remember the calm. Except in the museums and towns, it was very calm. The fishermen villages were not crowded, the beaches almost empty, like on these pictures.












The Dali Theatre-Museum in Figueras


All photos: courtesy Denise Guieu

Dali's House in Port Lligat
Dali's Museum-Theatre in Figueras

I remember Sow's retrospective on the Pont des Arts in Paris!

Masai - mother and child - mixed media
courtesy "La Panse de L'Ours"


Masai - standing warrior, mixed media
courtesy "La Panse de L'Ours"

I just read that an ensemble of sculptures by Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow that were once shown on the Pont des Arts in Paris will be for sale at Christie's December 9. Proust's madeleine! Suddenly I was on the Pont des Arts again!

I was still living in Paris in May 1999. I remember the day I went to see the sculptures. I walked from my studio next to La Grande Halle de la Villette, in the XIX, to the Seine, taking my time, enjoying the walk, anticipating the joy to see Sow's work, one my favorite sculptors. I stayed a long time on that pedestrian bridge! Beautiful afternoon! Fantastic journey between Sioux, Peuls, Masai, Cheyennes, Zoulous... Unforgetable figures.
I took a lot of pictures but they are in France with a lot of other things I left there...

Notes from Paris: "Do free acts have a price?"

News from "Trade Show / California-Turkey", now showing in Istanbul

At Isik University, Istanbul, Turkey.


Anna Stump, artist and curator (on the left),
presents the Trade Show project during the opening,
Isik University.

Anna Stump, organizer and curator of "Trade Show/California-Turkey" sent photos from the opening night which was yesterday in Istanbul, at Isik University. Anna says it was a great success! I do not know exactly how many artists in total (from Turkey and from California) participated to the project, but it is a lot. It's nice to think that all the paintings made in California traveled to Turkey to be shown there and vice-versa.


At the Garage, in San Diego

Trade Show / California-Turkey was first on view at The Garage in July 2009
The Garage
4141 Alabama Street #4
San Diego, CA
Email: deepseal2@aol.com
more info here about the show



Then the show traveled to L.A., at Edgar Varela Fine Arts in August 2009.

Edgar Varela Fine Arts
542 S. Alameda Street, 2nd floor
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Mail Art from Ivan Sigg

It is always a beautiful surprise to receive a mail from Ivan! Merci!

Notes from France: Breil-Sur-Roya

Breil-Sur-Roya

In France this summer, I spent some time in places I love. Breil-Sur-Roya is the village where my grandfather was born and where I spent sunny summers during my childhood, playing in the olive trees, picking ripe tomatoes for lunch, helping my grandfather watering the vegetable garden, watching him trimming the vines, hiking with my parents, eating the most amazing cakes (my grandfather was a pastry cook). It's always nice to go back there and to spend time with the family.

During WWII, the village, which is on the French-Italian border, was occupied by the German army. Soldiers occupied my grandfather's house for months while he and his family (my grand mother and their three daughters) were living there. I heard a lot of stories from my mother, who was 7 in 1941.

Sometimes when I am there, in the quietness of this beautiful valley, I cannot help thinking that during my mother's childhood there was that amazing episode, those years, the everyday fear, the bombs and the hunger - and even deportation: the people from the village were deported on foot to Turin, Italy, in October 1944 (until May 1945).

My mother talking about her childhood during the WWII is something amazing (but she very rarely talks about it). War was her everyday reality for years, when she should have spend most of her time playing and dreaming.
I should record her sometimes.

In the mountain where I like to go hiking there, in and around "La Vallee des Merveilles", one can still see the strategic roads paved with stones, which soldiers (French, Italian, German) used to control the border between Italy and France. At times those roads were filled with columns of soldiers transporting materials on horses, on donkeys and by truck. One can still see the ruins of military dwellings very high in the rough landscape. No trees around, only rocks. Sometimes a roll of rusted barbed wire. The weather there is harsh most of the year. The soldiers stayed up there for months, years, waiting, fighting.


The village seen from my grand father's yard


The trail in the back of the village


At my grandfather's: the land is planted
with olive trees.




Campei, in the upper mountain


On a trail near Casterino


Fontanalbe, a nice (and steep) trail,
in the "Parc National du Mercantour"