A friend sent me a sack of old postcards--out of the blue. Most of them are unwritten. This one from Washington state, of apple blossoms with a backdrop of Mt. Cashmere, is one of the few exceptions. The date on the card is 4/23/65; the stamp was a four-cent Lincoln. I love this card.
Now this is the kind of sunbathing I like. The amusing card is from a Finnish postcrosser.
A German postcrosser sent this multiview card of Frankfurt, a city I know only by its airport. She lives in a town outside of the city and loves its skyline. In the evening she and her husband often go up on a hill to enjoy the city lights.
Uchida K., that old post office pal, also sent this wonderful summer greeting postcard. I love how it looks like a piece of dyed cloth. It actually made me get out some sparklers last night.
A young postcrosser in England named Suzy sent this totally fabulous card. It shows a clever and amusing 1959 poster by Abram Grimes, advertising BOAC service to the USA. Suzy writes that she has two rats named Nibbles and Snowflake and two cats named Bubbles and Smokey.
Sandy Sapienza made this card from a photo of the zucchinis growing in her garden. I like the greenness of it.
Uckida K., an old pal in the Ayaori post office, sent this cool sheet of stamps commemorating the 2010 World Cup. While not an avid soccer fan, I was looking for some World Cup stamps here in the US, but no go. Sound the vuvuzelas! I've been enjoying the matches so far. Can't enough of that Lionel Messi!
Lynn B has been busy. Two cards came from her in two days. The one above shows a beautiful Rosa Bonheur painting called Le Labourage Nivernais: Le Sombrage (Ploughing in Nivernais). The one below, which came with the cool postcard pin posted below, appears to be from an exhibition.
A Lithuanian postcrosser sent this sweeping view of the sea gate in her hometown of Klaipeda. It is the largest seaport in Lithuania and one of the few ice-free ports in northern Europe. Long ago the city was on the Amber Road that ran from Europe to Asia and back.
This pretty, and clever, piece of 'mail art' arrived yesterday from friend Lynn B. It's a pin made from part of a postcard that has been embellished with beads and lace. When you turn the pin over, you can see some of the address written on the card. Is this for real? It reads: Mr. Richard Ju...., 10 Downing ..., London, England. I checked but did not find a PM named Richard. No word from Lynn about where she got the pin, but I thank her for a very cool surprise.
Pitcher Joe Blanton always makes me think of a rubber ducky. I made this card with him in mind, though most of the friends I've mailed copies to will not really get the message.
Old photos keep turning up, much like frost heave. This one, a bit scratched, is of Mr. Kikuchi, the sweet, funny, hardworking postmaster at my old post office in Ayaori. I've turned it into a postcard to send as a summer greeting.
This card from the Philippines shows a great shot of a popular festival contest called palosebo. The object is to reach the prizes at the top of the greased bamboo pole. The boy leading the way definitely looks as if he has his eye on the prize. A nine-year-old postcrosser sent this cool card.
Old friend Suzuki Kei sent this card she painted. I love how she nestled her message among the cyclamen leaves. And I always love hearing from her.
This card is an homage to my faltering baseball team. Pictured is one of the main culprits missing in action.
I made this card from a photo of a game at the old Oakland Coliseum, between the Yankees and the A's. The pitcher warming up, not that you would know it, is Mariano Rivera. What I learned at this game was that sky box seats are not for me.
Mrpotani went to Taiwan with her mom and sent this colorful card from Chiufen, which she wrote was "a hilly tourist town--a rather depressing place filled with vendors selling smelly food." It brings back the often contrary experiences of travel in Taiwan.
A Finnish postcrosser made this lovely postcard from a photo she took at her parents' home, which is covered with the ivy that we here call Virginia creeper. I love how the photo captures the ivy and its reflections. And it's never too soon to think about autumn.
A German postcrosser sent this card from the famous East Side Gallery in Berlin, an international monument to freedom. The card shows one of the many murals painted on the old, and now crumbling, Berlin Wall. This one, by Jim Avignon, is called Doin It Cool for the East Side. One day, two bits of history, in Aquileia (below) and the East Side Gallery.
An Italian postcrosser sent this card of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shown is part of the beautiful old cathedral in Aquileia, an ancient Roman town in northern Italy.
Another postcard made from those posters found in the attic. It's of a temple dancer in Nepal and is already stamped and about to be mailed.
PostMuse sent this card from a People's History series and writes that she has had "some very heated responses from very conservative folk who find the in-your-face 'socialism' a bit too much." She adds, "I rather like that heat." The Battle of Homestead was a major labor dispute which, in the end, crushed attempts to unionize the steel industry in Pittsburgh until the 1930's. Henry Clay Frick, acting for Andrew Carnegie, locked out the workers and brought in the Pinkerton men to smash resistance. Socialism always seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
Willi Singleton sent this card for a show that opens next week at the Japan Information & Culture Center in Washington, D.C. Called Trio of Elements: A Collaboration in Wood, Clay, and Silk, the show features wood artist Tadao Arimoto, wood-firing potter Willi Singleton, and textile artist Yoichi Nakajima. The show runs until August 27. There is an opening lecture on June 24 at 6:30 p.m. For details: www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/jicc/ or 202.238.6949.
Up in the attic this morning I came across some posters from a long-ago exhibition in Tokyo of Nepalese art and have already turned some into postcards and envelopes. I know exactly where these two will go.
I found some photos I took at spring training in Florida in 2004, including this one at the Tigers' stadium in Lakeland. I made it into a postcard for a Kyoto friend who is a fan of the Hanshin Tigers.
This card of Texas longhorns carries a subtle environmental message of another kind. Or else the vegetarian friend who sent it is announcing that she has become a carnivore.
This postcard is for a show put on by the Hungarian Cultural Center but in Paterson, New Jersey, and only on weekends. It urges viewers to escape the idea that Manhattan is the center of the art world. The show features 43 artists, working in diverse media. Alas, it ends this weekend.
This large format card does double duty, announcing two upcoming shows at the Allentown Art Musuem.
Who knows what it means? The card, however, is from Lodz Design 2009, an international design festival, and was sent by a Polish postcrosser who is studying Japanese.
A proud resident of Brasilia sent this postcard of the very cool Ponte JK, one of the seven wonders of the city.
What we dream about when we sit over the ice holes. A Laplander sent this amusing postcard, though on a warm, sticky morning like today's, I am dreaming of snow and ice. Good timing.
Kyiv is definitely calling with this card showing sunset on the Dnepr. The Ukrainian postcrosser who sent it writes that she hopes I will one day have a chance to see her beloved city. That would be something.
Yesterday in New York I went to see an exhibition of photographs by Peter Korniss at the Hungarian Cultural Center. Called Attachment, the show documents the disappearing way of life in peasant villages in Hungary and Transylvania. Korniss started taking these mysteriously beautiful and profound photos in the late 1960's. The show ends on June 15 and is definitely worth a visit.
Old friend Takeshita Keiko sent this reflective image from Tokyo, showing a 1945 chalk work by Frank Brangwyn. These days an image of anyone reading a newspaper is almost cause for nostalgia.
Wow. Lynn B sent this Dali postcard, which reminds me again how much Spain features in the artist's work. I was a bit stunned to read, too, that this work (oil on panel) measures 7 by 9.5 inches.
