holidays

Another cool card in the holiday vein from Jessie F. She incorporated a real ribbon into this one.

moving image: stealing a glance at the self

I, as reflected in the mirror,
was smiling like a Bodhisattva
only to find out suddenly that
I have become a hungry ghost
Am I really a Bodhisattva or a hungry ghost?

---Lee Kihyang

This is the final card from Lee Kihyang's Moving Image series. For more about this artist, go to www.art-to-wear.pe.kr.

dutch coffee and stamps

These very cool stamps were affixed to the card below.

A coffee-loving Dutch postcrosser sent this clever card. The white circles are holes for your fingers. Even funnier, the woman's postcrossing profile specifies that she does not like free cards, though this is a free Boomerang ad card.

moving image: hide and seek/revelation and disappearance

A pretty woman always welcomes me
If we throw a light on her,
her existence is immediately clear
Even though she fades away in the darkness,
I perceive her presence
and that despite the denial of many people

---Lee Kihyang

kotooshu banzai

Another envelope from the calendar. This one shows Kotooshu, the tall, dishy Bulgarian ozeki, at a practice session at his stable. In May, Kotooshu won a grand championship, the first ever by a European sumo wrestler. If he can do it again at Nagoya, he'll make yokozuna. Go, Kotooshu! The guy is seriously yummy.

The Nagoya tournament starts today and I've been making envelopes from a big (what else) sumo calendar sent by a Tokyo friend. These pudgy fellows look like dolls.

moving image: insert here and there

I keep struggling in pursuit of rescue
and grab at a string of compassion
And I behold the Bodhisattva right in front of me

---Lee Kihyang

chihuly and thompson

Two cards arrived together yesterday from Mrpotani, evidence of a busy weekend. The bottom one is from the movie about Hunter Thompson and the top from the Dale Chihuly show now on at the deYoung.

moving image: discontinuity and continuity

Objects move constantly
and the once vivid image
disappears like smoke...

We do not make efforts
to see diverse appearances of the identical object
and believe only what can be perceived
within our perceptual reach to be genuine...

---Lee Kihyang

bijin

Another ukiyoe stamp, this time of a bijin, or beauty, from the floating world.

pushing tobacco

This retro card advertising cigarettes came from a Shanghai postcrosser. The woman in the ad looks like a sprite. That's quite a cigarette she's holding.

moving image: far and near

Image 2 from Lee Kihyang's Moving Image series has to do with seeing and perception. Today the Dalai Lama starts a six-day teaching at Lehigh University, here in the Lehigh Valley. He will teach The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment.

zagreb

It's not everyday that I get a card from Zagreb. This was from a Croatian postcrosser.

hong kong trio

These three birds were on a card sent by a Hong Kong postcrosser.

moving image: desire and suffering

Artist friend Lee Kihyang was in the States last week from Seoul, but we were unable to connect in NY. Instead, she sent a beautiful little 'card catalog' from her March exhibition called Moving Image. I've several times written about Lee and her Buddhist-inspired works. Based on the Heart of Wisdom Sutra, the recent multimedia show featured Lee's fabric and body painting. Please see www.art-to-wear.pe.kr.

19th street theatre

I picked up this ad card the other night at the IronPigs game in Allentown. This weekend the 19th Street Theatre, my fave indie movie theatre, is hosting a variety of events to celebrate the 8oth year of its repertory Civic Theatre. On Friday night is a Buster Keaton film, with five-cent admission.

Lush Card

A recycled card from an Austrian postcrosser. I love the images peeking through the bright yellow Lush wrapper!

Beady Eye

Wonderful bluebird stamp on a postcard from Finland.

Rainbow Snowflake & Hepburn

A Canadian postcrosser made this sweet snowflake card and enclosed it with a wonderful Audrey Hepburn stamp. Ponytails never looked so glam.

on the old tokaido

Some of my favorite Japanese stamps are the ukiyoe ones. Tokyo-based German designer Jurgen Lehl must have a lifetime cache of them. He always uses them on his annual mailings. One came yesterday with this 2004 stamp featuring a print from Hiroshige's famed series of the old Tokaido post road.

spirit of '76

Jessie F. keeps the cards coming. Spirit of '76: most appropriate for the native Philadelphian that she is.