Had an amazing dream last night. It had the theme of "choices" in it. I''d recently dropped off a huge load of old clothes to a thrift shop that raises money for a local animal shelter. I'd been thinking about what happens to the stuff they don't sell? Where does it go, who gets it? I'd also been thinking about all the stuff in department stores that doesn't get sold.....
In my dream there were mountains made of stuff, old stuff, discarded stuff. People were taking shelter on these piles which were coming out of the ocean. Folks would trip and slide and stuff would go tumbling into the ocean and of course it would rise giving the people less and less area to be on.
I got to thinking about art. What makes art art? Who says it is art anyway? Recently I took an out of town friend to our famous Folk Art Museum. We walked and gawked. She started to wonder and question why certain things were considered folk art. Mostly this is a huge collection of toys. Of course there are many things which are crafts by native cultures from around the world. Again, why is it folk art? And then there is the distinction between art and craft.....
And so, back to mail art. What makes something "mail art"?
I get all kinds of stuff sent to me in the guise of mail art. Sometimes it's just a postcard, sometimes it is a collage, other times it's a mini water color painting. Sometimes it's an envelope stuffed with someone's food packaging.
Mail art......it's mail, but is it art? We all have choices in life, practically everything we do involves a choice....
I go into museums and see walls covered in art. I pass quickly by if nothing catches my eye. It could be famous artist's work, but if it doesn't "twang" in my heart and soul I just cruise on by. I think perhaps it helps that I grew up in New York City across from a wild and weird modern art museum. I saw a lot of stuff that I would not consider art. After all it still confounds me today that era in art where folks would simply paint a huge canvas white and call that art. ???
I wonder how folks would react if I just sent blank postcards?
Dragonfly Dream
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