Regina and tokoloshe

I started this card by doing a drawing of Regina (a cleaner who works in my classroom).

The back of the card has a portion of a flyer handed out at traffic lights. These flyers advertise all sorts of cures by sangomas (traditional healers) I often look at these flyers & am amazed at the extent of their claims – they promise to cure all society ills from debt to ill health to lack of sexual performance. They even promise to get rid of & harness the power of a mythical creature called the tokoloshe.

They are often full of grammatical and spelling errors which makes their claims/promises difficult to understand – or changes the meaning all together. (I am sure the second to last line is supposed to read “in addition” instead it says “in addiction”) This card has been sent to America to the author of a blog called Mail art postcard exhibition . One of my cards was featured on this blog last month.

Theme Re(a)d

I am exchanging artists cards with Jeanette Gilks based on the theme re(a)d - anthing to do with the colour red and reading. "The word red comes from the Old English rēad. Further back, the word can be traced to the Proto-Germanic rauthaz and the Proto-Indo European root reudh"

The surface/support of this card/booklet is a photograph taken in central Durban. The street is in decay, but happens to have a lot of red in the awnings & Coca-cola signs. I have made reference on some pages to what goes on in this street "cheap" trade.

A new card for Cheryl

This card is called Red Wallpaper.  I “photoshopped” gloves on to an image of a 50’s woman. The kitchen gloves in this artwork dominate the piece. I have printed the image on tracing paper & laminated an image of 50’s wallpaper designs on to the back. Red net, stitching in red enhances designs in the wallpaper & outlines the gloves. A black 50’s woman silhouette” looks on” from the right. Black thread again adds movement & textural interest to this piece.

New card from Cheryl

I have just received this card from Cheryl Penn. I really like the interactive zip! 

Cheryl is worried about "You bored me to death card"

I sent this card to Cheryl Penn and she became concerned about the text.  It is certainly not a message to her - I find Cheryl most inspirational.  I pick up free postcards cards (often at Ocean basket at Musgrave Centre) and use these as a base for my own artworks - often integrating original text and images into my work.  "You bored me to death" is original text on the card.  This postcard makes reference to the existence of the woman in the 50's - most women today would find her interests/life boring. The French poodle points to her contrived life.