The Mail Art festival is on and everyone here is so friendly.
I wish I never had to leave. The island itself is beautiful. The city
colorful and visually exciting. Young Jay Lee, the curator
for the show is very nice, making sure we are happy and interested in all
our ideas. Everyone from the cultural center is welcoming
and charming.
We are all staying at the Jeju Alps Hotel across from
the exhibition hall. The hall is huge. The show looks fantastic! All the
pieces
from 40 different countries are collaged on boards in
alphabetical order by country. I think there isn't much collage done here
in
Korea and so the whole show looks new and interesting
to them. The artist names are on plaques next to each board.
We spent the first couple days pinning the artwork to
the boards and the day before the opening, we mounted the boards on the
walls of the exhibit hall. It looks grand! The opening
was so exciting. So many people arrived, flowers everywhere, posters in
Korean about mail art and Peace Island, tables of food
and rice wine. Speeches were made by the important people running the
event and Young Jay Lee interpreted John Held Jr.'s speech,
which was nice and respectful. Peter Netmail, who is beautiful, was
painted by Petina to look like a skeleton and he played
the cello in front of a poster he made of the world trade center explosion
and the bombing in Afganistan (I believe). I think this
was very new to the Korean experience. He was put in the newspaper
today.
Today, we are selling our works at tables of ArtiStamps,
rubberstamps, books, and other art. Jas Felter's table looks professional.
Jas is the most delightful person I have ever met. He
has such a wonderful sense of humor and imagination.
We walked around Jeju together looking at rubberstamps
stores and other odds and ends. He took photos of manholes with
Korean characters. I took photos of Jas leaning into trash
cans taking photos of discarded cigarette packs. There is not a dull
moment with such a strange and lovely character. He said
he would deny all of this, by the
way...http://jas.faximum.com/jas.d/asg_24.htmv
You must see his website, if you haven't before.
Michael Thompson and Michael Hernadez de Luna are here.
Fantastic artistamp artists. Their book is phenomenal! They are an
interesting team. Hernadez is having some legal trouble
over a stamp he made recently. Thompson is a very easy going relaxed
man who is pleasant to talk with.
There are other artists here from Italy and Korea's mainland
and some are coming today from Japan. Last night at the opening, I
took many pictures of artists with a pretty dragonfly
that Dragonfly Dream sent to me. I really enjoyed telling them about her
(some of them already know who she is) and they were all
pleased to take the picture. It was so much fun. It has all been so much
fun.
Sunday, our hosts are giving us a tour of the island to
see some sights like the Grandfather stones that were found here long ago
unexplained like the stones found on Easter Island.
We are getting a lot of publicity. Today cable t.v. It
is easy to be a star here.
Affectionately,
Mia Spiral
