What better place to take a picture of a load of post than in the Rue de Sevigne in Paris.
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (5 February 1626 – 17 April 1696) was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter.
Me, Mim and Elena came to her street 400 years later and I wondered whether my REAL wall will be remembered with such fondness in 400 years.
Who knows…
This weekend me and Elena went to Paris. I imagine that most of you reading would be thinking that that’s a lovely thing for me to do on the weekend after Valentines day, and yes I guess that as newlywed husband and wife it was pretty nice, but the truth is, we went for something entirely different than romance.
We went for postcards.
Yes, hard as it may seem to believe, this weekend we went to Paris to meet Mim and her husband Chuck, who have been living in Paris for the last 2 months. Mim is a Mailart365 artist, and one of the first past the line, and is also a good friend from the early days of my REAL wall. We’ve been mailing for more than 3 years so it’s like meeting an old friend.
Also on the trip with us was Positively Postal, who helped put these postcards up on a windy Saturday afternoon in Paris.
The other lovely mailartist we met was the lovely and prolific Dean Marks, who is Paris-based, and works mainly with barcodes. And everything else he can get his hands on.
We spent Saturday discovering Paris and Sunday making mailart together and I finally got to make REAL walls with other mailartists. It was great!
A wonderful time was had by all, and it just goes to show that meeting for REAL and putting stuff on REAL walls will always beast that virtual rubbish!
Want to see those postcards a little closer? Check out the gallery below…
These are the second lot of postcards produced by students for the 5 picture story lesson I taught at the unviersity I work at. Some awesome stories lie behind every one of them, but I can’t for the life of me remember them all!
I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but have I told you how fabulous I think Heleen de Vaan is? Well if you didn’t already know, me and Elena think she’s GREAT!
Already a firm favourite since putting together some wonderful pimped photos some years back, Heleen has made us smile month after month, with her wonderful drawings and at Christmas we received a surprise package with her unmistakable writing and drawings on.
Imagine our delight when we found it covered in Postcrossing stamps and filled with…5 bars of chocolate! So to those of you wondering how to get a full feature here on my REAL wall, watch and learn!
Elena saw immediately what the letters meant, but when I laid them out it actualy took me a few days to decipher. Can you mailartists guess what it is yet?
Chuck Scalin’s REAL wall in Paris continues to expand with contributions. This wall is particularly exciting for me as me and Elena are going to see it in a few weeks time! We’ll add to it in person.
Here’s what Chuck has to say…
Just wanted to update all of you who’ve been so supportive on my quest to start a wall of my own during our stay in Paris.
Thanks so much for all the mail I’ve received the past few weeks! As you can see from the photo below, My Wall has grown
considerably since I received my first mail art from Katerina who started it all for me.
Thanks again and I look forward to meeting some of you soon!
Chuck (aka Charles-Benoit)
It’s been a really busy week this week, what with arranging the very first Roehampton Teachmeet, and I’m still playing catchup with postcards from the end of last year.
Up on the wall today are some lovely new envelopes from Benjamin Shaw Designs and some stickers from an Anonymous source. Over to the right are two cards from some long-time mailart friends, Dumpsterdiver and Heleen and the splashes of green on the wall come from Mim and Hope.
Mailart365ers Lindsay, BrisCris and Dewi are also on the wall for the second time. Dewi actually put that card up himself when he came over to stay!
Later on this month, Elena and I are heading to Paris with Positively Postal and Katerina to meet Mim and Chuck. We are all mailartists and met through sending post to each other, and we’re going to meet up and make mailart together. We can hardly wait and have already booked a place to stay together.
But even before I get there, I’ve already got a little treat from Chuck in the form of Chucks REAL wall! Here’s his message…
Bonjour from Paris!
My Real Wall!
Just wanted to thank you all for sending mail-art to me in Paris!
What a nice surprise to return from our Bilbao trip to find a deluge of mail-art
correspondence completely filling my mailbox.
A special thank you to my friend Katerina, who sent me my first piece of mail-art in Paris
It started a chain of mail to post on my wall in our atelier–I’ve attached a photo of
my growing collection for you to see.
Also, many thanks Erni for sending me the awesome Spiegelman book–he’s one of my favorites!
After we return to our home in Richmond, Virginia, I will respond with mail-art to all of you also.
Sending you best regards,
Chuck (aka Charl-Benoit in Paris)
PS:
Check out my blog of photo images I’ve gleaned from the streets of Paris and Bilbao.
myurbanfragments.blogspot.com
Also, my website is: www.chuckscalin.com
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