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Guido Vermeulen's mail art envelopes are like worlds into themselves and at the same time they are part of the much larger whole.

(a comment by NANCY BELL SCOTT, USA, on the IUOMA network)

Guido's paintings are like finding images in the clouds
(a comment by Kathleen D. Johnson, USA, on IUOMA)

Guido does not paint monsters but spirits and ghosts, full of love, tenderness and compassion
(LIZA LEYLA during a conversation, Belgium)

His ability to express emotions through painting is a beautiful gift. Allowing oneself to feel sadness is the most direct route through grief. His paintings feel peaceful and kind.

(STEPHEN WALKER, USA)


My life is shifting... Your work is intangible, ethereal, cosmically rewarding. i eat it up & savor it like a great sandwich! It made my day!
(Lisa PEREZ, USA, on IUOMA)

Thank you for the TALISMAN painting on the envelope. It is real cool and creepy at the same time. I haven’t seen a piece of abstract capture such as pain and emotion so well since I visited the museum of art in Toledo. Bravo!
(Sarah Jo Pender, USA, from the Indiana Women’s Prison)

I suppose you could characterize Guido's painting style as expressionist. I know he is very interested in dreams as a source for art and poetry, and these particular chapter pages seem like shadowy dream corridors filled with shifting images and scenes. The Michaux quotes work as a counterpoint, Guido's art is taking over when the limits of language have been reached.
(De Villo Sloan, USA, on my tribute pages to Henri Michaux, see LAMUSAR blog)

Guido’s art expressions are always poems and they show us the reality of our real faces and souls (Mariana Serban, Romania)

His titles have both inspired and educated me (Alicia Starr, USA)

maandag 30 mei 2011

DER KAISER MEASURING THE BIRD OF PASSCHENDAELE; P.S. CORPORAL ADOLF IS IN THE BOX



Collage A4 I made also for the "great war" project of Flanders Field Gallery.
Doc on http://greatwar2014.blogspot.com/

ONTWERP VOOR EEN SPIEGELMONUMENT VOOR DE SLACHTOFFERS VAN WERELDOORLOG I



Large envelope for the project "the great war" proposed by Flanders Field Gallery in Belgium.
1) For the vicitims of Germany and its allies
2) For the victims of France and its allies
3) For the victims amongst the population and the sacrifice of nature
1 and 2 made me do the mirror images. (easy to do with some stencil art techniques)

LA MIGRATION DE L'ÂME / THE MIGRATION OF THE SOUL



Collage A4, for the project "mail me your soul" proposed by E, Utopian Embassy in France, a sequel to his former project "Is there life before death?".

EDUCATION? EDUCATORS? THEY DROWNED MY DREAMS!



Collage A4, tribute to Pink Floyd (song "We don't need no education, We don't need no thought control" (song was banned in South Africa during the Apartheid regime)
Collage I mailed to Rob Grant in Australia.

THE INNER SIDE OF THE SEA IS CALLED POE



Small painted envelope
1st work as a tribute to Edgar Allen Poe. Mailed to David Stone in the USA.

THE HAUNTED SEA HORSE



Small painted envelope
2d work as a tribute to Edgar Allen Poe. Mailed to Meg Founds in the USA.

THE SHIPWRECK SURVIVORS



Small painted envelope
3d work as a tribute to Edgar Allen Poe. Mailed to Suet in Hong Kong.

INNOCENT BYSTANDERS ARE GUILTY BY PROXI



Small painted envelope on problems of "justice".
A farce on the American Patriot Act, and a personal tribute to "I'm a superhero".
He tried to tackle the issue in a project but got harrassed by many silly americans.
You are okay Superhero, you are very okay !!!

THIS IS WHY I LOVE BLACK & WHITE TELEVISION



Small painted envelope, mailed to Sharon Silverman in the USA, as a contribution to her black & white project.

THE WANDERERS GO TO ROMANIA



Small painted envelope mailed to a school project in France (M2 pupils and their teacher).

NATIVE SELF PORTRAIT



Large painted envelope with some alterations made by the rain, mailed to Lesley Magwood Fraser in South Africa.

vrijdag 27 mei 2011

L'OISEAU DE LA MORT COLLECTIONNE LES MASQUES DES VIES PASSANTES SANS AUCUN SOUCIS DE DECORUM ET SANS PARTIE PRIS



Large painted envelope I mailed to E, Utopian Embassy in France, for the project "is there life before death?"

SWEET DREAMBUDDIES



Small painted envelope I mailed to Lesley Magwood Fraser in South Africa.

RIDERS ON THE STORM



Small painted envelope I mailed to Zois and Lynn in the USA.
Yeah, I'm a period of listening to The Doors again!

AN OPEN MIKE FOR THE COALITION OF BIRDS IN DEFENSE OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE



Small painted envelope I mailed to Saartje Stiers in Belgium. She proposes a project on Marie-Antoinette.

LOVE YOU SIDEWAYS




Small painted envelope I mailed to Liza Leyla in Belgium. I was finishing the envelope when Liza visited me last Wednesday. So the destination was quite clear.
I wrote also the following text to support the painting (in Dutch):

LOVE YOU SIDEWAYS
Voor Liza


De zijdelingse liefde
is haast
terloops…

Zij overvalt onbarmhartig
het gebrek aan onbevangenheid.

Waarom ga je rechtdoor?
Je komt nergens uit!
Ga toch zijwaarts
Schep met vlindernetten
het tekort aan adem
in verlamde hartkamers.

Waar woon je?
Toch niet in een rechtopstaande flat!
Ga liggen op je rug
Kijk naar de wolken
Daarin zullen wij wonen
zonder paranoia en zonder ingebeelde
oude rugzak vol zieke praalballast

De zijdelinkse liefde
Ik ga ervoor
Zacht als zijde
Sterk als canvas
Soepel als een penseel met varkenshaar
Onzichtbaar zichtbaar als de geest in de wijnfles

Ontsnappen is meer dan toegelaten
Het is een must!
Niet zomaar een artikel in de grondwet van de liefde
want Artikel 1 stelt terecht
dat elke burger het heilige recht heeft
tegen zijn gebenedijde overheid in te gaan
of deze nu een mannelijke of een vrouwelijke vorm aanneemt.
Quand on aime on s'en fou du monde entier!
En wie dit niet doet, bemint niet maar verstikt
vrij simpel de vrijheid van de adem.


Guido Vermeulen
Mei 2011

THE EYES OF THE COSMOS ARE WATCHING YOU




Small painted envelope I mailed to Karen Champlin in the USA.

FEED THE COSMOS, THE COSMOS FEEDS YOU



Small painted envelope I mailed to Patricia Eloy in France for her project "spirit of Zen".

THE ASSASSINATION OF THE MAGICAL FOREST



Collage A4 with graphic materials from a German zine, edition 1884-1885

maandag 23 mei 2011

LARGE SHELLSHOCK PORTRAIT



Painting on the back of a calendar, mailed to Flanders Field Gallery in Belgium. They propose a project on world war one.

SMALL SHELLSHOCK PORTRAIT



Altered free postcard I mailed to Georgia Grigoriadou in Greece.

ZOMBIES IN THE NIGHT



Small painted envelope mailed to Superhero in the USA.
Adding an additional note was fun:
This is a conspiracy painting! Instead of STRANGERS in the night Sinatra wanted to sing ZOMBIES in the night but the executive suits of the music industry did not allow the crooner with the golden voice to perform this dawn of the dead song, so the lyrics were altered. God bless America.

THE WORKERS OF THE NIGHT SHIFT



Small painted envelope mailed to Ottmar Bergmann and Mette Aarre in Sweden.
Ottmar proposes a project on "working worlds".

DO YOU DREAM IN YELLOW?



Small painted envelope mailed to Roberto Formigoni in Italy.

DO YOU DREAM IN GREEN?



Small painted envelope mailed to Lothar Trott in Switzerland, part of the dream serial (first one was "do you dream in ochre?)

DECOMPOSITION OF A RABBIT BY 2 CRAZY HUNTERS



Large painted envelope mailed to Carla Cryptic in the USA, second contribution to her project "in the year of the golden rabbit".

COSMIC CHANGE IS COMING



Small painted envelope mailed to Valentine Mark Herman in France.

A TAPESTRY OF BIRDS



Large painted envelope mailed to Monique Corbeil in Canada, second contribution to her project " a tribute to Corneille".

A POEM FOR MARK



Small painted envelope mailed to Mark Sonnenfeld in the USA.

donderdag 19 mei 2011

THE SHADOWS OF FIRE



Small painted envelope mailed to Rod Summers in The Netherlands, accompanied by a short poem in Dutch:

Een huis zoals Maastricht


In de schaduw van het vuur
dansen de poppen zonder zorgen

In de luwte van het water
giechelen vissen met ongeboren kinderen

In de wrede kalmte van ijzige aarde
vind ik keizervader als wedergeboren naaktslak

In de warme armen van speelse lucht
streelt een koninginnevlinder mijn weke onderbuik.

Nergens en overal ben ik
plots thuis.


Guido Vermeulen
Mei 2011
Voor Rod Summers

HAVE FUN IN THE NEXT COSMOS



Small painted envelope mailed to John M Bennett in the USA

SOYONS ZEN



Small painted envelope for the project "Zen Spirit", proposed by Patricia Eloy in France, accompanied by a quote from Friedrich Nietzche on how men only slowly begins to understand the eternel complexity of the world because he first thinks that the world is quite easy, according to his own image.

NIGHT VIISIONS



Small painted envelope, for Marta Belles in Spain.

INSIDE THE WAVES THE SHIP OF FOOLS TRIED NOT TO PANIC!



Another small painted envelope for the Ship of Fools project of Heike Sackmann in Germany, together with this poem:

Inside the waves
the ship of fools
tried not to panic.

The wind wavered
a weak but dark epitaph.
Clouds drummed slowly
as if to announce a sudden
death.

A seagull song
talked to the worst fears
of the wailing sailors:

"Don't miss the next mermaid!
She's waiting behind the next
Big Wave!"


Guido Vermeulen
May 2011
For Heike Sackmann

dinsdag 17 mei 2011

A PREHISTORICAL FISH ON ITS WAY TO THE DENTIST, CAUGHT AND FROZEN INTO A TIME CAPSULE



Intervention on a large mail art envelope mailed to Wayan Wenten in Bali, Indonesia, an artist my brother Dirk met during his stay over there.

WATCHING YOU WITH THE EYES OF THE NIGHT



Intervention on a large mail art envelope, mailed to Zois and Lynn Palmiter Jr in the USA.
Automatic painting, in the beginning I thought it was an image of my stray cat Tarantino giving me the dark eye. Later I realized it was a kind of a self portrait, me since I am wearing an oxygen mask during the night. Fun that this surfaces from the subconsciousness.

TOO MANY C(R)OOKS!



Intervention on a small standard mail art envelope, mailed to Deborah Davidson.
Title is a reference to a classic crime thriller of Rex Stout (Too Many cooks) with private eye Nero Wolfe, also a gourmet. Deborah has a project on food. Magritte was a fan of Stout and I saw the book in the house in Jette where he used to live. Read the book when I was a teenager, passed it on to someone to read and it never returned!

THE DIVERS



Intervention on a small standard mail art envelope, mailed to PC Tictac in Germany.

maandag 16 mei 2011

DE LA SERIE "LES 12 CRAPULES LES PLUS ODIEUSES DU MONDE": LES PAPES, NICOLAS III & BENOIT XIII (Les Polonais sont priés de s'abstenir de commentaires



Collage A4

DE VADSIGE KONINGEN STUURDEN HUN GELD OP REIS



Collage postcard size with materials from 1892 accompanied by this text (also mailed to Anke van den Berg):
Tja, de vadsige koningen waren zo lui dat ze hun geld op reis stuurden & aldus ontstond bij toeval het globale kapitalisme; het ontsproot dus uit royale luiheid boven alles, iets dat Karl Marx nooit echt goed heeft begrepen.

BABY, I RETURNED TO YOU AKA ZOMBIE LOVE IN FUKUSHIMA AKA THE KING OF TEPCO



Collage A4, mailed to Anke van den Berg in Belgium. Also good example of "less is more", collage made with 3 elements.

ANIMAL MUTATIONS AT FUKUSHIMA (a new Japanese blockbuster movie in preparation)



Collage A4

A2 aka DE KROON ONTBLOOT



Intervention on a large mail art envelope mailed to Anke van den Berg in Belgium for her project on kings. Next to the painting I added this text:

HET GEHEIM VAN LAKEN: ALBERT II, KONING DER BELGEN, NA 1 JAAR CONSULTATIES MET 9 POLITIEKE PARTIJEN ZIET ONZE VORST ER ONGEVEER ZO UIT, ZEER BEDROEVEND AL ZEG IK HET ZELF! MEN ZEGGE HET VOORT, MEN TONE DIT AAN ALLEN!
VOORWAAR IK ZEG U: VOOR VORST EN VADERLAND, MEN SLACHTTE EINDELIJK LETERME'S GEIT...

The stamp is an old one of a young Albert & Paola with their kinds (postal stamp of the 60's).

DE DOOD WEES MIJ OP KLEINE INTERESSANTE DINGEN



Intervention on a large mail art envelope
The title is the first verse of a poem by M. Vasalis.

SCREAM 11032011 (this is not a Wes Craven movie)



Collage A4 on the tsunami that hit Japan. Perfect example of "less is more". Collage only made with 2 elements.

RETURN TO MAGIC MOUNTAIN aka OR I AM ROCK



Intervention on a large mail art envelope, mailed to Reiko Fuji in the USA.
I added Indonesian stamp and image of Indonesian newspaper on the painting.

MEET THE FISH ZOMBIES



Intervention on a small standard mail art envelope, mailed to Superhero in the USA.

INDONESIA BOOKSHOP



An altered photo of an Indonesian newspaper that my brother Dirk gave me after he spent 6 weeks over there, the lucky bastard!

A tribute to CIORAN aka Let's shun the light aka let's lick the slick



Intervention on a small mail art envelope, mailed to Guy Bleus in Belgium.
The slick lick is a wink to my first meeting with Guy Bleus early nineties.

HI ROS HIM A



Collage A4 mailed to Reiko Fuji in the USA. David Palmer added some notes on the back for Reiko.