MamaMangrove

I'm a former wandering gypsy, now living in Florida where the primeval beauty of the Big Cypress swamp and the longest coastline of any state except Alaska satisfy certain of my inner needs. It's also a great jumping off point for the Bahamas, the Caribbean & Latin America. I lived in India for several years working with a snake catcher; traveled with Ringling Brothers Circus (living on the train); lived on a sailboat in the Bahamas & Caribbean for 5 years. My numerous occupations have included newspaper staff writer, assembly-line worker in a cockroach trap factory, librarian, charter-boat cook, dog walker in NYC, proprietor of a shop selling beach paraphernalia in the Virgin Islands and, most consistently, free-lance travel writer. Travel, adventure & being easily distracted are all prime motivators in my life!

Writing & photography were always my creative outlets, but lately I'm exploring mixed media collage & miniature book making. I originally joined Swap-Bot for non-touristy postcard exchanges as I'm always on the lookout for quirky or whimsical imagery. But I'm a long-time fan of (and participant in) mail art, so I've become more involved in collage & handmade postcard & mail art swaps. I appreciate things created with wit, originality, a sense of humor - or just because they're beautiful or intriguing. I like clever, off-beat, esoteric stuff. Girlie cutesy doesn't cut it for me. (Maybe I'm still rebelling against a mother who tried too hard to make me pink and frilly.) But I do enjoy whimsy. I love getting postcards & envelopes decorated with art work, collage, etc. And lots & lots of cool stamps!

Though I caved to peer pressure & created a Flickr account, I'm REALLY bad about keeping it updated with images of mail art I've sent! Social media in general eludes me. There are never enough hours in the day for all the other things I find far more interesting to do.

My musical taste is pretty eclectic, but I particularly like acoustic guitar, Reggae, Latin jazz, World Music in general. A few of my favorite musicians are Mose Allison, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell & Paco de Lucia.

My passport is my favorite book. I read a lot of nonfiction. When I get interested in a subject I read about it voraciously. I enjoy poetry & have been trying my hand at haiku and tanka. Theodore Roethke, ee cummings, & Shel Silverstein are often on my bedstand. Nick Bantock always inspires. Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, & Kipling are among my long time favorites.

My top 5 favorite films are La Strada, L'Atalante, The Gods Must be Crazy, Walkabout, The Triplets of Belleville. My choices seem to reflect my penchant for living on boats; circuses; exotic locales & eccentric characters. I watch a lot of foreign films & indie films. Pedro Almodovar is a favorite filmmaker.

Mixed media collage, (mainly postcards) & occasionally miniature books. Because I've always been a writer and photographer I often incorporate words and photos into my crafts.

For store-bought postcard swaps I much PREFER RECEIVING POSTCARDS SENT BLANK, IN AN ENVIE, even if the swap calls for them to be sent naked. I understand if you can't do that, but that's my preference & I'll never rate you down for sending that way. I also love old or interesting postage.

• I prefer standard size - around 4x6 - cards.

• NO tourist cards please, unless the swap specifically calls for them. Even then I'd prefer something non-touristy.

• NO Christian themes or Bible verses.

• I am not fond of color-it-yourself or Zazzle cards.

POSTCARDS I'D ESPECIALLY LIKE TO RECEIVE

• Ken Brown's cards

• Glen Baxter cards, particularly his cowboy series. There's one called "My capucinno" that I'd so love to find in my mailbox.

• cards by Brest Brest Brest, like this one which was in the Curious Feast: 100 Postcards by 10 Artists

• Art & architecture of Friedensreich Hundertwasser

• Cards featuring HANDS or EYES

• Black & white photography (anything from Fotofolio & Nouvelles Images for example.)

• Jerry Uelsmann's photomontages

• Inge Look's old ladies

• The graphic art of Corita Kent

• Cards with elephants or monkeys make me smile; camels too, especially if they're being ridden by nomads!

• People dancing

• Alligators

• Unusual animals - think sloths, armadillos, aardvarks, platypuses, etc.

• The Everglades

• Eadweard Muybrige's animals or people in motion

• Close ups of nature, like the patterns on a beetle, the eye of a fish, etc.

• Art cards, particularly collage artists, graffiti art, street art, "outsider" art, & found object creations.

• Paintings by the Florida Highwaymen.

• Some favorite artists: Magritte, Matisse (particularly his cut-outs), Robert Rauschenberg, Charlie Harper, Joan Miro, Keith Haring, Dali, Georgia O'Keefe, Joseph Cornell, Mayumi Oda & Frida Kahlo, Saul Steinberg.

• Winslow Homer's paintings of Florida and the Bahamas.

• Seminole or Miccosoukee people

• Snake Charmers

• Weird Science

• Hindu or Buddhist deities

• Edward Gorey's illustrations

• Matchbox cover art

• Cigar Box Label art (love those old lithographs)

• Great graphic Design

• Humor, particularly off-beat, droll, or dry.

• Vintage educational charts

• Naughty Little People

• Rock & Roll & 1960's musicians

• Che Guevera

• Cuba

• Snoopy (from the Peanuts cartoons)

• Ikea cards (4x6 size)

• Kaj Stenvall cards

• Charlie Chaplin

• Popeye the Sailor Man

• Anne Taintor

• Troubled Birds (a series of postcards that crack me up!)

• Vintage B&W "real photo" cards of people.

• 1960's & earlier Florida

• Vintage India or Afghanistan

• Lenticular (3-D) cards (but not those "Magic Eye" cards. I have monocular vision & can never see the hidden images.)

• Postcards that squeak!

• Postcards with googly eyes!

• Squeaky postcards WITH googly eyes! (I have only one - a circa 1950s alligator - and he'd so love to be the start of a collection :))

• Upside-down heads, sometimes called Topsy Turvys, in which the image changes when you flip it. Like this:

• Surprise me!

• My Postcrossing favorites (link above) may give you an idea of the kinds of cards I like.

If you're inclined to include extras or it's a mail art envie swap, here are some of the things I enjoy receiving:

• Postage stamps (I can always use uncancelled US stamps, while used US or foreign stamps get recycled in my collage & mail art).

• Faux postage (artistamps)

• Cigar bands

• Old black & white photos

• Air mail Stickers/labels

• Match box labels.

• Fortune cookie fortunes

• patterned tissue paper

• I love bizarre, quirky rubber stamps.(Had a great collection in the 1980's but they melted in the tropics!)