MamaMangrove

UPDATE 3/31/2013: I'm back after a hiatus of several months, having moved from my beloved island to a cottage on the shores of the Caloosahatchee River. Reinventing myself once again.

I'm a former wandering gypsy, now living on a Florida island where I have a mango grove and other tropical delights. I grow much of my own food & like to cook (Thai & Greek recipes are favorites). 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... Was a free lance travel writer & still do occasional articles. Writing & photography were always my creative outlets but lately I'm exploring mixed media collage postcards & ATCs , and miniature book making. I've always been a big fan of, and participant in, mail art. I love tree houses, hammocks, messing about in boats, islands, jungles & rainforests.

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 love miniature books & am delighted by flip books, particularly artist flip books and off beat ones. I like a lot of poetry & have been trying my hand at haiku and tanka. Theodore Roethke, ee cummings, & Shel Silverstein are currently on my bedstand. Nick Bantock always inspires. Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, & Kipling are 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. Pedro Almodovar is a favorite filmmaker.

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

I like quirky, off-beat esoteric stuff. Cute & Sweet don’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 like whimsy. Ken Brown postcards rock my boat. And I love the Moomins. Postage stamps, faux postage (artistamps), and ephemera are my kind of thing; also old maps, old circus memorabilia, vintage labels, images of gypsies. I love bizarre old rubber stamps.(Had a great collection in the 1980's but they melted in the tropics!) Upside-down heads, sometimes called Topsy Turvys, in which the image changes when you flip it, capture my fancy, as do many optical ilulsion images. I love getting envelopes decorated with art work, stamps, etc.I appreciate things created with wit, originality, a sense of humor - or just because they're beautiful or intriguing.

• Unless it's mail art, I much prefer receiving postcards unwritten, sent in an envie, even if the swap calls for them to be sent naked. But if that's not possible, naked ones are fine --especially if they have colorful or old stamps :)).
• I don't like standard tourist cards. Artsy, whimsical, or offbeat cards please me much more. But if it absolutely must be touristy, please no multi-views.
• I like great graphics, pinups, retro, 60's kitsch, Victorian people.
• Rock & Roll & 1960's musicians
• Che Guevera
• Bob Marley
• Clever ad cards (especially from Europe & Asia) are great.
• Black & white photography (anything from Fotofolio)
• Lenticular cards (motion cards) that change with the angle from which you view them.
• Close ups of nature, like a gorgeous tree frog or a colorful beetle.
• I like art cards. I prefer contemporary & modern art to the old masters & appreciate unusual art forms such as graffiti, street art & found object creations.
• Asian art & Latin American art are favorites.
• Folk art (Day of the Dead for example).
• Cards with elephants or monkeys make me smile; camels too, especially if they're being ridden by nomads!
• Vintage cards with people (1950's & earlier - the EARLIER the BETTER) appeal to me too. Send me an old card of a circus performer or a gypsy and you've made my day!
• Inge Löök's old ladies (especially with boats!)
• Moomins (I'm a longtime fan of Tove Jannson's books, but only recently learned that Moomin postcards are popular in parts of Europe. I 'm especially fond of Snufkin & Too-ticky).
• Kaj Stenrall cards
• Charlie Chaplin
• Tin Tin
• Surprise me
• My Postcrossing favorites (link above) will give you an idea of the kind of cards I like.