At the start of this month, I was invited by Sunnysidey to join the
Unofficial Thing-a-day 2010.

Never one to turn down a challenge, I accepted and set about resurrecting everybody's favourite miniature-Hero. Then, just for a laugh, I thought I
would also enter the official Thing-day, and make a REAL wall every day for February.

What I had failed to take into account was the fact that I have a
full-time job, hobbies and other commitments too, so after less than a
month, I have to hold my hands up and confess, I had to let some of
these slip. Well alright both of them.

mini-Andy lies still injured upstairs in the mezzanine floor with Tweet-twoo
wondering when the next photoshoot is going to take place, and the
backlog of postcards has been building up.

So here is my end of the month REAL wall for February, and my
sincerest apologies to anyone who was expecting prolific creative
output this month, coupled with my excuse list on the side.

It's not a bad list of excuses though right...?

Today, we decided to add 4 new additions to the house. After hours of
deliberation we decided on some names and we'd like to introduce you
to Stripey Fish (bottom left), Red Head (Top centre), Orange fish
(bottom centre) and Spotty fish (hiding as usual - he's very shy)

These lucky fish will have a rotating wallpaper of your postcards on
the side of their fish tank to keep them company. This week Heleen from Holland will be keeping  our fishy pals entertained with her
pimped photo envelope showing her recent "visit" to see us at my REAL
wall HQ!

Pimp my photos is a mailart call I have had out for a while. I have a
load of photos that I printed out that I don't do anything with. If
you can help me make them look cool, send me an email with your address and I'll send you some photos in an envelope for you to
pimp them up and send them back to me.

Simples!

I think this is the first time that my mailart has been on public display in a mailart show in a gallery.

My mailart piece is the one in the top right hand corner, with the tube map and rubber stamps. A few others may have received this or be in line to receive one, as I've gone through a bit of a funny phase of making these lately.

In the last year I have developed a thing about expressing change in my mailart. To me a picture postcard represents the ultimate expression of freezing a moment in time, both spatially and temporally. What better way of capturing a moment than to take a picture and what better way to freeze that moment in the collective consciousness than to create a postcard.

So in my mailart I look to subvert the trend by taking postcards and images from the past and fusing them with the present, and if I can the future.

To do this, I take antique postcards and images and then look for the equivalent image today, either by going there and photographing the exact location myself, or getting the next best thing

Initially the idea of cutting these old pictures in half repulsed me I confess. It was like desecrating the past. The past it seemed, held a power over me and I I viewed it as sacred and unchangable.

After I cut through the first few though, I realised that by combining images of the past with those of the present I could create a link between the places in time, then by sending them away I could break the hold of the past on my psyche spatially too.

Fusion of past and present within the borders of the frame was a liberation not only for me but also, I felt, for the postcards, which had stayed frozen in a past they could not escape.

If you click the first image, you'll go through to the flickr page where you can see the notes on the other pieces on display that I know. My mailart joins the esteemed company of some of the most awesome mailartists in the world, including the incredible Cross-Ryu and Dosanko Debbie, as well as the prolific Test Tower and Jennlui.

I am indeed humbled

The mountains from Meribel, France, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

There are very few joys during January in my experience (bar Andy's
birthday and a couple of other minor happenings). Hence, we
decided it was time to break the bleak routine by skipping town
to go skiing in France on the [possibly] world famous disco train
which takes you out of London at 9pm on a Friday, and drops you
at the foot of the slopes at 5:40am on Saturday.

You may be surprised to hear that around 1am, as soon as the bar
carriage stops serving overpriced booze, the atmosphere changes
instantly from fun and carefree to sleepy, grumpy and somewhat
hostile as fellow passengers insist on crashing out. Disgrace.
What has this world come to.

You're seeing the view from our apartment and a range of postcards,
whose brief subject summaries I thought could be linked somehow
to provide us with a little tale:

The fat man drives a rocket postbus between Moscow and Texas with a
rifle and his collection of pencils. His pig asks him whether
he'd prefer to take a rollercoaster to New Zealand, to which the
fat man tenses his brow like a baseball player, and eventually
replies he'd rather be squashed by an elephant as if he were a
cob of corn.

And there we have it. Fat man gets a mention twice obviously, but
please don't take offence.

Good to be back,
Lplatebigcheese

my REAL wall - 07 February 2010, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

Fans of may be able to spot a very big announcement in here. Can you see the good news? Can you?

my REAL wall - Shivablack's shower, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

All these postcards came in the post today. In amongst them was one from a German mailartist whose work I very much admire.

Shivablack was one of the first mailartists who caught my eye, a very active mixed media collage artist. Her work sometimes veers on the dark and eerie side, but is always imaginative.

This piece by Shivablack seemingly shows a woman in a shower, slightly obscured by paint, so I thought I'd take this idea and take the opportunity to put up a shower REAL wall, which I haven't yet done at the new place.

Shout out to Juliet too, an old friend of mine from Madrid who sent a card from Poland and thanks to my postcrossing and swap-bot partners who make appearances today too.

Moo REAL wall, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

When I heard that my girlfriend Elena's best friend AAA was heading back to Romania and that she has her own cow, I realised that I couldn't possibly let her go without a whole lot of postcards, some blu-tac and the agreement that cows would feature somewhere on my REAL wall on her return.

Armed with a selection of mailart and a camera AAA took the challenge and went into the darkened barn.

From the feedback, it would appear that blu-tac doesn't stick to cows and that using flash photography with bovines in dark barns is definitely not to be recommended.

Thanks to Heebeejeebeeland, Sherri Ayers and Mexico30 for your contributions and thanks to Alindruta the cow for letting us use the barn and being a good sport. Best of luck with your new calves!

my REAL wall - February 2, 2010 - A Thing a day, originally uploaded by andytgeezer.

It's been a while since a bunch of complete strangers on the internet took over my life completely for a month-long project, and experience tells me that when this happens it's usually a good thing!

This month I have signed up for Thing-a-day, a project where you do something creative every day for the entire month of February. I decided that this month, I'd post up a new REAL wall every day, here on the Thing-a-day site and at the usual place, www.myrealwall.com. Usually my REAL wall isn't quite a daily event, but for the month of February, REAL wall fans will get a guaranteed REAL wall a day right here!

Today's wall features post from some regular contributors such as the excellent Postmuse and Rebecca Resinski and birthday cards from my REAL life friends Stalex and Carl, as well as the first ever contribution from a 4 year old girl.

As always, my REAL wall is open to contributions from anyone who wants to contribute. You can send in any media at all, postcards, mailart, knitting, crotchet, you name it and I'll display it To take part, just drop your REAL post in the letterbox to 

Andy and Elena
my REAL wall
PO Box 63138
LONDON
W14 4BR
UK

Then stay tuned to see what happens!