About the Book
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“Okay, I’ll admit it, I’m obsessed with everything this book is about -- art, mail, the lost art of communication, personal sacrifice and all points in between.” So states Cameron Crow, respected writer and film director in his introduction to Connected…by the U.S. Mail: An Art Correspondence.
It all began in 1975. John was in his mid-twenties, married with a two-year-old son, working at Tower Records in San Francisco and living in Marin County. He had attended the San Francisco Art Institute a couple of years prior to this and he was passionate about photography. Upon meeting Peter Blind through a mutual friend, the infamous Captain Colourz, John took some casual pictures of the trio and that’s all John remembers about their first encounter, other than Peter asking John if he would be interested in sending things to each other through the mail. John said something to the effect of, “Yes, that sounds interesting.” He received something from Peter almost immediately; a poster from a radio station with a busy black ink and brush painting. John answered back with some sort of photograph/collage postcard and thus began the through-the-mail game of visual tag. John explains the intensity of their correspondence: “From the start, we both noticed the ‘ESP’ way in which we communicated. We played off of each other with much of the work being tongue-in-cheek and messages always train-wrecks of words. This also launched me into constantly looking on the ground and in gutters for interesting bits of paper or other suitable material for the collage work that I am more than ever involved in. Collage is my identity today.”
Cameron Crow explains the depth of this unique sharing of art and passion. “This was a communication that continued in portraits, photos, poetry, visuals, splotches, postcards, and packages. The Correspondence pulsed through seasons, over 30 years, life-changing events, worldwide tragedies, happiness, sadness, indifference and just plain giddiness. The letters and packages filled boxes, crates, lived in basements, attics, and ultimately became one of the true constants in both these artists’ lives. When John Maxwell casually showed me a collection of the material just last month, I knew and he knew and now you’ll know, it was time to share it."
This collection represents only the first ten years of predominantly original postcards from the on-going correspondence between Peter Blind and John Maxwell. It should be noted that Peter and John did not see or speak to each other for almost twenty years. Their correspondence through the mail was their only communication until sometime in the mid-1990’s.
(Cameron Crow has directed many major motion pictures, such as Say Anything, Vanilla Sky, Jerry McGuire, and Almost Famous.)
See excerpts from Connected...
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