To: Mark Mayer
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (2 of 2)
...nice boot to have. It's the red & blue fast back. You can even get jet sticks to put on them. So I put $20 down and you can get them when you come. Tell Patrick that this guy was my roommate at the academy last year. Write me back soon. How's Brenda? Marshall
Volkert Volkersz to Mark Mayer
Greetings from Bellingham, Wash. north of Seattle 90 miles. Here's a bit of our history for your postcard collection. Volkert Volkersz
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer
Mark—Some slides of the ceramic shit I found are enclosed. The other side is a holiday special at Franks Drive In Albq. We're going to see Freddie Hubbard tonight. Marshall
Bob Figgis to Mark Mayer (3 of 3)
#3 Mary's trailer is just incredible, 1949 model alum. outside birch and oak inside and the wood is all bent around the corners, really neat. I'll send slides. Get your a. up here! Fig (wrench)
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (1 of 13)
Dear Mark, I got your package today—in response I'm sending you my entire collection of fishing postcards which I have been saving since you first sent me some. I hope it will do...
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (2 of 13)
...something for your "Bathtub fisherman" idea, which sounds interesting as far as an anticipation/actualization (—vicarious/real) experience. That's what postcards are about, mostly. Especially these. Your postcards didn't sound too encouraging. I don't think I can encourage you right now 'cause...
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (3 of 13)
...I'm in pretty much the same boat. I can't save any money from this goddam [sic] job which I am quitting soon. I'm so tired and pissed off after I get off work I can't do anything on my own. No new work in the last month! It drives me up the wall—not even an impetus to do anything new. The book has stalled. My independent study in...
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (4 of 13)
...video w/ Bonnie [Lambert] is just one big technical problem—and it has to be done in 2 weeks. And I can't sell any of these fuckin' lenses (135 + 50) so I can go on a photographic vacation. Shit! Shit! Shit! My only saving grace is Bonnie. Let's talk about us. I still don't understand this ego trip thing you and brenda [Mayer] keep mentioning—maybe it's just a semantic problem 'cause I understand all the rest.
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (5 of 13)
I do want to do the meta cafe colaboration [sic] and I still think it's a good idea for a show which we should do. It could be a really interesting (to other people + to us I'm sure) collaboration and besides the design for the cafe we should document the collaboration for the show. like this here. We seem to be at low tide now so let's feed off each other and grow even though by long distance. A collaboration like yours & Dan's [Loewenstein] last year was good and something I'm interested in—
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (6 of 13)
The volume of correspondence impressed me most though you know I could never keep that up. I'll try. There is even still a chance that I might be there till December. I'll explain later. You really should think of moving then anyway—I couldn't offer nearly enough feedback if I were in Seattle. I know we could be of value to each other but most response must come from the outside. Otherwise it becomes too ingrown.
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (7 of 13)
I think we became too much that way in N.M. and that you still cling to that existence. It may look like I'm growing away from our common interests back then but I feel I'm just extending them into other directions. It's not inconsistent but expansive. I confess I've not shared these revelations with you 'cause of distance and an ego trip I guess.—I'm sure you'll be excited by what I've learned here.
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (8 of 13)
I can talk alittle [sic] about the work you sent me. I think the poster picture is most interesting although the caligraphy [sic] for the "Extended visual trips" (and even the title) seem dumb. Your portrait is terrific. I guess the biggest problem with this work is that it is a self portrait and the only way to appreciate it as a viewer is to know you or the events portrayed—and very well, too. I know this stuff and it interests me—but everybody else doesn't. So they have to relate to them as aesthetic objects. Something which does not interest...
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (9 of 13)
...you. The energy is what counts. And I'm not sure that comes through in what you sent except in the poster. You have to send more of your book so I can tell. What always used to impress me about your work was the energy that was evident even though it was not the subject of the work. Now that your life & energy is the subject it doesn't come out so well. It may be circumstantial—low tide, you know.
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (10 of 13)
This meta cafe thing & the Bathtub fisherman thing would be a terrific positive step I think because you wouldn't be manifesting yourself so literally. And really open yourself up to some interesting intellectual challenges; something which I think you are entirely capable of meeting. I think the greatest benefit from our correspondence, besides the obvious, is that we could be able to regain some concentration and bearing...
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (11 of 13)
...on what each are doing if we have to articulate clearly. Cut down on phone bills too. It would be a good way to build that philosophical substructure which our work ultimately cannot stand without. Last year our philosophy was bent toward destruction of art. But now we both have surpassed that by realizing that art can be surpassed & eventually...
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (12 of 13)
...forgotten. Now there is an incredibly intricate philosophy of existence beyond art that we have to synthesize because it still has not been done. We are capable of it so let's do it and make it part of meta cafe—it will be essential to it's airtight justification. I guess now I'm interested in two things:
Marshall Mayer to Mark Mayer (13 of 13)
1. symbolic activity and correlations between visual + verbal activities. 2. how to surpass art. Meta cafe is a manifestation of the second concern and that's what we can do best together. So let's do it!!! There aren't any important artists who don't know where they are so let's find out and make that gastronomical visual statement. Write soon, Marshall
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