Marilyn Dammann

En recuerdo a nuestra amiga y colega...

In memory of our friend and colleague...

(May 22, 2005)

----- Original Message -----

From: Guido Vermeulen

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 6:56 PM

Subject: Marilyn's Passing

Dear Friends, Dear Mail artists,

I have the very painful news to tell all of you:

Marilyn Dammann (also known as Shadow in the network) died on Sunday afternoon, May 22, 2005. She had spread a message she'd retired from mail art activities. The truth behind this message was that she was dying of a general cancer. Only a few people knew this and kept this a secret like she wished. She made a last trip with her children and grand children. Her beautiful house and garden in the UP that I visited twice will become a community arts gallery in her honor.

I'm very shocked and in deep mourning. The mail art network has lost one its finest members. I've lost a very good friend. Let's all remember her in thoughts and art.

. Messages received from mailartists .

From: Michael Leigh

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 3:13 AM

Subject: Re: (",) Marilyn's passing

Very sorry to hear this sad news.

Michael

From: Pete Spence

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 4:36 AM

Subject: RE: [mailart] Re: address/marilyn dammann

i have just been given notice that Marilyn Dammann a great American mail-artist has died. please those who knew please send a message to this place

pete spence

From: Tricia Burr

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 8:31 AM

Subject: (",) Re: marilyn's passing

Marilyn is a loss to the Network as well as to those like Guido, who knew her personally.I think her nom de plume "Shadow" may have been prophetic.

Regards, Tricia

From: Reid Wood

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 10:39 AM

Subject: Re: (",) Marilyn's passing

Dear Guido,

Thank you for passing along this sad news. It is doubly poignant because May 22 is my birthday.

Reid

From: Guido Bondioli

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 12:42 PM

Subject: Re: (",) Marilyn's passing

She was a brilliant artist. Everything she sent was full of visual tricks that delight the eye. I will miss the thrill of seeing her envelope glowing in my mail box. I knew it contained a treasure made just for me.

Guido

From: Pierpaolo Limongelli

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 2:36 PM

Subject: [mailart] Re: marilyn dammann

I mourn Marilyn Damman, she made very beautiful postcards.

Pierpaolo Limongelli

via calatafimi, 38 / 70043 Monopoli (Ba) / Italy

From: Sztuka Fabryka

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 4:46 PM

Subject: Re: (",) Re: marilyn's passing

This is indeed sad news.

I remember her visiting me at home together with Guido Vermeulen.

I am keen on technology, I do not care eating fast food, watch bad television, and doing other "not done" stuff. But I loved her few mailings from the great forests which gave some tranquility.

I haven't written with her very much, wasn't very close with her as Guido is. But I loved her mail and it made me happy. It is sad.

Thanks Marilyn, hope there is a possibility for you for snow shoeing where
you are now.

With love

yours Geert

From: Dragonfly Dream

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 5:07 PM

Subject: (",) Marilyn D.

I too will mourn the loss of such a lovely lady. She and I corresponded for many

years,letters and mail art treasures. She will be very sorely missed.

Peace to Marilyn, Keep on creating,

~Dragonfly Dream

From: Pete Spence

Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 7:59 PM

Subject: RE: [mailart] Re: address/marilyn dammann/yes

a great mail artist... good artwork

good solid communication in all mail i received

from marylin///pete

From: David Alvey

Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 2:26 AM

Subject: Fwd: FW: Marilyn's Passing

A great conceptual artist has passed on. Marilyn Dammann aka ShadoWorks, and I corresponded for many, many years. I always thought of her as an Earth Mother, and loved her photographs of natural installations she created. Rest in peace, dear one.

David Alvey

dADa Vark / Aardvark Studios / 1000 E. 14th St #434 / Plano, TX 75074 USA

From: Guido Vermeulen

Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 8:22 AM

Subject: TURN JUNE 26 INTO AN INTERNATIONAL SHADOW MEMORIAL DAY

Dear Network artists,

To support family and friends of Marilyn Dammann, to express ourselves thru art and heart for the loss of someone we all love(d) and admire(d), I propose to all of you to participate in this special tribute (English call followed again by French one)

JUNE 26 : INTERNATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY TO HONOR

                 MARILYN DAMMANN aka SHADOW

Dear mail art friends and networkers,

The friends and family of Marilyn Dammann are planning 2 activities as a tribute to Shadow:

June 3 will be the opening of a tribute exhibition. This was already prepared and everyone hoped Marilyn would be present at the opening. Her sudden death on May 22 makes that her presence will be a spiritual one.

June 26 will be a memorial day: friends and family will come together, drink a special wine that Marilyn made for this occasion (she was an excellent wine maker and prepared even a batch to drink to celebrate her life) and will walk in the woods to visit and alter some of Marilyn's earth sculptures. Marilyn loved making art with what she found in nature and she always invited visitors to alter these pieces that were already in a continuous process of change and transformation because of time and the natural elements. She called these actions "walking the pilgrimage path".

Family and friends invited me to be present that day and participate but I cannot afford traveling for the moment. But this gave me the force and the inspiration to present this idea to the whole of the network:

Let's turn June 26 into an international memory day for Marilyn Dammann.

Let's all honor Shadow by creating art the 26th, doing a performance, write a poem, do a nature walk, choose the expression you're most happy with…

Let's celebrate her life with joy, with love, light and magic; like she always did!

I propose also you document (with text, images, photos, reports) what you do in the corner of your globe and mail me these.

I'll unite all tributes and dispatch them as a whole to her close friends and family members in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and spread them again in the mail art network as a tribute of the mail art network to one of its members.

So send your June 26 tributes for Shadow to:

Guido Vermeulen, Vincottestreet 81, B-1030 Brussels - BELGIUM

Email: guido.vermeulen@easynet.be

Postal Greetings,

Guido Vermeulen

From: Guido Vermeulen

Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 6:29 PM

Subject: Another passing

Dear mail artists,

I've been writing letters to the people Marilyn Damann met in Scotland, Belgium and the Netherlands, during our travels. I wanted to tell them about her death and how much we all miss her.

One of the persons we met was Henk Van Setten who did a marvelous poetry reading in the house of Marlies Mulders in Friesland.

In response to my letter Henk's family mailed me an invitation for his own funeral. Henk died after a short disease on June 15. The cremation ceremonial was today, June 20. He was a very soft man, a remarkable graphical artist and poet specialized in the Haiku form. So this is another person that we'll be missing.

2005 seems to be a bad bad year on the level of departures.

Postal Greetings,

Guido Vermeulen