Providing "the ultimate answer" to the "question" underlying the "heroines", Siebrich's sending could close this theme!

As she announces in her accompanying note: "The 'heroines' theme is absolutely in it! Just have a good look!"

... and-as could be expected-another "heroine" arrived in my mailbox!

Denis Charmot charmed and amused me with his "heroïne de cinéma" in "Las Vegas Parano", who appeared recently on the French screens-with much success!
Denis was happy to add two add&pass_on sheets that he was worrying already a while how to get free from! I will try to use them WITH FUN (tbc elsewhere probably)!

"This is NOT MAIL ART" sent by Ans!

As from Mimi, I also received a "critical" heroinesending from Ans, but her critical notes were limited to the envelope where she asks me how many heroines I need...! In an email comment, she qualified her sending as "This is NOT MAIL ART"—Belgian surrealism may be contagious to Dutch people!
I particularly appreciate the return of the red banner over the envelope!

And Mimi sent back heroines, commented upon and questioned!

Accompanied with several wise messages concerning the nature of a heroic existence, Mimi reacts upon the envelope I made for her. She asks questions such as "Is love, intimacy, and 'gezelligheid'* far from a heroic existence?" Her envelopes contains several cards and other mailable objects. I publish a selection.
* This particular Dutch state of being is often approximated with "cosiness", Dutch people feel it is something different.
Wikipedia gives under "Gemütlichkeit": "A similar word exists in Dutch as well, 'gezelligheid'. There is also a Danish equivalent, 'hygge', which basically means the same. In Russian, the word commonly translated as 'cosiness', уют /uˈjut/, carries almost identical connotations as the German word."


The "very small heroine" on a handkerchief is "Janneke", from the famous Dutch children duo Jip and Janneke, invented by Annie M.G. Schmidt and drawn by Fiep Westendorp. Jip and Janneke indeed live many adventures-and I accept Janneke heartfully as a heroine!

Florence Nightingale, the "female hero" of a dart-amateur

One of the last days of May, I got this Florence Nightingale card-once again that wonderful surprise to receive mail_art from someone completely unknown to me! Because its sender is an amateur of darts, I am preparing a dartsending!

Old posts that I sent in May to Mimi and Ans finally on my blog

During my 4-day long Ascension w.e. 17-20 May ("on faisait le pont"), I made two heroine productions for two of my snail_mail friends who did not yet know my new mail_art activities!
Mimi received a transparent envelope NOT TO BE OPENED with IN IT a clipping (part of Mete's add&pass_on sending) about which I had not been able to decide which side to use, so the transparent envelope allowed me to use both sides:


and Ans received something that also seemed transparent but which wasn't:

HATSCHEPSUT tried to PUSH THE CATS into an anagram insolvable to ordinary human beings

Socks_mail_artör Roland Halbritter sent 12/04/07 this wunderschönes piece of artpraxis in reaction on my second stockings_envelope. Via Hatschepsut (the German version of Hatshepsut), he set me an anagram, which—given the "heroines" context—was not too hard to solve, but is was fun!
According to Wikipedia, "Hatshepsut (sometimes read as Hatchepsut meaning "Foremost of Noble Ladies") was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of ancient Egypt. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful female pharaohs of Egypt, who reigned longer than any other female ruler of an indigenous dynasty."

With my mother, Madonna, the heroine of communism and, now, Hatshepsut, the series of heldinnen-heroines-héroïnes-heroínas gets a good start!

Heroine of the communism

I recieved this artwork from Raluca Oana Baciu (Romania) in reaction upon the childhood_envelope that I sent her. Baciu writes: "Years ago, during our communist period, a woman was considered a heroine if she had many children. That was the first idea which came up to me on your theme."

Is she a "heroine"? Anyway, she dares!

Barcode_art card "Madonna" recieved in reaction upon an email sent to the artist Scott Blake (he sent it on the 8th of March 2007, Women's day, but instead of putting it on my femail_art blog, I display it here)

"She was a heroine" (another version)

Having made my "She was a heroine" sending for Mete Sarabi, I wanted to give such a personal statement also to my dearest brother, Claes. "... en ze was ook onze mama", hè Claessie!

"She was a heroine", my first HELDINNEN-mail_art sending

Inspired by Mete, son of TEOMAN, I made this envelope in honour of MARGARETHA MARIA THERESIA, my mother, a heroine—not only during WW II

inspiration for my first HELDINNEN-mail_art sending

What a SURPRISE when I recieved this mail_art sending (envelope + contents) from a COMPLETE stranger, Mete Sarabi! This is one of the MARAVILHAS of mail_art: to find in your mail_box an envelope or card of other sending from someone you don't know at all... I had announced my HELDINNEN_project to Baciu Raluca—to whom I sent a contribution for her Childhood mail_art call—and there it was, another inspiration for this project-under-construction. I started to make "She was a heroine" as a reaction to Mete!

Judith and Holofernes—i.e. his head

Painting by G.A. Pellegrini (1675-1741)-Judith and her maidservant with the head of Holofernes. Birmingham-Univ. of Birmingham, Barber Inst. of Fine Arts------------>


<----Painting by Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632)-Judith avec la tête d'Holopherne, vers 1625-1628. Toulouse-Musée des Augustins







I have collected this kind of images in order to write about mythological women, esp. heroines such as Judith