Report on the Mail Art Networking congress with Don Jarvis in London, England about " ?`he Quercus Robur Story "

Our old Mail Art friend David "Don" Jarvis does not meet us at the
station this time.
And after we made our way to South London, he is not even at
home; on art strike.
Instead, a beautiful woman welcomes us together with his moth-
er in Mt. Earl Gardens, in her networking dress.
After a while we recognize her, i.e.: his chin: Dawn Redwood = Don Jarvis' alter ego. And here is Peter's stor)' of Initiation:


Querc=us Robert Revisited


In 1982, 1 was still a normal person. Then I met Don Jarvis. We were reading poetry to8ether, In the interval the tall slim man in the Bra)' suit shoved a small booklet over to me, whispering,

'1Yanna read that?" Curies me. sure I wanted. That changed my The booklet contained ~ratula~ife. tions, texts and pictures, from all
90th birhday. As most of you
over the world for Robert Quercus
will know, it's the Latin species name for "oak tree". I had to ask, and I leamed that Robert stood in front of Don's council flat.
it had not made me suspicious that he had a color (I) toner t>holocopier in this council flat, and my fate was sealed, when 1 bought the docun?entary booklet about Robert's birthday fr-om Don - for an outrageous
words that have haunted my mail artist's poor soul ever since, "I must make up for tl-re postage"

Of course I squeezed out of Don all the details al,out tllis wonderful worldwide noncommercial network of artists who had con-

8mtulated Nm on Quercus Robert's 90th. in the to years since, I've launched a series of mail art exhibitions m\'self and made as many documentations. And it was In 1992, when I was traveling with Angela as Net Mail postal carriers around the world, that we
found this sign "Quercus Rober" on a big oak tree in Melbourne's Botanical Garden and mailed Don tile photo with congratulations

And here we are back into South London again, to celebrate the
100th birthday of Robert Quercus, exactly after to years, together

with my mail art godfather, who's become my godmother now. Isn't 'Dawn of Redwood' an appropriate bio-lo8ical pseudo-name

for the daughter of 'Quercus Robert'? So you mi8ht consider Ilim
my godgrandfather now.
Times change. The council flat was flattened. Not so Robert Quercus. He is still standing in his old place. We went there to8ether, and I put one of his leaves in my pocket - to remember m)'

roots ,