Short and sweet this week, mail art friends. Happened to see this experimental mail art video by Rafael González. Soundtrack by GX Jupitter-Larsen. Love it!
Another drawing converted to mail art. This time, an alien reading through The Laws of Earth has determined the book to be full of strange idiotic poetry, but there may be some good and useful things contained therein.
"Strange idiotic poetry, but I guess there's some good stuff in there." T. Brown 2023
Rubber stamp alert. Seen on Facebook. Comments from Mark Bloch:
"This is my favorite contribution (of mine) to mail art, a rubber stamp I made that sums up how I feel about all of you: YOU are the art, YOU are better than art. Just like when Hans Ruedi Fricker says that mail art is not fine art, it is the artist who is fine, it is my belief that mail art is not visual art, but more about process, more about the human experience. So if you want to know where the art is, go door to door and knock and you will find out."
Also seen on Facebook. Mathart.it shared the following work by Pedro Branco:
Pedro Branco, 2023
One more from Facebook, and this one is related to the early mail art that I was looking into last week in Mail Art News #52. A big thank you to Mail Art Worldwide for sharing this post from the vagabond language blog. From the Mail Art Worldwide FB page:
"We have discovered ensconced in the private art collection of Castle Howard (a beautiful stately home in N. Yorkshire/England) six envelopes illustrated & posted by artist & aristocrat, George Howard the 9th Earl of Carlisle. He illustrated his family's holidays & posted decorated envelopes to his children. Two of these are postmarked December 1876 & January 1877!"
Speaking of the past, Mail Art News media specialist Ariel Greenwood has been busy investigating Stone Age postal systems, even traveling back in time to visit the city of Bedrock. Now that's far out.
As always, thank you for reading (and commenting). It's pretty easy being a mail art documentarian. I'm keeping it easy and fun. I'm glad to see the tiki bar is almost ready.
Thanks for reading (and commenting). It makes me happy to know that you got something interesting from the blog. Reading these articles or listening to them with a text to voice reader app...I'm learning more about the history of mail art.
Someone in one of the Ruud Jansen interviews was lamenting that mail artists in general are not very aware of the history of mail art. Mail art...it's not for money and there aren't any real rules...so do you need to know about the history? I say not really, but it IS interesting. And therefore I like to include pieces of mail art history here and there on the blog.
My inspiration at the moment --- from that article -- is to create an aesthetic, and it is Postal Art rather than Mail Art. I like the idea of moving away from the word mail more because of the confusion with the word male than due to my feminism. I love the egalitarian ideal so much but also want to put effort out to share things I've made which I find pleasing to the eye and/or the mind rather than just pushing mail out in haste. I love how there's always something to learn and some way to grow and some way to connect - more directly through mail art than in so many other venues.
incoming from Eiichi Matsuhashi 's Street Museum of Tokyo In addition to domestic, international, and intergalactic mail, the US Postal Service now offers interdimensional mail. Visit your local post office for more information, though they may deny that they offer this service. It's all very hush hush for now. sci-fi / fantasy mail box, T. Brown, 2024 from https://www.instagram.com/mailpostarica/ from https://www.instagram.com/mailpostarica/ Top tier anagram from Discoflux envelope detail from Discoflux (the wax seal was damaged in transit) The wax seal on mine was damaged, but here's a photo example (sent via reader mail) of another wax seal that Discoflux sent to someone else. Pretty cool! from the print magazine USA Philatelic , Fall 2024 Is there someone you'd like MAIL ART NEWS to interview? Send me a message. Or tell the person to contact me with the secret code: ANT PEOPLE. Or if you have any personal mail art related news to share, e...
Jonathan Leiter' s work from the 1980s Interview with Juan Petry is pending. Do you have an etsy page or some other commercial website? Mail Art News wants to know. What else do you do when you're not mail arting? I watch movies (DVD, VHS tapes) and YouTube videos. I look at the internet. I study chess here and there. I take out the trash. I do laundry at the laundromat around the corner. I take the trash out. Oh, I go to work too for forty hours a week, not counting commuting time. We eat. We sleep, etc. And here's the mail art news you came for: incoming from K. Richardson from Erica Durante to T. Brown, Oct 2024 additions made by T. Brown, Oct 2024 (to send back to E. Durante soon) Fabrizio Pavolucci, documented by Lara Favaro in the Mathart.it group on Facebook Jonathan Leiter' s work from the 1980s Jonathan Leiter' s work from the 1980s Petra Rader to Juan Petry inks on cardstock, 2024, T. Brown, sent to sciencepainted inks and pencils on cardst...
Submission by participant David Bonet (see details below) In October 2024, Juan Petry reached out to me by email suggesting a Zoom interview to discuss his mail art mega-project known as Social Dada, but after two years (2019-2021) of working from home with regular Zoom video calls, and finding that medium of exchange to induce too much self-consciousness and baggage, I suggested we use email instead. Immediately below, you will find a description of the Social Dada project from Juan's website, and then the interview for you to enjoy. -Thomas Brown, November 7, 2024 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Project description from artsurprise.eu Thomas Brown (TB): Why mail art? Juan Petry (JP): I don't know what art is, so I don't know what mail art is either. It's a suitable term for sending something that some people think is art by post. I like the openness and commitment. In an area that is...
Short & sweet is right--but still very much appreciated. Thank you -- again -- for being the mail art documentarian. CHEERS!
ReplyDeleteAs always, thank you for reading (and commenting). It's pretty easy being a mail art documentarian. I'm keeping it easy and fun. I'm glad to see the tiki bar is almost ready.
DeleteReally enjoyed the linked piece by Mark Bloch - so much delightful food for thought. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading (and commenting). It makes me happy to know that you got something interesting from the blog. Reading these articles or listening to them with a text to voice reader app...I'm learning more about the history of mail art.
DeleteSomeone in one of the Ruud Jansen interviews was lamenting that mail artists in general are not very aware of the history of mail art. Mail art...it's not for money and there aren't any real rules...so do you need to know about the history? I say not really, but it IS interesting. And therefore I like to include pieces of mail art history here and there on the blog.
My inspiration at the moment --- from that article -- is to create an aesthetic, and it is Postal Art rather than Mail Art. I like the idea of moving away from the word mail more because of the confusion with the word male than due to my feminism. I love the egalitarian ideal so much but also want to put effort out to share things I've made which I find pleasing to the eye and/or the mind rather than just pushing mail out in haste. I love how there's always something to learn and some way to grow and some way to connect - more directly through mail art than in so many other venues.
Delete