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.
drawing by Jimmy Hackney Thomas Brown (TB): Hi Jimmy. Your profile on IUOMA says you've been a mail artist since 2023. How did you learn about mail art? Jimmy Hackney (JH): I was dropping off some art at a friend’s ( Steve O. Black ) house for an upcoming event. We began talking about some of the projects he was working on. Then, he comes to one of his storage bins and asks me, “Have you ever heard of mail art?” I said, “No, what is it?” He pulled out fascinating pieces of art. My mind was completely blown. I could not believe that this kind of thing existed. I asked, “People send you these!!?!” It was like hearing music for the first time. He told me that he was a member of IUOMA and suggested that I join. So, I did. He said, “Find someone to send art to.” “Easier said than done, right?” As it turns out, it was indeed that easy. I picked out an address and let it rip. I can’t remember who the first person was that I sent mail to. I sent out approximately 20 at that ...
Greetings from the Moon from Francis Lammé I just had the idea the other day that I'd like Mail Art News to be a little more like MAD Magazine , so why not eh? You might see more goofy drawings in the future. goofy drawing by T. Brown, FEB 2024 And with that, let us take a look at the incoming mail. from Francis Lammé from Bancks from Jimmy Hackney from Jimmy Hackney from RCBZ Outgoing: I'm going to buckle down and send some mail art to Stephanie Lentz Morrison today. I'm gonna do it! This one will be in there, along with some other stuff I made and some other stuff I didn't make. T. Brown, Feb 2024 Don't forget about Pam's mail art vlog . Book alert! Tentatively A Convenience has released the following publication, full of memories, pictures, and accompanying text (87 pages). Here it is on Amazon . And there's a Baltimore connection. If you've ever lived in Baltimore and maybe you went to MICA or had any artistic leanings, you probably visited...
wuh-pish, wuh-pish , some bizarre North Carolinian inner hellscape collage from Jon Foster , 2023 It's 2024 here on Earth according to the common calendar used by the majority of humans on Earth. Does anybody really know what time it is? It could in fact really be the year 13.7 billion or even 26.7 billion depending on who you ask at NASA about the age of the universe. While that's being worked out in detail, I'm going with the year 2024. Enter the Dragon . I'm happy to report that I have a perforating machine now, a birthday present from Mail Art News media specialist, Ariel Greenwood . Get your own here . It works well enough for my purposes, but there's no precise way to line up exactly where the holes will be punched. You just have to feel it out with your eyes each time. The AI generated intergalactic postage stamps look pretty good. You may have noticed my absence for several weeks. That's because November and December were extra busy this year at my day ...
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