Link it for 2021- Aristide 3108

Aristide 3108 always gives us a hint of what we will find inside his ENCARTED mailings.In this case, the figurative cutouts and the words on the back, behind the cutouts suggest the way we are meshed with each other.  In these times, although seperate we connect, through emotional bonds, social bonds and family bonds. Mail art is a connector too.

envelope which holds ATC

heavy card ATC

I like the command Aristide 3108 issues in naming this mailing: Link it.  The ATC is haptic, collaged and bespoke.

Personally I think that although we have Brexited (boo hoo) we remain connected and sending mail art is a way to communicate, explore difference and be inspired by each other. 

paper ATC

As always, I thank Aristide 3108 for his thoughtful and beautiful mailing.
 

What's Cookin?

It's always fun to get mail from someone new and Kathy qualifies with this particulalry fun mailing. My 86 year old mum was alone this Christmas and she told me she was getting tv dinner. what I imagined was something like this! Kathy's wonderful business card, that looks a bit like a matchbox, took me back to my childhood, or perhaps from the files of Madmen. We ate a few tv dinners and as I recall, my favourite was turkey.

Fluxus bucks come in all sorts of shapes and tenders.  My favourite was the Fluxus Covid Bucks.  One day it will be a collector's item, surely.

Who is in the chicken suit, oct 2020.  (with moving body parts!)

In England, on top of Covid, we have bird flu.  Luckily the chickens at the chicken farm are now under cover.

You can never have too much input on colour mixing. Fab!

Thanks so much for getting in touch and I will try to send you something very soon!

 

Life in Lockdown… a Pandemic Party?

So in the UK we are still pretty much in lockdown.  We can only visit with one person who isn't living with us. Most of us don't leave the compound. I have read about people having parties to 'get infected' (not around here) thinking that eventually they will be able to acquire a certificate that they have had the virus andwill be able to get on with their lives. Not sure whether that is what sticker dude is aluding to.  For me, being home with key people is not so bad, in guilty moments when we are sharing a meal we have made, I might even call it a party. 

I heard a newscaster talk about how masks can be fashion statements. I am finding this a no fashion time, and I don't see anyone so who cares, right? 

For me, not following fashion is freeing.  I miss my charity shopping but on balance I am in a free lockdown. I think Sticker Dude's lockdown stamp (Ed's?) is a visceral reminded that for some lockdown is unpleasant. 

Zoom in and read Sticker dude's note about mail art in the time of coronavirus. Relieved that no symptoms in Joel's house.

 Three great collaged ATCs and another toilet paper joke!

 I can imagine that John Prine was an influence on Sticker Dude.  I have to admit to having to google him to place him.  Once I'd heard a bit I could place him. They took me to a beer garden in the bay area and another near Santa Rosa. 

As ever, Joel's envelopes are full of detail that we can linger over. Yesterday I went to the post office and learned that they are only selling books of stamps with the queen's head on them.  HMM.  I'd rather have a hummingbird, or Mother Theresa any time.

Thanks Joel, and wash your hands!

' A man with one foot in his mouth, and the other… in the Twilight Zone.'

Mail art in the time of Covid 19 is different. Do I wipe the envelope with bleach or do I live dangerously. New York, Italy, Washington - hotspots of wonderful mail artists!  

In a later mailing Sticker Dude tells me he is well (so far) so I breathe a little easier. It truly is a twilight zone and as I stream my favourite news channel,  the speaker refers to our president as a 'buffoon'.

I think this must be one of Joel's last mailings from Ragged Edge Press which is now in lockdown. IN lockdown he has to cut everything himself and has time to make mail art, so I expecially appreciate these two hand made ATCs were made when he didn't have time and he could use his machines! Joel can say lots with a three piece collage. Are we sceptical about federalism?

I spy a limited edition sticker!

 What if the stars were such strong magnets that they attracted all the metal?  aAmost as crazy an idea as the Coronavirus going 'poof' one day and disappearing.

 Sheepishness? You can't tell a brain from a head shape? Great repetition of expression and composition!

Even though New York is in trouble, this mailing makes me homesick for NYC. New York Studio School! Thank you Joel!

ON CAPS 2020 EB07203265

I haven't corresponded with Aristide 3108 in a long time.  I have been a lapsed mail artist but when I finally made a series, he was on my list.  I was astounded that I got a reply quickly and as ever, with Aristide, it is a haptic, curious mailing that I feel I should be able to pin down but that floats mysteriously in that space where mail art that suggests without telling floats. At least for me.

What I think when I see these grub-like shapes (before I get close and realise it is a human figure, or it is many human figures, tightly packed but randomly)  is how interesting they are... but also how creepy they feel.  Once I know they are human, I feel like a speck of dust.

 Below, can you see the embedded body?

 Are you the queen bee in the cell, hibernating, ready to emerge when the weather perks up?

Mail art lost in summer madness II Amy Irwen

So my enevelope from Amy went with me to Maine and then back again to Suffolk. Luckily I managed to keep my luggage under the overweight rating anyway… I only opened it today.  Now THAT IS WHAT I CALL delaying gratification. Amy did not let me down. What a beautiful stash of mail art wonders! And it all seems relevant what with the shadowy, greedy world we seem to be living in. Brexit and that other tweeter.  (although you'd think that the news would move on after my six week delay after receiving this!)

 I love the inchies!  They are absolute treasure.