Always Fresh

I realised as I was scanning this stuff from Joel that I don't know about his practice… what I mean is I don't know if he sends lots of similar mailings in a whoosh or if every package of mail art is bespoke.  /What I really mean is did Joel make the same envelope for a series of mail art mailings or did he just make one of the envelopes I received? I am in love with this envelope! It's everyting about it. And the Grantwood motif is exquisite.

This mail art mailing arrived some time ago… I must get back to recording incoming dates. but, I am not a perfectionist.  I am not exact.  I am intuitive and rules, well rules. So very little interest in rules, but whenever this arrived, the fact that I opened it today was timely. I have been totally out-of-commission for weeks due to a local art exhibition I ran/hung with a community of artists. I made many paintings over lockdown.  I didn't make so much mail art.  I was experimenting with myself instead of exchanging with others. That's OK, but the writing included in this mailing expresses, exactly, how I feel about mail art and why it is valid, important and I will always participate in some fashion.

And this brilliant, Ray johnson collage decoder will be invaluable. Thank you for a perfect mailing, Joel. It had everything I needed today and I am inspired.
 

Encarted: 18 years of Aristide 3108's son, Edmund

Aristide 3108 makes wrapped, enclosed, besoke and original ATCs to mark events and people.  Here he is marking his son, Ed's 18th birthday. One of the three ATCs in this mailing is an original.  I believe he makes a big image and cuts them into ATCs whch he mails out. Aristide's work is beautifully graphic.  This piece is also haptic.

Lucky Ed.  Lucky me. Enjoy, and thank you, Aristide!

 

ENCARTED - four lines become lifelines - Aristide 3108

If you have never recieved a piece from Aristide 3108 you won't know that there are layers to them.  first they are conceptual in thought but they are also beautiful to hold and to study. They are familiar because (perhaps) they exist around the ATC format, but each is very original and has design wrapped around it. Aristide's evelopes are created out of a piece of printed paper that related to the ATC, or the whole body of work in some way.  Soemtimes it seems to be an echo.

 Print is intentional.  some words are in caps and some are in colour. the repetition of form and sound add a dimension.

I hear poetry and see poetry.

This is an accordion with 24 pages.  What a crappy photo/scan!  I'm sure I took some others but can't locate them at this moment!  It is beautiful and the bodies, eovoked between the lines are all different and very expressive.

 I believe the words, hidden by the luscious colour, are words that we associate with lines, lignes.

The ATC, wrapped in the envelope inside the smaller envelope next to the book is (let's call it P12) is my hand coloured four lines.  Wonderful!