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.
 

Inside, outside, doodled about, Brot Tod and Bolst - The Bennetts

Delighted to have these beautiful collaborations in a bumper mailing from the Bennetts.  A little while back I mentioned that I had some doodle pages I was sending out and the Bennetts replied to Carina. I saw and sent them two.  Two has multiplied and I have two originals plus a few pages that I assume I can include in the next DKULT Doodle Therapy.  Fabulous and thank you! 

 What the Bennets do is far more than doodle therapy.  Read these two books of visual poetry, laced with asemics and drawings, underpinned with sounds and meaning.

Femai l- XX woman

This is another of the mail art pieces I found in the computer bag. It looks like this time there was a use-by date. OOPs.  It looks like a great project and if you are in Vermont try to visit the exhibition!  Thank you C Mehrl and Sinclair Scripta. Sorry to let you down.

5089 Anging Folders - Matt Stolte

Years ago at IUOMA there were discussions about whether to analyse mail art or whether to let the work speak for itself.  It turns out I (shamelessly) like a story.  I see narrative even where it doesn't exist.  I suspect my narrative is simplistic because I don't remember things for long and can't alude to much, but with Matt's mail art I saw something immediately . What I see is a cosmonaut bound for space and some exquisite planet, possibly made of green cheese.  Matt's gorgeous turquoise mixed media piece is made on the back of a rapidly cut cardboard castoff - a trashpoem, for sure.

 Note the 5089 stamps

 and a C Mehrl Bennet stamp

 I suspect below is recycled trash from trashqueen DK, of DKult fame. I have the next few lines in a carefully filed envelope.

 And finally a John M Bennett Nostril stamp! Perhaps the top image is phallic after all?

Mail art moolah, Mehrl doodles, newts, postmarks and more

Mehrl sent me this to doodle on in response to a DKult doodle therapy boekie.

I love a stuffed envelope and I love silly stuff.  I mean silly in the most positive possible way. C Mehrl's playful use of words and her system for gathering symbols make me want to get up tomorrow and devote an hour to playing in a similar way. C Mehrl's money is so money-like and yet it isn't preachy in the usual way, instead it licenses me to see myself as an artist, whoever I am. Great photo and dialect, postmarks and stamps too!  Thank you!