Mail art Wave!

Sometimes there is a decoding process when you receive mail art. For me I look at colour, shape, the design; I try to place it historically and to understand the context. When I don't know a correspondent well sometimes I research the person and their work.  I want to get as much meaning from mail art as I can.

Here, Mikel has made it easy for me. He's used artistamps and wonderfuly textured mark making when he made my 'original'.  He's altered a postcard, adding text over the image.  He has used all the things I look for and at to decode, as I respond to it.  It's interesting and beautiful.

Mikel has included a greeting.  It is personal. And then he gives me all the context I need to understand how the words MAIL ART WAVE fit in.  Read about the Mail Art Congress Meet up with a fellow mail artist in 2022!

 

Twas the Season

Beautiful work arrived from Mikel sometime in November/December.  I have been remiss in recording dates, but that does not diminish my enthusiasm. 

I see tags, baubles, a landscape fit for the three kings, good wishes, cheer and the promise of the new year. 

I love it all and feel happy to prolong my holiday season.

Thank you Mikel!

 

backlog blog

 I am posting this image so those of you who sent me mail will know I have received it and am waiting to open it, to spend some quality time with it and hopefully be inspired to reply fulsomely! The thing is, my mum is visiting from America from Saturday and I have some work to do to get this place ship-shape before she arrives so even though I WANT to open your mailart I am holding off until I can do it justice.  My mum hasn't been to England in two Covid years.

Stay tuned.  Once she arrives I should have some more time. AND thank you. Cascadia Artpost, David Stafford, Mailart Martha, Amalgamated Confusion, Mikel Untzilla, Herman Kamphuis, Sticker Dude, Tofu, (I'm wearing a mask) and The Sticker Dude!

A Wish of Good Health in a Fragile time

Stamps for arts sake are one of those things I particularly like. Stamps that are abstract shapes but also say stamp. a long time ago I made some for Vizma and she copied them and put them on outgoing mail  I was delighted! Mikel's stamps could be  necklace. They are graphic objects, demanding attention.

The other pieces in this beautiful mailing are Mikel's ubiquitos mix of stamping and collage, appreciated, as ever. I relate to these colours. Thank you!

 

O - Mail Art - Mikel Untzi

O, Oh, I love this A6 sized mail art collage from Mikel Untzilla. I like the colour, the variety of marks, the way it works no matter which direction you turn it. It's satisfying vispo & concrete poetry for me.

Mikel reflects the stamp on the envelope in his collage, in the colour, in the movement. I always wonder which came first.

It arrived in it's inner envelope as I have scanned it above.  It is like a present...

It is a present. It feels Japanese, it is an offering. Beautiful work .  Thank you.

 

2020 Mail Art Network

Mikel Untzilla's mail art is arte correo to me… As I looked at his address, I realised I didn't know where Euskadi was.  I had thought Mikel sent from Spain, his work has a latino vibe which I like.  I google and discover it is Basque country. 

I spent a few magical weeks in Basque country when I was in my early twenties. I will visualise Mikel ( a member of my mail art network - he's devoted and I am the disappointing correspondent, most of the time) cutting stamps, collating his graphic vision, making beautiful asemic poetry in a beautiful corner of the world.

a calendar of stamps for the future

I heard some disparaging comments about mailart a few weeks ago. It was something like 'the audacity of using mail art to protest about climate change!' Mail art is a game. Mil art is deadly serious. Stamps are canvases, miniatures, graphic perfection, a tile of protest or enthusiasm. Here Mikel uses his 'stamps' as abstractions, telling the reader something, but also illegible. Asemic? Game over 2050? I hope not.

Mikel Untzilla's Network

In case I haven't said it, Happy New Year to my mail art friends. This beautifully stamped envelope takes me back to the weeks leading up to Christmas. although not stars, the yellow and the feeling of beacons makes me hopeful about the holiday season anew. Mikel's bespoke postage stamps on the inside of the mail art got me revved up to make/finish some of my own mail art.  If you can imagine… I actually posted twenty pieces over the first week back in the studio! I guess I am back in action.  Mikel, you are next on my list. An I am determined to keep the postal ledger up to date too!