Everything has a purpose

Pelican postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

Gerda Osteneck and I exchanged years ago when I was active at IUOMA. It's great to see her again in the post. Sticker Dude sent Gerda some of my stuff, I think.  Sticker dude has sent me some of Gerda's mail art for the Guyver archive. 

Gerda plays with photos in this mailing.  She has hand-coloured (in photoshop) the pelicans above. In the chicken below, Gerda has scratched into her photo to enhance the chicken's tail to make it haptic and jauntier. 

 Tail Feather postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

List  postcard 2021 GO Mail Art

Do you ever see discarded list on the ground in the supermarket. I have and I would collect them and send them to our trashpo queen, DK. These days I look longingly at lists but trashpo just isn't the same in the time of Covid. It's great to see Gerda's beautiful trashpo list collage.

Everything has a purpose  postcard 2021 by G Osteneek

And this piece feels related to the list. the colour, the movement the use of scraps to make a coherant whole.

Swan atamps with personal message on back!

Thanks Gerda! Hopefully I will send you something (directly) soon!

 

Trashpo Slodki

Whatever Gorzki and Stodki mean, this man in a hazmat suit is doing important business.Let's be clear, I'm all for science.  I'm also for mail art and receiving trashpo mail art from Piotr in Manchester is a happy treat for a cold January.  Thank you! I love the repetition and oppostion of the stamp and the upside-down collaged figures. And who wouldn't love six teacakes?

 

Petropetal defies the postal strike!

According to Cheryl Penn, there is (or was) a postal strike in Kwazulu Natal.  when I sent my mail art it was with a certain sense of defeat.  So, that I received this dynamic mail art from Petropetal has cheered me. Petropetal's envelope is a folded taped affair.  There is no inside as we know it. What I mean is it doesn't close or open, it just is. It measures 21 x 8.5 at its longest width. I never know if you can tape over stamps so they won't fall off.  Petropetal has and nothing terrible has happened! thank you Petropetal!

Dog Days of Christmas Illness

 Great to receive this fluxus mailing from Matthew Stolte again! Great to get an add and pass which Mikel Untzilla has added to that I can finish and send back to Brasil!  Love the carcophony of pitfalls! Great to get a Stolte poem about e coli.I hope all are well. The artistamps… the dog and the asemic trashpo. 

How to use this toilet

 Delighted to have a new Jon Foster tape masterpiece! I can't explain it but it makes me think of watermelon. I guess that is my synesthesiac reaction. 

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As I type I am listening to tune in to get a fix of the USA news.  As ever these days it is pretty crazy in the free world. Jon is equipping me in case things get really nuts. Or MORE nuts.  And Jon is right, mail art does bring freedom!

In my opinion we are in one big cistern at the moment and I am thankful to given instructions on how to cope. It sure stinks these days 

Asemic trashpo doodle bubble

Do I recognise that doodle? Should I open the envelope? A new form of trashpo has been bornWOW or OW. Void, void, void. I suspect this is DK's latest foray into new material! I await instructions.  Do I add to this.  Do I leave it in tact? should it bounce back like a Wilson tennis ball? Or should I just relax and enjoy it?

Thank you, whoever you are.

Update: Have just checked my IUOMA messages and see this come from Borderline Grafix! 

Olfactory Trashpo from Mail Art Mutt

What a joyful collection of trashpo from Mail Art Martha! While the news spins with the risks of air fresheners, Mail Art Mutt is sniffing obliviously. 

This reminds me of one of Cleo's gatherings, with Martha's sense of humour and aesthetic. Woof, woof.

Hooked no 1152 - Artist in Seine

Dean is fishing for compliments with this handy dandy folding collage.  I am hooked, but Dean knew that I would be as he affixed the stamps. Hooks are to claws and sharks and if I were you I'd stay out of the water.

Especially when wearing a bikini, as if.

Time pins us down, a bit like a hook, so don't listen to the critic in you, make comic strips and dream of hot sauce, you'll be a happier person.

Much better to be snug in your beach house.  But whatever you do, call police 17, if it gets too frantic. JAMBALAYA. Many thanks, Dean.

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?

Dave the Rave and his stickerdoodle heart from Paris

This arrived today (so is out of order in terms of arrival to Nayland Farm) but I wanted to post it tonight as it may be the topic of conversation on a long drive down to the Southeast tomorrow, for some.

I had no idea who this was from… so the hint, 'Dave the Rave' was quite important; although if I'd considered, briefly, I might have remembered that one Dave the Rave was in Paris (with Lesley) so it was sort of obvious.  

I love the use of Le Tricolore colour in these stickerdoodles. Madame Parisienne  seems immune to the floral display that lights up the evening sky. 

 The clouds shift and become piratical.

 The women seem impervious to the commotion.

 A tower is tipped and the spectre looks quizzically on the tourists.

Inspite of various hold ups,  lost carnets, locked luggage, a petrol-less moped… the post takes flight over the channel. 

All of France looks on, full of hope and ardour.

Immune to terror plots, low fuel prices and even over-trekked destinations, the letter sails away.

And I unhinge the flap, sniff, sniff to find that it all worked out and everyone had  joyeuse fetes.

Diane sends backorder - Trashquilt and Doodles

What a glorious trash quilt! I feel the waves washing over me.  Not sure if I need some motion sickness tablets or if I am becalmed. It is very affecting whatever it is!  I love it.

Amy and Diane do colourful doodles

So great to get all this material from Diane. Clearly this is the Peter Max edition of Dkult Doodle Therapy.  Amy and Diane have a psychadelic style that needs no embellishing, although I will find it difficult to refrain, just so I can bask int he glory of collaboration!  Many thanks and give me minute to send it back in some form!