Quasi una Fantasia - Herman Kamphuis

I'm not sure where my original postal ledger has been put for safe keeping… but I know that I have been trading with Voyageur Postal since at least 2012.  He is very sweet and sends me something special at the start of a new year. this mail has been sitting by my computer for about a week and Ionly just opened it before I scanned it. 

Each time I get mail from Herman , my first impression is that it feels European. Herman works with a particular palette that is like the tubes of paint or the pigments you'd find in a fine art dealer - no imitaion, no fluorescents, terra verte, red oxide, naples yellow.  a refined palette.

Another thing you might not be able to sense is that the papers are different weights, haptic, tactile, and perfectly glued. Herman selects imagery so that we are party to new conversations. He tells stories that never existed but suddenly do.

Herman's mail is like a safety deposit box (see below) full of precious personal items. Similar to a Russian doll, Herman nests imagery and layers it in an exquisite way.

Herman likes to compare and contrast beauty with more awkward motifs. I love his doodles.

I love the enhanced decay  of this piece. 

Herman's mail is like a good book, a beautiful song or a piece of sculpture that weathers beautifully.

 Thanks Herman, Happy New Year, and see you in the post.

After you eat cranberries don't forget to whiten your teeth

MIrror mirror on the wall who has the pearliest whites of all? That must be bleached flour. 

I can tell David made this mail art on a full stomach during the holiday period. Being a woman in the midst of  frenzied cooking is a tightrope walk, a jungle gym climb, a tussle with a spider.

I love the way Dave has played with his food! Thank you!
 

Ticket! Ticket! Series 5 = Cascadia Artpost

I love Cascadia's Ticket! Ticket! I sent some stuff in and Cascadia scanned some of it in and made some fabulous stamps from the tickets and ephemera I sent. Cascadia tells me that 33 participants contributed and he still has some leftovers for series 6. You can get in touch with Cascadia if you want to contribute in the future. 

I will use my extra sheets to bedeck my mailart.

I wll also use this public forum for a round of applause for his successful recent hip replacement and a big thank you for including me in this project.

Cascadia used some of the ephemra I sent in to make stamps that he used on these envelopes!

 

Really catch it with Covid 19 blues

                                               

Sticker Dude continues to focus our eyes on what matters. From John Prine tributes, to protest stamps, Sticker Dude reminds us not to look away and that what we do best is to collaborate. 

(I happen to be listening to the innauguration on my my headphones, so am feeling hope and determination to play my role in rallying back the US to health, happiness, clean living and prosperity.)

add and pass

back add and pass

stamp  collab: sticker dude, Ed Giecek and thomas Kerr

ATC

back ATC

sticker

notice

notice

sticker

back sticker

                                                 

notice

ATC

back ATC

                                               

add and pass

artistamps This is Not

These stamps are a personal favourite.  I will scan them and use them in my upcoming mail art! (I can't bear to use them as is.)

artist stamps Monty Cantsin

 

Silly Sultan by Sticker Dude - song with guitar chords

Apropos Covid 19 by Sticker Dude - song with guitar chords

Thanks for the songs, I can see Joel 'immersed in art & craft, rubber stamp trim and glue'. I love the artist stamps, from sheets to those on the envelopes.  I am wondering how Joel will feel when he no longer needs to lampoon the 45th president.  I will miss his briliiant collaborations but I'd say it's worth it!

 

 

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?

 

unnofficial, unlicensed, un autherized pineapple mail art

The Artist in Seine, if you aren't familiar with his work, sends 'unclothed' oddly shaped, repurposed objects through the postal system, as mail art. In the past when I was exchanging with him regularly, I found myself curious about what would get through the postal system because it was as if I had this little voice telling me, Do it! Dean would do it. I was always looking for things that could work as mail art. Once I made a booby body that I sent to Vizma.  It was very large and slightly embarrassing for the postal staff in Australia.

So, getting this pinepple from Dean is absolutely perfect and I have begun looking at objects differently, again.

I like it this way too. It seems to have a face. It becomes a totem figure or a silly bird. but I wonder if the hand is voting.  Which state is that?

 I scanned Dean's mail onto black so I'm not sure if it does the barcodes through the haptic holes any justice. They are coloured too. This all makes me long for a plane ride, to gather up some mardi gras beads and to drink a pina colada. Thank you Dean. Send me a message on IUOMA if you've moved.

Feild Observation No 2: road Trip

Amalgamated Confusion's imagination astounds me. I'm not entirely sure what the story is, here, but I know who the characters are: someone on a field trip which I think might have failed FEILD because a comet struck the vehicle barrelling down the coastal road.  Or perhaps it's extraterrestrial, or there is radiation, or Covid, as there is a man in hazmat suit.  

In the UK people took to the road in their adapted vans to wild camp during Covid.

I always love the detail of Keith's mailings. and I wonder about his process. Is this digitally painted? And I LOVE the fire extinguiser stamp and the bird of prey hovering. Thank you! You are at the top of my return list.

 

Flexus Queen and the Corona (ISO) Games

First, an apology for uploading these in a random order. But, I have to admit to loving the image that came up first. This 'Pansy' ATC reads dragon or bird, to me.  Its delicacy makes me swoon .  Vizma chose well and the algorithym in my scanner was on message.

It's been a long time since I had mail from Vizma, but it's certainly not her fault. Mail art, as far as I'm concerned, is a slow conversation. This participant has been very, very slow but what I notice is that Vizma's generosity and the variety in her mailings persists. I love the gem washi tape, too.

I may have mentioned that I turned sixty after Christmas so, I think Vizma may be aluding to that. The answer is, not blurry, but fun and fizzy.  We played a game our daughter invented with her partner about mudlarking and another game, my husband found that turned our kitchen table into a curling rink. In 2019 I was sick, sick, sick.  This year it was much better! and we had a scrumptious meal and a cake to die for.

When I stamp a rubber stamp I always think about 'exquisite corpse' Vizma has done it perfectly here.

!! I love the way the mail art community has taken the virus and played with it. I bought some fabric in a pack of offcuts and when I was composing a mask discovered that it read coronavirus. All I can say is ouch.

Thanks Vizma, I have already made a return!