Robin Chuter's exhuberant way of seeing!

Robin Chuter has sent me drawn-on photos before and they were beautiful, lyrical little pieces.  I have visited his website before Robin's website and admired his album covers, so it was exciting and delightful to receive two paintings, (one on paper and then framed and another on canvas) as well as a deck of cards from Robin in this correspondence. 

My husband tells me that this is the Argentinian rugby team but I'm not sure that matters. It is Robin's response that enhances the madness and fun of the scrum. 

I like the way Robin plays with scale here and the the charming otherwordliness that is adorable rather than frightening. Robin describes his work as, 'characterised by merging highly vibrant warm colours with what can be seen as bordering caricature and line art using Indian ink… ' He paints on everything!

Seeing Robin's work 3D and then 2D and then a useful object is absolutely perfect.

Thank you Robin. I like your mind!

 

A 200 Count Mailing

 

Delighted to receive mail art from Kevin and James Gillen! Love the graphic feel, the nod to doodles and get an INTERNATIONAL vibe as an American living in the UK. I'm also happy to see the trashpo aspect. It is definately a 200 count mailing!

James has been very active trying to match me to other mailartists and mail art opportunities and I am very grateful. In the spirit of correspondence, I will relish creating a response. James and his dad, Kevin, run a wonderful facebook group Mailart Worldwide consider sending to them!

Funky Nasa Chicken with Spaghetti

As new space pictures are revealed that show the touchdown on Mars, I open David Stafford's latest correspondence. OK, that is one very funky chicken and I wonder if everything they are doing to its 'body' tickles.  That chicken also seems indifferent to the pasta and that just seems wrong. My chickens make a lot of noise and would be beaks in if I gave them a bowl of noodles. 

And to reiterate  this it is a correspondence. On the flip side of the Funky Nasa chicken postcard, David fills me in on all things Santa Fe. It's all good to know.  

David also said some nice things about the mail art I FINALLY sent him.  He asked an interesting question. How can something bespoke and idiosyncratic be part of an edition? Hmm. I guess I see what I sent David as part of an edition of an idea. there are 30 other different explorations of the idea going out to other mail artists.

 Thanks David!

Dance the Coo-Day-Tah

This genius piece of mail art arrived from Cascadia Artpost when Biden already had his knees under the desk.  Thank goodness. Cascdia's stamp is postmarked Jan 4th, but I can't believe he predicted the Jan 6th insurrection. I don't record when mail art arrives. I put it on the side of my desk and wait for a blogging window. 

If they are teaching the Coo Day Tah at Dada Trumph Motors I hope they have a good lawyer, or and in with the FBI.

And if you had any doubt that mail art is time sensitive… I suspect the chair of the Republican party has some other business besides ceceding to attend to, like learning DIY pipe insulation and damage limitation for one Ted Cruz.

Thanks Cascadia!  Brilliant. 

 

Link it for 2021- Aristide 3108

Aristide 3108 always gives us a hint of what we will find inside his ENCARTED mailings.In this case, the figurative cutouts and the words on the back, behind the cutouts suggest the way we are meshed with each other.  In these times, although seperate we connect, through emotional bonds, social bonds and family bonds. Mail art is a connector too.

envelope which holds ATC

heavy card ATC

I like the command Aristide 3108 issues in naming this mailing: Link it.  The ATC is haptic, collaged and bespoke.

Personally I think that although we have Brexited (boo hoo) we remain connected and sending mail art is a way to communicate, explore difference and be inspired by each other. 

paper ATC

As always, I thank Aristide 3108 for his thoughtful and beautiful mailing.
 

Get Ready for Banana Day (Timetable)

 

I try to blog my mail art, in order of receipt. Sometimes I have to jump something to the front of the queue.  This time, Cascadia Artpost gets bumped up because I would hate for you to miss any opportunity to celebrate bananas…and with Cascadia's timetable for the upcoming celebrations you will be ready.

If you aren't ofay with banana day, you can find out more at IUOMA where there are various banana groups IUOMA Bananas where I have exchanged with other banana fans in the past.  Of course, it all began with Anna Banana, so she always gets one of whatever we make. Anna Banana

Cascadia Artpost sends me mail art regularly and one of his many projects is his Ticket Ticket ! project.  I (and many others) have sent Cascadia Artpost tickets and memorabilia and he has transformed them into large sets of gummed, perforated postage stamps.  He sends participants copies of the Ticket Ticket stamps. Because I archive all the mail art I receive, I get two sets sometimes.  I archive one and I use the other on the mail art I send too.  

Cascadia's generosity (stamps, seeds, coffee clutch, documentaion from dioramas, mail art meet-ups etc) is amazing so last spring I worked out how to use his stamps to make cloth that could become a mask for him. I coated cotton with inkjet bubbleset, scanned his stamps, printed them onto the cotton and made a mask with the fabric.  In the image of Jack with the banana on his head, Jack is wearing the mask! I am honoured! Long live World Banana Day!

Feel free to print the handy Banana Directory.

Last Day in Office Assembly Project

A few weeks ago I was catching up with my mail art blogging and I discovered that I had missed the deasline for one of Sticker Dude's projects: Last Day in the Office Assembly Project. Now if you know me a little you will know I have been looking forward to this last day in office for a little while…

So, you can imagine my joy when I got a copy of the assembled project even though I hadn't sent anything in.

Let's begin at the beginning, with that Tricky Dick stamp, Grantwood and the alienation of a hopper diner. What is America?  Who will she become.  Will she survive?  This project looks at the moment when the 45th leaves. Phew.

The impact of the 45th President has effected so much and so many, including mail artists.  what happened to our wonderful postal service? Can we save it?

It is certainly time!

Did you hear the episode of Rachel who showed us that the 45th president won't call himslef the former president and is still using letterhead with the presidential seal!

Nice rhyme!  If I were in the playground I would jump rope to this.

Any play-on-words, especially one that refers to 45, gets my vote!

 I love them all, agree completely and am grateful to have my own set of commemorative worst president paraphenalia!  Thanks Sticker Dude.

A few things from Joe Cohen

I am a little behind on my mail art blogging (again).  I have been making more mail art but that means I have less time for blogging.  Time isn't exactly elastic and I can't find more of it.  So, apologies for conflating a few things here from Joel It is actually two mailings. but one of the mailings had an envelope inside that said Guyver archive, so I have opted for simplicity.  Besides, I have another exciting mailing from Joel which is on the scanner as I type.

I will leave it to you to peruse, look for patterns and overlaps to make your own meaning! As ever, it's great to get this bonus mail art for the Guver archive! 

postcard front

postcard back

little boekie