Quail, Pigs, Poppies, Superheroes and more....

It’s always nice to have a pile of mail waiting for me in the post office.  Last Friday there were quite a few gems, here are some highlights:

1. Gregg Biggs at the Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera sent a zine, Concerning Eldridge, about a life lead in Detroit.
2. Sagebrush Moderne repurposed one of my own postcards into a piece of valentine mail art.
3. From Germany, comes Angela Behrendt’s tribute piece to the mail artist Ray Johnson.
4. Not the condor, but the California Quail (Callipepla californica) is California’s state bird. StripyGoose made a cool tribute to our beloved quail that migrated all the way from the UK.
5. A new oversized and stapled postcard arrived form R.F. Côté in Québec.
6. A surprise envelope arrived from South Africa with mail art at ATC’s from Cuan Miles.
7. Some hand-stitched grooviness from Rebecca Guyver in the UK.
8. And finally, poppies and pigs from Torma Cauli in Hungary.

As always, a big thank you, and if you have been sending me mail art, keep an eye out for something in return, I have been sending out a lot lately.

Back to Sweden

The cycle of collecting things that eventually end up in my art can take a long time.  In 1984, in a small town called Horndal, I helped myself to many of the free postcards offered by the Swedish Postal Service.  Over 30 years later, the last of these postcards have been cut up and reassembled.  Now they are on their way out as new mail art.  One is even going back to friends in Horndal.  I was tempted to also send one back to little post office in Horndal.  Sadly, the post office is no more.  Sweden decided to close most of its small town post offices.  When I travel around the United States and stop in a rural post office, it always is a reminder how every small post office remains an important part of the community it serves.  Not just as a provider of services, but as a gathering place where locals meet.

Purple Mail

Not entirely, but purple has been a popular color in some of the mail art that has been showing up.  Here are some of the latest pieces received:

1. A colorful, international American-Dutch piece of mail art from some school kids in the Netherlands.
2. Red Moon from Fleur Helsingor.
3. Some more purple from Reid Wood in Ohio.
4. New Year’s greetings from Adrienne Mason in Canada.
5. And on the other side of Canada, a new piece from Kerosene.

Thank you, and if it hasn’t arrived yet, you’ll get something in your mail box soon.

The Altered Reality of Picture Postcards

I have always been into postcards. I send them and enjoy receiving them.  Five years ago they started getting cut up and played a role in many pieces for the 2011 Project.  In 2012 I began using old postcards in my mixed media work in larger and larger pieces.  Postcards also lead me, accidentally, into the world of mail art (there is no going back — happily).  Last year, postcards were even the theme of a book I wrote.

Before you know it, I had an out-of-control pile of hundreds of postcards.  I like to start the year by organizing and sorting my art supplies.  With that in mind, I have gotten my remaining postcards all in order.

I had quite a few multiple copies of the same postcards.  Here is where the fun begins — cut, slice, glue, repeat.  During the last few weeks I have been sending out a new series of mail art (see above). In these picture postcards reality is seemingly reordered, a vortex appears in Birmingham, wormholes open up in redwood trees and time seems to be opening up. 

This little series is also a preview of the direction my new work is going in – it will all be for a show opening in October 2016.  Stay tuned…..