June Mail

The postal box has been full every week when I head up to Clayton Street.  June has been a good month for mail art.   There was even some mystery mail from Portland, Oregon. No idea who sent it, but I do love it — and it so happens I am currently working on collages with old yearbooks myself.   Here is a list of the artists shown here:  

1. Lynne Buckner – California
2. Jennie Hinchcliff – California
3. William Mellott – Taiwan 
4. Dori Singh – California 
5. Fleur Helsingor – California
6. Mindaugas Žuromskas – Lithuania 
7. Jerome Jacobs – California 
8. Meral Agar – Turkey 
9. Marina Salmaso – Denmark
10. Katerina Nikoltsou - Greece
11. The Sticker Dude – New York 
12. Jon Foster – North Carolina 
13. Valdor – Catalonia/Spain
14. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
15. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
16. Anonymous – Oregon 

Mail Art Book #1

There is a finite amount of space in my archive boxes, but I strive to save all the mail art I receive.  Many artists include various ephemera, stickers, and other materials with their mail art.  Things I might use in pieces I create myself.  Many of the envelopes are works of art in themselves.   Starting in January 2020 I began to use much of this material for a new artist book.  I repurposed a large coffee table book that cost a dollar at a library sale of donated and books.   Two and a half years later, the 140 pages are all filled up.   Here are some photos of the completed book of mail art.
Soon I will start filling the next book.

Painting and Mailing the Oaks

 The Oak Woodlands are one of my favorite spots in Golden Gate Park.  One of the few spots in the park that looks much like the land did before the park was developed.  There is no gift shop and no postcards, so I have made a series of my own.  I was tempted to protect these hand-painted cards by sending them in envelopes.  But part of the risk and magic of mail art is letting what may happen in postal transit happen.

A Home in Oakland

A Home in Oakland, mixed media, painted paper on board, 12”x12”

I won’t say I am too proud to make art to match the sofa, but in this example, it is much more fun to use a palette that captures the essence of my friends’ home.

Kitchen Chaekgeori

This is the newest painting in my Chaekgeori-inspired series.   The books are some of the cookbooks on shelves in my small, San Francisco kitchen.  On the lowest shelf are essential coffee beans and tea bags stored in old spaghetti sauce jars (reuse and recycle), plus filters, mugs, etc.   

From the beginning, I recognized each Chaekgeori I was painting is in essence a portrait — or in this example a self-portrait.  These shelves also include art I have collected and art I have made.  There is even a shadow box I made for my grandmother as a child.  It sat on her kitchen shelf for decades.   There are souvenirs from trips going back over 40 years — to Sweden and more recently Mexico.  Some of the mugs are souvenirs as well.  On the top shelf there are some vintage ice crushers and other kitchen tools — something else I have been collecting for a long time. 
The stuff on those shelves reveals quite a lot about me.

Envelopes vs. Contents

Sometimes you receive a piece of mail art where the envelope is as in incredible as what’s inside.  That is what happens whenever I get something from Kathy Barnett.  The envelope is great, and I love the champagne drinking head juggler (you can move and adjust the little heads).