KART

Just received issue #127 of the assembly zine KART from David Dellafiora in Australia.  It includes my Ukrainian sunflower rubber stamp series.  

Airmail Stickers

Sadly, the USPS no longer issues airmail stickers for our overseas mail.   Technically they are not necessary, but that should not deter any artists who send mail art.  I designed my own airmail rubber stamp for the California Post.  And I know many artists are making their own stickers.  A call came from dystatic in Canada to send a batch of mail art stickers.   She collects them and then redistributes them to participating artists.  An envelope full of artists stamps, mail art stickers and other goodies was waiting for me at the post office the other day.   I am inspired to make more.  Check out her blog if you want to participate.  

A Postal Ghost Story

This is a ghost story for Halloween. But, if you expect to be scared, you will be disappointed. Most ghosts are simply there. They are a presence some of us are sensitive to, and just that, a presence. We recognize those times when we do not feel quite alone. In some instances, those presences seem negative and hostile, but most ghost stories are fairly ordinary. I could tell some frightening tales, but they will be for another day. After decades in San Francisco, I can attest to creepy Victorians and haunted offices in former brothels, just to get things started.

This ghost story goes back to Buffalo, New York to an old house on Norwood Avenue. It was the first home my parents owned. When the house was built in 1896, it was essentially a tract home, identical to the row of houses on the block. It its day, it would be what we now call a McMansion. By the time my family moved in, it was 1969 and the house had been altered and renovated a few times. Maids’ quarters adjacent to an attic were expanded into an apartment. Walls built, walls knocked down, stairs blocked off. There was an attempt to remove and cover much of the Victoriana when one owner aimed for some 1940s Beverly Hills glamor. That said, it was their huge wall of built-in book cases that sold my parents on the house.

The house could be spooky, but I would never say scary. The cellar was dominated by a massive, ancient furnace. The previous owner, an antique dealer, did things like board-up or nail windows shut to thwart burglars. He even added a huge steel door. In 1969, the cellar was still a warren of original rooms for things like laundry and storing canned goods. The cellar came with a pile of debris under the stairs. When my father began to remove the debris, he discovered it was covering an opening to an old well. The pile was immediately put back on top of the hole and remained there. 

The attic was equally mysterious. I don’t believe anyone ever explored the crawlspace above the apartment. Some things are best left undisturbed.

We lived there about eight years, a brief period in the house’s history. But, as my childhood home, I remember it well. The house made a big impression. I still dream about it. Now that we can access so much minutiae online, my curiosity lead me to search. With old census records and directories one can see who used to live in a house years ago. When you find the names of former residents, a quick search of genealogy websites might even yield photos.

The place on Norwood saw a lot of occupants. By the 1920s rooms were let and the house started to be carved up into small apartments. The resident that captured my attention, and imagination, was Barton Molyneux. He and his family lived there in 1910.

Barton Molyneux was a successful inventor, not quite famous, but he did invent machines to sort mail. Before his inventions, mail could only be sorted by hand. With his machines, the postal service could process and then deliver mail much faster. As an artist who makes and sends mail art, I felt a connection. 

One can’t say for sure if Barton was one of the presences who remained in the house. This could just be a story with an interesting coincidence, or, we can wonder, can ghosts play a role in the choices we go on to make in our lives?  

Mail Out — Mail In

I’ve been sending out a lot of mail art lately and the best part is, I get all this great stuff in return.   Here are some of the recent pieces received:

1. Esther Kwan – California
2. Pamela Gerard– California
3. Janet Elliott – California
4. Crackerjack Kid – New Hampshire
5. Meral Agar– Turkey 
6. Dori Singh – California
7. Peter Müller – Germany
8. Valdor – Catalunya, Spain
9. Marina Salmaso– Denmark
10. R.F. Côté– Québec, Canada
11. Katerina Nikoltsou – Greece 
12. Dame Mailarta– British Columbia, Canada
13. Mindaugas  Žuromskas

rubber stamps + patterns = mail art

This weekend the project was all about hand carving rubber stamps. This stack is on the way in the mail.

Minimal Mail and More…

The latest batch of mail art I have received includes some seasonal pieces like a spring print from Meral Ağar in Turkey and some Poisson ‘d’Avril (April Fools) mail from Pamela Gerard (San Francisco, not France).  There is also some rather minimalist mail art from Lours Postal in France as well as collages made from paint samples by Marina Salmaso in a Blå Station envelope that arrived from Denmark.   The latest arrivals shown here are:

1. Meral Ağar
2. Gregg Biggs, Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera
3. Pia Zaragoza
4. Pamela Gerard
5. Jennifer Utter
6. Lours Postal
7. Marina Salmaso

Full Envelopes

There has been some mail art coming in celebrating recent holidays — well, Valentine’s and Chinese New Year – I haven’t gotten anything for Ground Hog’s Day or Chandeleur (could we turn crêpes into mail art?).  Also, a few envelopes full stuffed full of goodies:

1. Valentine mail art from Katerina Nikoltsou in Greece.
2. A Blue and Green hand-stitched, collaged postcard from Rebecca Guyver.
3. Kate Kaminski’s valentine mail art chooses a palette that defies convention.
4. Barbara Stasiowski turned collaged canvas into postcards to celebrate the Year of the Rooster. This is my favorite piece I have ever received from her!
5. Some belated Pink Mail Art arrived from Mailarta in Canada with a call for self portrait ATC’s (I need to do that).  I love all the postage stamps, but when is one of my Canadian correspondents going to send me a stamp featuring the Buffalo Sabres?
6. ATC’s and more filled a fantastic envelope from Cuan Miles n South Africa. 
7. And finally, two fun-filled envelopes arrived from Virgo in Russia.  That mail from Russia always takes a long time.  I imagine a postman walking across a frozen lake.

New Year’s Mail

2017 is off to a tumultuous start and, while there are horrible people trying to cut America off from the rest of the world, there are those of resisting in many ways.  And just one small act, is to send out positive mail overseas.  It is always a pleasure to receive mail art in return.  Below is a sampling of some of the pieces that arrived in January including from Canada, France, Denmark, the U.K. and Taiwan:

1. According to Cece Chan, Betty Made It!
2. Helene Gath sent mail art from France in response to a show I participated in.
3. Marina Salmaso is one of those mail artists where the envelope is often as much fun as the contents.
4. William Mellott sent a map-inspired piece.
5. E. Coles latest piece will be the new one in the “E. Coles Spot” on my bookcases.
6. An R arrived form R.F. Côté.
7. Maureen Forys sends a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree, we must dump the chump.
8. And finally, preparing this for the year ahead, a calendar-themed book of tickets from Sally Wassink to get us through 2017.