A Different Perspective

I learned perspective drawing from Mr. Rogers and Mr. Hill way back in the seventh grade at Campus School. So, when someone gave me this book, I really thought I did not have much use for it. Unless….   

A series of 30 pieces of mail art are on their way, all with a different perspective.  

Year of the Snake 🐍

 
To celebrate the Year of the Snake my latest series of mail art used hand-carved, rubber stamps.  Of course, it’s the endangered and beautiful San Francisco Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia).  Let’s hope the snake can bring us peace and harmony and rid us of all those unwanted pests. Happy New Year!  

Caffeinated Mail Art

 

Can you make art without coffee?   I did not want to take any chances so my first set of mail art for 2025 is Caffeinated Mail Art!

It’s an Aerogram!

Do you remember aerograms?  Aerograms were a single sheet of paper with gummed edges that had to be folded and sealed.   No enclosures were permitted, and you could not even use tape to seal them.  The cost was less than sending an airmail letter.   

In 1985, aerograms came franked with 36¢ postage.  It cost more than sending a postcard via airmail (33¢) but less than an airmail letter (44¢). The cost difference today seems quite insignificant even considering it was nearly 40 years ago.  But when you’re a student, you’ll always do something to save a few cents. 

 

You could fill the aerogram with as much writing as you could fit — write small or better yet, use a typewriter.  The rule was you just couldn’t put anything inside an aerogram. 

 

In the 1990s, as more people started having access to email, the aerogram was destined to become obsolete.  The U.S. Postal Service discontinued them in 2006.  In Britain they lasted until 2012. Very few countries offer them anymore. Australia still has them for sale. 

At a recent San Francisco Correspondence Co-op meeting I found these unused aerograms on the swap table. I knew I had to take them to do a series of mail art. I wonder if some of my recipients will even know what aerograms are.

  

Harriet Tubman

As soon as I saw the USPS’s new series of Underground Railroad stamps, I knew I had to make some mail art. 

What to do with Add-n-Passes? Make a Zine!

There was a time when I liked add-n-passes as part of receiving and sending mail art.   The idea is that you add something to a piece of mail art and then send it on and so forth.  Eventually it returns to the original sender.   I even started a few myself.   In 2012 I launched an add-n-pass based on geological layers that got a great response.  I have always found the better ones have some sort of theme.

But like many mail artists, I have gone off the add-n-pass. In my opinion, scrawling “add-n-pass” on a piece of paper and mailing it to me, is far from the idea of mail art.  It all reminds me of those cursed chain letters when I was a kid.
I still like doing truly collaborative pieces with other mail artists, but the add-n-pass is usually annoying.  On a rare occasion when I receive one that is all but finished, I will complete it and return to the original sender.  Nowadays I scavenge the good bits for one of mail art, artist scrapbooks (see image below ).
The new year began with a brilliant solution to the add-n-pass problem.   I received this little zine from Josh Ronsen made from add-n-pass scraps and I LOVE it.   Josh has come up with a great way to start my mail art year.   

Welcomed Home by Mail Art

After a few weeks in the tropics, I was welcomed by all sorts of mail art treats in my post office box.  This is a list of the artists shown here: 

1. Lubomyr Tymkiv - Ukraine
2. MiM – Virginia
3. Sabela Baña – Spain 
4. Wabi Sabi Sews – California 
5. The Sticker Dude – New York 
6. Sally Wassink – California 
7. Jennie Hinchcliff – California
8. Jon Foster – North Carolina 
9. Debra Mulnick – Idaho
10. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California

Ticket! Ticket!

 In May 1986 I was living in St. Gallen, Switzerland. I took a day trip to Schaffhausen and decided to keep the train ticket.   Recently I sent it to Jack Latteman at Cascadia Artpost for Series 12 of the “Ticket! Ticket!”collaborative mail art project.  Very excited to receive the sheet of artist stamps in the mail.

A watched pot, or is it a watched P.O. Box, never boils?

Go out of town for a week and when you come back the post office box is overflowing.  I even had to wait at the counter to pick up the overflow.  All sorts of mail art including incredible artist stamps and a new, handmade, artists book of Ryosuke Cohen’s Brain Cells too.  Amazing!  This is a list of the artists shown here: 

1. Peter Müller – Germany
2. Fleur Helsingor – California
3. Pamela Gerard (California)
4. Debra Mulnick – Idaho
5. Artist in Seine (aka Dean Marks) – France 
6. Birgitta Jonnson – Sweden
7. Heather Ferguson – California
8. Matt Ferranto – New York 
9. The Sticker Dude – New York 
10. Nancy Bodkin – California 
11. Keiichi Nakamura – Japan
12. Maria Quiroga – Argentina 
13. Jack Latteman - Cascadia Artpost – Oregon 
14. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
15. Jürgen Greissbach – Germany 
16. Ryosuke Cohen – Japan
17. Mindaugas Žuromskas – Lithuania 

Ukrainian Summer Mail and More

Very excited to receive some reproduction/stickers of Ukrainian stamps from Mindaugas Žuromskas this month.  And good to see mail is getting through from the Ukraine as well.  As summer winds down, here is a list of the artists shown here: 

1. Mindaugas Žuromskas – Lithuania 
2. Lubomyr Tymkiv - Ukraine
3. Jennifer Utter – California 
4. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene) – Québec/Canada
5. Patti Wren – California
6. Margo Hill – California
7. Debra Mulnick – Idaho
8. Lynne Buckner – California
9. Wabi Sabi Sews – California 
10. Eberhard Janke – Germany
11. Jen Bee – California
12. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
13. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
14. Sabela Baña – Spain 

Summerful Mail

 

When I take my summer walks and stop by the post office, I have been finding some good stuff waiting for me every time this summer.  Here is a list of the artists shown here: 

1. Wabi Sabi Sews – California 
2. Peter Müller – Germany
3. Nancy Bodkin – California
4. Jon Foster – North Carolina 
5. Jennie Hinchcliff – California
6. MiM – Virginia
7. Patti Wren – California
8. Keiichi Nakamura – Japan
9. Fleur Helsingor – California
10. Pier Roberto Bassi – Italy 
11. Mindaugas Žuromskas – Lithuania 
12. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
13. Andrea Grimes – California 
14. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
15. Jean-Phillippe Gilliot – Belgium 
16. William Mellott – Taiwan 
17. Sabela Baña – Spain 
18. The Sticker Dude – New York 

Super Mail Bloom

 

After a wet winter, Golden Gate Park has been lush and in full bloom for months.  I keep heading down there on afternoon walks and stopping by the post office.  My box has also been filling up with spring color.  The mail art I received that is shown here includes:

1. Fleur Helsingor – California
2. William Mellott – Taiwan 
3. Barbara Stasiowski – California 
4. Margo Hill – California
5. Maria Quiroga – Argentina 
6. Eberhard Janke - Germany
7. Sally Wassink – California 
8. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
9. Jennifer Utter – California 
10. Serse Luigetti – Italy
11. Lynne Buckner – California
12. Bonniediva – Illinois 
13. Shmuel – Vermont 
14. Bonniediva – Illinois 
15. Wabi Sabi Sews – California 
16. Jennie Hinchcliff – California
17. Peter Müller – Germany
18. Meral Agar – Turkey 
19. Kiki – Japan

And here is the amazing park....

Postal Patchwork Postcard

This mail art call for collage mail art to be shown at Kolaj Fest in New Orleans.   

Inspired by Embroidery

Sending out a series of 50 hand embroidered postcards would be overwhelming.   But what happens when you carve rubber stamps inspired by Ukrainian folk art?  This latest mail art series is on its way around the world.

Library of the Future/Future of Libraries?

Mail art on the way to Germany for a mail art call with a theme about the future of libraries.

Mail Art, Zines and More

Here is some of the latest mail art that has arrived in San Francisco including a Mardi Gras cat along with some of the zines I receive in the mail.   You can get a detailed look at The Runner Postcard  at the link.   As well as Circulaire 132  at this link.  Barbara Stasiowski also proves you can make a palette postcard and even sent that in the mail.  The mail art shown here includes:

1. Jon Foster – North Carolina 
2. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene) – Canada
3. Andrea Grimes – California 
4. Pier Roberto Bassi – Italy
5. Barbara Stasiowski – California 
6. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
7. R.F. Côté — Canada
8. William Mellott – Taiwan 
9. Bonniediva – Illinois 

Eggs in the Mail

 Egg-themed mail art on the way to Hungary for a mail art call.  

Winter Mail Bag

Sorting through recent mail art that has arrived in San Francisco including New Year’s mail — some sent from my own neighborhood to some form all the way to Lviv, Ukraine.   And it wouldn’t be winter without snow people — Kathy Barnett’s latest series of “polaroids” are just hilarious and wonderful.   The mail art shown here includes:

 

1. Barbara Stasiowski – California 
2. Wabi Sabi Sews – California 
3. Jennie Hinchcliff – California
4. Fleur Helsingor – California
5. Johan Leschinkohl – Germnay 
6. Valdor – Catalonia/Spain
7. Mindaugas Žuromskas – Lithuania 
8. William Mellott – Taiwan 
9. Eberhard Janke - Germany
10. Sally Wassink – California 
11. e. coles – England 
12. Peter Müller – Germany
13. Jürgen Greissbach – Germany 
14. Jennifer Utter – California 
15. Tanushree V – California
16. Lubomyr Tymkiv - Ukraine 
17. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
18. Kathy Barnett – Missouri

Year of the Rabbit - Happy New Year!

Each year the US Postal Service’s Lunar New Year Stamp inspires me to make some mail art. This time some hand carved rubber stamps for The Year of the Rabbit.

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.