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.

Part 4: If you save it long enough you might use it in a collage

Scraps old and new have ended up in the Layout Scrapbook.  As an artist, people give me things I might use, and a collection of metro tickets from around the world finally gets used.  

If you give me a box of Niederegger Marzipan, I’ll be sure to recycle the foil wrappers.  The remains of a copy of Avant Garde, a short-lived magazine from the 1960s, are in the book after lingering in the family’s attic for decades).  

Go through boxes and find photos of young cousins eating ice cream (he now has five of his own children).  The polka twins are really one young lad who is now becoming a star down in Los Angeles and that punk with the goats is still rocking up in Portland.  You will never forget a trip to Mexico when you think about dairy products and Supradol (the best name ever for a painkiller).  

On the back cover of the book we get an illustration of Allen Hurlburt himself.  And finally, honk if you know Ken Budka.

Part 3: Scraps of 1990s Queerphemera

Club fliers, Queer Nation and other political stickers are among the things being liberated from boxes and ending up in the Layout Scrapbook.  My friend Daniel and I go back 30 years and he gets a whole page made of pieces of his past.  I remember when I first met Adriana Roberts showing pixelvision films of her naked body in grainy black and white.  Then there was her band Blue Period and now she is a famous club impresario.  Speaking of clubs, Jerry gave me an annotated map of New York City featuring venues that I imagine are long gone.

 

Next — Part 4: If you save it long enough you might use it in a collage

Part 2: Mail Art in the Scrapbook

My collection of mail art is growing.  The favorite pieces I receive get displayed for a while but eventually end up in archive boxes.  The Layout Scrapbook contains parts of hand-lettered envelopes, postage stamps and artist stamps.  Other artists share scraps with me, and they too might end up in the book.  Some artists get their own pages featuring their work and a few pages are expanded versions of the mail art I sent out myself.  The artists included in the book include Ed Giecek and his fantastic rubber stamps, prints from Serse Luigetti, Collages from Virgo, Jon Foster’s  stickers, prints and other work from Mindaugas Žuromskas and Ryosuke Cohen’s  Brain Cells.

 Next — Part 3: Scraps of 1990s Queerphemera   

Part 1: Layout – The Artist’s Scrapbook

I have been buying about-to-be-discarded books from public libraries for years.  In San Francisco we have weekly sales plus two semi-annual events that are huge.  The typical price I pay is always $1.  These are books usually a step away from the recycling bin.  Sometimes I read the books but more often they get cut up for other mixed media projects.  In the last few years I have begun converting these books into artist scrapbooks.

This entire year I have been laying out a new artist book in an old copy of Layout: The Design of the Printed Page by Allen Hurlburt.  40 years on, the book still stands up as a good design book.  One might ask why I just did not add it, intact, to my own library.   There are no shortage of used copies available online for less than $5.  The book is not rare.  And, if you wish to indulge a delusional hoarder, you can buy the same book for $965.  I see these sort of dealers at library sales all the time.

 

The Layout Scrapbook  is now full.  It includes pages of my own work, ephemera old and new as well as some of the mail art I receive.   It includes things picked up at this year’s inspirational Codex Art Book Fair.  The book contains pages with contributions from the artists at the San Francisco Correspondence Coop.  There are two pages full of ticket stubs. Mostly from 2019.  It is like a diary of museum shows I saw.   Another page was inspired by my visit to Then They Came for Me — an excellent show about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.  My response to this who was to create a collage by adding maps of the U.S. Southern border where children are currently being forced into concentrations camps.  In the center of the collage is El Paso where a week after finishing the collage, a terrorist targeting Latinx people drove across Texas and murdered 22 people and injured 24 others.

 

Next — Part 2: Mail Art in the Scrapbook

Isla del Torso

Traveling can be a break —a break from our normal routines and habits.  For an artist, it can also mean going in a different direction and trying out some new things.  Puerto Vallarta has become a place I escape to a few times a year.  From my first visit I recognized an affinity for Cape Cod where I grew up.  Tropical Mexico or coastal New England, resorts towns have much in common at their core. Unsurprisingly, I prefer the quieter off-season, which in Puerto Vallarta is summer.  

I just returned after a few weeks of low-key tropical fun.  The world of bars, clubs, go-go boys and drag shows has little appeal for me. Give me a beer and plate of tacos, and I am happy.  That said, the alluring advertising is everywhere.  And from that I took my inspiration.  Filling a sketchbook with images of the imaginary resort Isla del Torso (Torso Island).   A tropical paradise of tanned landscapes, condo towers, the warm seas and UFOs that sparkle like a drag queen’s gown.

The Polka Twins

After finishing one artist scrapbook, I’ve started on another.  I have been digging into my collage boxes and ephemera and filling up an old book on graphic design and layout. The Polka Twins were found in a box of my old photos and they needed to make an appearance.

Beefy Art

Working on another art scrapbook, using ephemera I have saved for collages.  I knew those bumper stickers from the state fair would come in handy in one day.  And yes, my name is Tofu, and I like to paint big juicy steaks.  

Scrappy Scrapbook

For about two years I have been working on the same scrapbook. I’ve reached the point where the book is full.  In other words, it is becoming difficult to close the book.

It all started at one of San Francisco’s library book sales where they sell donated and discarded books for $1.  I already owned a guide to London’s National Gallery from a visit I had made. I really had no practical use for a much older version, circa 1960.  Or did I?

My original thought was to cut the images out of the old book for collages.  Instead I started filling the book up.  It began with left over paint on my palette and scraps from other projects.  Collage bits, old postage stamps, maps, chocolate wrappers and other ephemera kept getting added.  The folks at the San Francisco Correspondence Coop contributed many of the artists stamps and some of the rubber stamps.  And finally, some of the random scraps I have received in the mail.  Some of the results are shown here.