City Stickers

Stickers covering the backs of street signs are not unique to any community. It happens in a lot of places. But the stickers themselves are often unique.
Can we create a portrait of a community by just looking at what gets stuck on the street signs, electrical boxes and mailboxes, buildings, etc.?  Well, let’s start with Portland, Oregon and see what we get.

Polenta Post?

How to respond to mail art call for Italy when the theme is “Terra Madre”. Maybe a painting of a map of the world that looks like polenta on a plate.  Is it time for Sunday lunch?

Artist Stamps from Cascadia Art Post

Yesterday was a very good mail day.  Three envelopes and an incredible collection of artist stamps from Jack Lattemann at Cascadia Art Post.  These are part of collaborative series where we sent Jack tickets and other ephemera.  The MUNI transfer and old Fast Pass came from me of course. There was a long postal delay, but it was well worth the wait. 

Airmail Stickers from the California Postal Service

Even though the USPS no longer distributes airmail stickers, you can make your own.  You can even send a batch to Dystatic in Canada, and you will get a bunch sent back to you.

Mail Art Book #2

In June 2022 I completed Mail Art Book #1.  Nearly four years later, the second in the series is finished.
Along with their mail art, many artists include ephemera, stickers, artist stamps and other pieces in their envelopes — and sometimes the envelopes are works of art too. In 2020 I began to repurpose this material in artist books.  I always start with a large, used coffee table book — armed with glue and scissors these 170 pages are the latest results.  I am already looking for another old book to start filling up.

Sailing Away in the Mail

I typically do not use the stamped postcards from the USPS, but when I saw the Schooner Series, I had an idea.  I did not want to paint boats, but this old book was begging to be cut up and collaged. And then I learned about Scrambled Art Co. and their fantastic hole punches to make faux postage.
The results are in the mail…

Postmarked!

The machines at the USPS postmarked the wrong side of the mail art from Thom Courcelle. I like when this happens and mail art is inadvertently authenticated.