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?

A Small Artist Book

I have been creating artist books for several years.  Often, I start with an old book that I repurpose with collage and paint directly onto the pages.  This is the smallest book I’ve done so far.  Starting not with a book, but an expired passport.   
This little book tells a story.  The passport belonged to my grandmother who travelled the world more than many people I have known.  Growing up, I knew no one who travelled like she did.   She was a department store buyer who made frequent trips to California, New York, Hong Kong, and Europe.   As a child this was just grandma’s job to me.   I knew it was a bit unusual but as an adult, I started to understand how extraordinary it was for a woman born in 1919 to have that kind of career.   She also played the more traditional grandmother roles with ease — no one made a better apple pie than she did.

Travel Chaekgeori

Here is the latest painting in my Chaekgeori-inspired series.   Nearly everyone tends to put souvenirs and things we pick up when travelling on their bookshelves.  When I paint one of these, I usually spot a travel guide on the shelves too.   But with this painting, it is all travel.  The books and things belong to a couple in Milan that has dedicated a whole corner of their adventures.  The travel guides, custom photo album, the model of the iconic VW van — it is all there.    Does anyone who travels not have at least one piece of driftwood on their shelves?  A piece of wood that has already been on its own journey before you find it and bring it home.   That might be the best souvenir one could have.   The only thing missing from these shelves is a California travel guide.   But one day, hopefully soon, we might start wandering our planet again.

Collage and Color

Braving throngs of summer tourists on Haight Street, I make my way up to my post office box.  It is always worth the trip, here are just a few of the pieces of mail art that were waiting for me in the last few weeks:

1. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
2. Jennifer Utter – California 
3. Sagebrush Moderne – California 
4. Skooter Fein – California 
5. R.F. Côté— Canada
6. Katerina Nikoltsou – Greece
7. Robin Sparrow– New Zelaand
8. Serse Luigetti – Italy

May Mail

 

Altered postcards, a return of dots, ATCs, rubber stamp postcards, collages and conceptual pieces are all included in some of the most recent mail art received here in San Francisco. Here is a list of the senders:

1. Gregg Biggs and the Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera
2. Skooter Fein
3. Valdor
4. Fleur Helsingor
5. Keith Chambers
6. Lours Postal
7. Crackerjack Kid
8. Amy Irwen
9. Bonniediva
10. Dori Singh
11. Pedro Bericat
12. Peter Müller
13. Serse Luigetti
14. Cuan Miles

From Zero to Infinity

I sent some mail art to Pier Roberto Bassi for his From Zero to Infinity Mail Art Project. A month or so later I received a poster and Sheet #17. It is a set of artists stamps featuring my work and the other latest respondents.  A very cool project – you can check it out on Pier’s blog.

New Year, New Mail

My P.O. Box was full after I returned from Christmas travel and more cool mail art keeps arriving.  There were some holiday card stragglers, a new awesome booklet from e. coles (I am building up quite the collection) and more Artist Trading Cards.  I have been filling up an ATC binder that I often show off when friends come by.  These new holiday ones from Kerosene, Amy Irwen’s moon series and Cuan Miles’ latest ATCs are all in the binder.  I answered Eric Bruth’s mail art call for postcards made with recycled paper bags.  He sent back a piece in a handmade envelope from a pink paper bag.  Gregg Biggs’ postcard was postmarked on the “wrong” side, but I always like when mail art is authenticated like this.  Pier Roberto Bassi sent an artist stamp and a card emblazoned with number 17.  17 is my favorite and lucky number.  Hopefully a sign for a better new year.

1. Carolyn Oord (aka Kerosene)
2. Barbara Stasiowski
3. Julie Crossman
4. Amy Irwen
5. Peter Müller
6. Eric Bruth
7. e. coles
8. MIM
9. Gregg Biggs
10. Cuan Miles
11. Heather Ferguson
12. Pier Roberto Bassi

Welcome Home

 

When you come back from a long and great vacation it is always nice to return to a P.O. Box jammed full of mail art.  And that is just what I found upon returning from Mexico.  Here is a sample of what I found waiting for me: 

1. I need to show both sides of Barbara Stasiowski’s latest postcard.
2. Ed Giecek sent me a bunch of stuff including a Fake News ATC.
3. That is a postcard from Eberhard Janke that made it all the way from Germany, intact, no envelope.
4. A new piece from William Mellott with two new ATCs for my growing collection – be sure top check out his ATCs – they are awesome.
5. A vibrant Island from Torma Cauli.
6. Kerosene’s envelope included this little cut out figure, a new moon ATC and she knows I love all things map.
7. Sometimes the envelope is the mail art, including this one from the Sticker Dude.
8. Pier Roberto Bassi’s envelope made it all the way from Italy.
9. An anonymous mail artist sent me something from BAMPFA.
10. And speaking of envelopes, Mike Dickau sent one full of wonderful artist stamps.

Art in the Mail: August

Here is a sampling of some of the mail art that has been filling up my post office box this month:

1. Summery mail art from Virgo.
2. An especially pink bird arrived from Stripy Goose.
3. Pamela Gerard turned our recent meeting of the San Francisco Correspondence Coop into a postcard.
4. Mail art from Tiina from Finland (but I don’t have a mailing artist to send something back).
5. Punkie Ebert has printed up these cool little booklets/zines that incorporate both literary postage stamps and works by the authors.
6. Dori Signh’s mail included a rubber stamp mandala.
7. Robin Sparrow sent this incredible tactile mail art/envelope piece from New Zealand that brought me back to the children’s book Pat the Bunny. 
8. Eberhard Janke sends out Call & Response, a zine compilation of mail art received — I love receiving these and really appreciate it considering the cost of printing and postage.
9. Two new prints from Serse Luigetti in Italy including this Barbed Wire Poem.

There has been some additional mail coming in that responds to pieces I have been sending out, stay tuned for those.

Venice 1973

Venice 1973 is a series of 25 pieces of mail art commemorating my grandmother, Dorothy Nykiel.  She would have turned 95 years old this week (October 10).  Each piece includes an image of grandma in her Jackie O sunglasses and smart, faux leopard fur coat visiting Venice in February 1973.  This was no vacation, but one of many overseas business trips.  As a child I thought it was nothing out of the ordinary that my grandmother was a buyer for the china, glassware, lamps and gift departments of a large department store.  She travelled often to New York and annually to Hong Kong and Europe.  This was in an era when a trip to California was still “exotic” for many people.   My grandmother also did the “traditional” grandma things like baking amazing apple pies and spoiling us properly for birthdays and holidays.   It was not until I was an adult, that I understood how remarkable that it was for a woman of her generation to have the career she had and that my grandmother was somewhat of a pioneer.