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.

Before there was email there was V Mail

Have you ever heard of a V Mailer?  80 years ago, they were a high-tech solution for the U.S. Military. The mailers helped manage and move a very high volume of mail sent to those serving overseas. The way the V Mailers worked is the original copy was reviewed by wartime censors and photographed — then a small negative was transported overseas to be printed at its destination. This enabled the U.S. Military to drastically reduce the weight of all the mail being sent to service members overseas.

 

I was not familiar with V Mail until a friend gave me an old box of unused mailers.  

Currently the anti-democratic regime is actively erasing and altering any parts of our nation’s history that do not fit their white supremacist narrative. Stories are disappearing from many different government websites. This inspired me to start commemorating those stories with a series of American Hero artist stamps.

During World War II, you were not allowed to add enclosures to a V Mailer.  The ones I mailed out this week each include a set of six artist stamps featuring the following Americans:

• Wong Kim Ark
• Private Albert Cashier
• Dr. Héctor P. García
• Corporal Terry Toyome Nakanishi
• Susie King Taylor
• Navajo Code Talkers

Sending mail art that preserves history is just one small act of resistance. One of the ways we can honor those who bravely fought against fascism 80 years ago is to stand up and speak out.

Blue Heron Lake

To celebrate the renaming of Golden Gate Park’s Stow Lake to Blue Heron Lake I created an artist stamp for this month’s meeting of the San Francisco Correspondence Coop.

10 Years of the S.F. Correspondence Co-Op

The first time I went to a San Francisco Correspondence Co-Op meeting was the group’s first anniversary party — back in 2012.  Here we are nine years later, and the co-op is now 10 years old.  We missed having our party in 2020 and finally had out first in-person gathering this weekend, safely, outdoors in a quiet, financial district park.

Every time we meet, one of us does an artist stamp to be shared with co-op members.  Many keep their stamps in special passports.   For our 10^th anniversary we did something different.   29 other co-op members sent me artwork that was then turned into a set of two commemorative sheets of artist stamps.  Here is our very cooperative effort.