Meximail

Last month, when I was in Mexico I picked up these geography-themed loteria sets at a 25 Peso store.  I was trying to think of way to use them in some mail art — then I saw this story about how the Mayans invented a rare shade of blue.  That got me started, it was going to have to be about blue.  A series of pyramids were painted on the backs of the loteria cards.  Too delicate for postcards, they ended up in envelopes. This series is being mailed out this afternoon.

Mail Art from the Tropics

It feels good to get a different perspective and be out of my usual San Francisco element.  Reading, relaxing, listening to the surf and enjoying afternoon thunderstorms on the Bahía de Banderas in Puerto Vallarta.  I travel with art supplies and have been making some mail art postcards.  Before heading out to find a mail box, it is important to ask the Magic Iguana to make sure these arrive — eventually.  They might take a couple of months to get to their recipients, but it will be worth the wait.

Mail Art – Hecho en México

Normally, this time of the year I leave San Francisco for a road trip visiting national parks and other places I love in the Western U.S.  Not this year, I am enjoying the generosity of friends and hiding out down in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Lovely condo, right on the ocean, the constant sound of the surf, some epic thunderstorms — the light, the sky, it’s inspirational.  The heat and humidity takes some adjustment, but after a couple of days I have adapted – and slowed down.  Let taxis take you places – it is too hot to walk at my San Francisco pace around town.

Armed with reading material and art supplies, I planned to make some mail art to send from Mexico. 

The closest post office is just beyond the touristy end of town — an easy taxi ride.  No line, no waiting, and I checked earlier online, there are stamps for North America and slightly higher priced ones for mailing overseas (just like it used to be in the U.S. until recently).  The postal clerk asked me what I needed (amazingly I am able to communicate in my rudimentary Spanish).  Of course the postal clerk looked in her folder of postage, and then decided that no, it didn’t matter.  It was all the same.  Am I going to argue with a bureaucrat over 2 Pesos per stamp?  Uh, no.

I also found a dollar store, er, no, a 25 Pesos store.  Lotería cards! Play money!  I had what I needed.  I love how each bill of play money has “Billete cultural sin valor” printed in big read letters.  I am thinking of getting a rubber stamp with that made up for all my mail art.

So yesterday two series of mail art were stuffed into the mailbox.  One a series of ten pieces with the Puerto Vallarta Palette and another stack that incorporated the Lotería cards and play money.