Meaty Mail

Can you mail some steaks?  How about some meat art mail art?  These hand-painted, meaty postcards are on their way in the mail.  I would not recommend cooking them.

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.

Shopping in Lithuania

No Easter eggs in the mail, but Mindaugas Žuromskas assembles old supermarket receipts to make collages. If I could read Lithuanian, I might be able to figure out the price of eggs in Vilnius.  The fish, or are they Poisson d’avril, come from France.  More Lithuanian including a streetcar ticket in a collage from Peter Müller in Germany, also some nice local work that did not travel so far to reach me.  The mail shown here includes:

1. Victoria Gray – Nevada
2. Gregg Biggs – Museum of Unclaimed Ephemera – California
3. Peter Müller – Germany
4. Artist in Seine (aka Dean Marks) – France 
5. Rani Goel – California 
6. Mindaugas Žuromskas – Lithuania 

Hand-Painted Wood Pisanki

This is the time of the year when I gather with friends to spend a day making pisanki — the traditional springtime eggs that are made in Poland, the Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe.  Often associated with Easter, this is a custom that predates Christianity in that part of the world.   Alas, Covid is still shutting down many traditions.  

On my own, I have been hand-painting wooden eggs (a form of folk art also found in Poland).  With pisanki the process involves layers pf dye and wax on the eggs.  A layer of wax, a layer of dye, a layer of wax, etc.  When the wax is removed from the surface of the egg, the complete colorful design is revealed.  

With wooden eggs, it is just paint.  But I do not have the steady hand required for the delicate paint work.  I have been experimenting with using small pieces blue painters’ tape to cover areas of the egg as I apply different colors.  The tape method is similar to the wax method.   These are the results so far.

“Traditional” Ham Eggs

 

Over the past few years, I have been exploring what I call post-folk art.  I have used traditional Polish and Kashubian folk art as the inspiration for a new direction in my mixed media work (see tofuart.com for examples).  

Painted and dyed eggs, pisanki are a spring tradition in Poland.  I realize I have pushed the limits of what might be post-folk art – but another great Polish tradition is producing the best ham in the world.  Could you make folk art by painting wooden eggs to look like they are made of ham?  Well, of course you can….

The Mail Marches on

 

The past month has seen everything from late arriving Christmas and New Year’s mail art to Kathy Barnett’s fabulous King Eggshire Eggbert (is that for Easter?).  Some of the mail is still incredibly slow.  But zines and prints and postcards and collages are still arriving, and I appreciate them all.  These are the artists for the pieces shown:

1. Meral Agar – Turkey 
2. Debra Mulnick – Idaho
3. Katerina Nikoltsou – Greece
4. MiM – Virginia 
5. William Mellott – Taiwan 
6. Kathy Barnett – Missouri
7. Fleur Helsingor – California
8. Serse Luigetti – Italy

Ham in the Mail

It might surprise people to learn an artist known as Tofu has a great appreciation of meat art.  I have a modest collection of meat-themed art and have been known to create meat art myself.   My latest effort involves sending slices of “ham” in the mail just in time for all those Easter dinners.