6 posts from September 2009

I just went looking for info about International Reply Coupons since they are "appreciated" when entering the Mail Art Olympix (and because I pride myself in having a somewhat higher-than-average knowledge of the postal system). I quickly came across this disturbing story. Unnecessary fat-phobic comments aside, this has a good synopsis of info at the end in case one finds themself in a similarly unfortunate position.

I would also like to take this opportunity to (pretty much uselessly) state that the postal workers at my local post office are great and have never let me down. Okay, once, but that's the only one I can remember. I will be crushed if I ever go in and they give me any nonsense about IRCs being discontinued.

As noted below, a call for art arrived in my envelope of goodies. I am finally taking a good look at it and there is a website with all the info. Being the helpful little disseminator of information that I am, I encourage anyone out there to consider entering the Mail Art Olympix. (Whether or not I will get my act together is a whole other story.) 

Friday was a good mail day - an envelope full of arty goodness arrived in the mail:

3779

I don't know what I did to receive the goods, but my name and address are floating out there in the mail art world. And I am definitely not complaining. I only had time to shoot a few photos and then had to set this all aside because I've had some other stuff going on the past few days.

The envelope has an art stamp on it. For some reason I don't get particularly excited about art stamps. I mean, I think it's cool and I respect those who are into that, but it's just not my thing.

I'm not sure what's up with "Dada Poem" but I like it. It's a half-sheet of paper, photocopied art but individually signed.

What really excites me is this art money. Check out the full-size images. I love that it's "valid only after transformation by an artist". I also love that each one is individually numbered. If I actually get around to "validating" my money, I'm thinking I'll send one back to get another blank one. Not sure about trying to spend them, we'll see. There's a few businesses around here where I think it might work.

I really like how these fit into the tradition of local currency. I'm interested in local currency and the empowerment it can give to a community. Part of me finds it very conceptual and isn't sure how well it works to all of a sudden introduce a bunch of new money into a community, but I sure like the idea in theory.

There's also some calls for art that I may or may not have time to even consider. I'm hoping to make some new art to hang at my gallery - crazy, I know.

Another summer of teaching has flown by and I am trying to catch up with the rest of my life. Maybe I'll get around to writing some blog postings about summer stuff, maybe I'll just move on. We'll see.

I do have to sort of embarrass myself and admit that I was just looking back through several of the previous postings and they rather delight me. So I've confirmed it, it's all about me and the rest of you are just details.