25 posts tagged “mail art”
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:
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.
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.
P.S. Nice to see that the pills on the card I made pretty much survived the trip across the Atlantic.
The theme for this mail art call is "an exhibition about socks and stockings". Not very interesting on the surface, but I do love me some socks. I love wearing fun socks. I only wear fun socks. Life is too short to wear plain socks, and it's waaay too short to wear plain white socks. Ugh. Not only do I love to wear fun socks (and of course buy fun socks and/or receive them as presents...or make them into hats), but I also enjoy knitting socks. I bet I've made around a dozen pairs in my day, three of those pairs being fancy knee highs. At any rate, I knit a mini sock for this piece of mail art. The length of the foot is around 2". It took me a couple of hours to knit, though admittedly I did it while watching tv so I wasn't always the most attentive to what I was doing. The sock and the backing card are now sealed in a clear sleeve and will be sent on their way to Germany.
As promised, here's the mail goods I got in June.
In other news, as I mentioned last time, it is now serious work time for me. Full time work until the end of August - makes me tired just thinking about it. So that will be my good excuse for not posting much for the next couple of months (seriously, being gone from home an average of 10 hours a day is seriously stressing me out, especially when there are raspberries to can and chickens to feed).
I would have some good stuff to post if I had scanner access at the moment. I received two different surprises in the mail this week and I want to share them. Soon.
I have had frustration after frustration with the latest show I organized at my gallery. First we only received entries from two artists. Two! Then groups that we tried to contact specifically wouldn't give us the time of day. The final show is severely scaled down with only 4 pieces of art in it. If that wasn't bad enough, the piece we hung in the front window touched off a censorship debate due to the naked penis in it. Trust me, I have no desire to look at a naked penis, but that doesn't mean that it should be censored. I hope I can look back on all of this fondly in the future. At the moment I am just tired of the whole thing. I have a new idea for a gallery show, thanks to a discussion with another gallery member, but I am going to take my sweet time proposing it since this last show has left a bad taste in my mouth.
My summer job begins on Monday. It's a good job but I will miss having a free and open schedule. I'm not complaining, I promise.
Like I said, mail art scans coming soon...
During the past several weeks I have received a couple of chain letters, but these are not just any chain letters, they are chain letters that are mail art and ATC related. The first one came from Italy and requires sending a piece of mail art to the person at the top of the list and then passing on 10 copies of the letter. (I stupidly forgot to document the mail art I made before I sent it on its way.) The second one, which I received from two different people (the first time it was vaguely amusing, the second time I was just plain irritated), requires sending an ATC to each of the 6 people on the list and then sending the letter on to 6 other suckers, er, people.
I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, mostly because I received all of these chain letters from people who do not actually know me, they simply have received one piece of art from me and therefore harvested my name and address for their use. (Full disclosure: I am now guilty of the same thing in an attempt to get my copies of the letter sent out and off of my conscience.) It doesn't seem like quite the right way to build community. I also have a suspicion that these letters will mostly just get passed around in the same circles of people and not really bring in any new people. Plus, I am pretty cynical about chain letters in general since I've never received anything back from any that I have participated in in the past. Still, I hope beyond hope that this time will be different. I'll keep you posted.
