S:L:K

Received great docs and other goodies from Guy Bleus for the highly successful mail art project SCENTS:LOCKS:KISSES. This project got gajillions of responses from around the globe. Check out the online documentation and be prepared to browse for a few hours.

P.S. - kiyotei's kiss is number 672.

Roll Dem Bones

The Day of the Dead Artistamp swap has begun to trickle into my mailbox.



Here are the first 6 artistamps I received:

1st row - Alchemy Post, Paint Rock River Valley Postal Authority and Karen Winters of Azubia.

2nd row - R.F Cote of Postscriptum, The Island of Ailurophilia and Pictia Poste.

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tags: mail art, artistamps

Fastback Mail

One of my very favorite things is a frisbee (synonomous with flying disc). I spent many a lunch hour during high school in the back parking lot flinging a disc with my buds. Sometimes forgetting to go back to class after the bell because some trick seemed almost in my grasp. A frisbee is a wonderful thing. It can be used for sport, dinner plate, doggie water dish, seed sorter, or just hung on the wall as art.

So it was with extra pleasure that I found one in my P.O. box last week.



Scott Thomas of Lexington, Kentucky sent this wonderful piece unwrapped through the mail with three 37-cent stamps attached. I've received other great work from Scott and his little fairy-toons are very recognizable. He calls this model a "Humphrey Flier" not a frisbee and I remember we used to called this style of disc a "Fastback." I agree with him that it has better flight characteristic than a standard Frisbee and I found it to be most excellent for under-the-leg or behind-the-back tosses. It seems like the thinner shape allows it to correct its tragectory and go from a wobbly side angle and still end up flying straight to the target.

Thanks, Scott for the excellent mail and I hope we can toss a few discs (and beers) in the future.

Torben Doose is Loose!

I've been seeing some great stuff by this mailartisan around the net.
Just received my first handmade postcard from Torben and it is awesome.



This artist from Paris, France has been extremely busy lately and you can find more examples of art here, here, here, here, and here . . . to name a few.

Sushi Art

Off topic - but fun:

Bento Boxes as Art



* Don't miss the Powerpuff Girls!

Got Blog?

Technorati is a great search engine for blogs.
You can even add individual tags for content searches.

I also use it to see which blogs are linking to kiyotei's den

They have a new feature (in Beta testing now) that allows you to add your blog to their directory. So if you have a Mail Art Blog, you can add it to the Mail Art directory by clicking here.

DOD Artistamp Call

Yay!

Steve Salik has graciously volunteered to host this year's Dia de los Muertos (Day of The Dead) Artistamp call. This call is one of my favorites because of the many small and creative issues produced in the past.



If you make artistamps (faux postage) and want to sign up for this call. . . surf, don't run to:
The DOD Artistamp Call web site and be prepared for some great mail in October. The deadline to register is October 10th and the mailing must go out by the 20th.

Here a sample of artistamps I've sent to the call for the last 3 years:
Matangi Island / Cebi Jubi stamps

You can see more examples of the 2004 DOD artistamps by browsing the Gallery at Carla Cryptic's site

tag: mail art

Virus Swap #5

Just sent out docs to the latest 13 participants in my Virii Swap. This was the 5th set of documentation sent out since the project begin in the summer of 2003. I received a total of 42 ATCs from these folks. Here is a sample of some of the cards sent:



Here is a list of the ARTicipants:
Barbora - Czech Republic / Soluna - Tennesee, USA / Pamdelion - New Hampshire, USA /Rael Mail - The Netherlands / Pati Bristow - California, USA / Brenda Kratzer - Michigan, USA / Justin Kani - Pennsylvania, USA / Endrene Sheperd -Canada / Pablo Wright - Ohio, USA / Generalissiomo J. Dalio - Louisiana, USA / Tim Scannel - Washington, USA / Troy Thomas - Florida, USA / Janice K. Wilson - Missouri, USA

This is an ongoing swap and each person receives back at least the same number of cards they sent in. As promised the cards are divided up and sent back to all who participated. This swap was especially hard to let go because so many of the cards were originals including some excellent work by Rael Mail and Endrene Sheperd.

These cards will be added to the Virri Gallery on the next update.

I intentionally made this ATC theme a bit vague and unpopular to reduce the number of cards I receive. The current rate of about 12 sets every 6 months is perfect for me. Any more and I would have a hard time keeping up with the scanning , docs and mailing.

Digital ATCs

There is an interesting thread of conversation concerning digital ATCs on the blog Paint-n-Things. Do you think digital mailart is as "valuable" as a hand-made item? Weigh in with your 2 cents.



Here is a limited edition ATC ( 7 total) that I made using 2 of my photographs ( a crow in Bryce Canyon Utah and a photo of and old painted wood building). I inverted the crow to a negative image and used a layer filter to get the right paint texture showing through. Then I played with the color and contrast to find just the right shade of turquoise-green. Then I resized it to 2.5 x 3.5 inches and pasted 7 copies onto an 8 x 11 image and printed it out at 300 DPI on Kodak high gloss photo paper.

Do you make digital ATCs??? If the answer is yes and you want to swap, send me an email or send your ATCs to: kiyotei / p.o. box 2786 / carlsbad, ca 92018 / usa

I'll send you an equal number (including the wooden crow image).

Pipe Smoking Koko

Well this handsome postcard, with matching artistamp comes from Jassy Lupa of Mouth of Wilson, VA.



It is a wonderful handpainted and rubber-stamped image in turquoise blue and gold.

Reminds me of the Anasazi trickster named Kokopelli whose fluted image is scratched into many a sandstone cliff.

Check out her wonderful blog for more information about this mailartisan.

TM V 1.1

Capt. Reg (alias R.F. Cote) sent me another version of his time machine postcard.



This time the unit is a bit larger ( 8 1/2 x 11 ") and is much easier to use. Reg updated the software and hardware for the device and added a pre-tuned button back to 1976.

My goal was to jump back to February 9th and see Kiss in concert at the Terrace Ballroom in Salt Lake City.

Unfortunately . . . I arrived a few days before the concert and managed to get grounded by my mom, so I missed the show.

I'll try again next week.
Thanks Reg! Check out the original time machine postcard here.

Dylan's Mailart on the Radio

Here's a cool link from Ed Giecek:

Bob Dylan's Mailart

It discusses Ed's recent mailart call to celebrate Dylan's birthday and mentions kiyotei's den too.

You can also download the radio show about Dylan's song Like A Rolling Stone


Thanks for the email Ed!

Best Sneak Attacker

Here's a lovely little ATC sent in by Troy Thomas for my Virri ATC Swap.

I just updated the gallery over the weekend and added a slideshow feature for hands free viewing, so be sure to check out all the new cards that are posted there.



Ahhh . . . if only the Trojan Man could protect my little 'puter!

Troy sent two more great cards and a beautiful hand-painted envelope with tribal tattoo motif. Drop by his friendly blog with the theme - Wanted: Mail Art and swap some mail art or artist trading cards with this artisan. Details of the card swap can be found by visiting the The ATC Room blog.

Smoke My Macabi

Received my first wooden postcard today from Adam Allen Berry of Hattiesburg, MS.

He made the card out of a Cuban cigar box with the brand name of Macabi. He cut out a 4 X 6 1/2 chunk of the wood and then drew a great linear pattern over the brand info. The pattern reminds me a lot of my old Tinker Toys.

Time Machine

RF Côté of Quebec, Canada sent this nifty Time Traveling device. By adjusting the three switches on the card, the reader is attached to two cosmic strings and can travel at incredible speed because the gravitational force distorts spacetime and produces time travel. The postcard is turned into a time machine by using the gravity produced by the two cosmic strings, to propel itself into the past. This is accomplished by looping around the cosmic strings. For each year traveled backwards in time, a loop of string containing half the mass-energy of an entire galaxy is produced.



Unfortunately, the circuit was damaged in the mail, and is not functioning. My attempt to travel back to 1976 was unsuccessful. I have ordered another transpositioner capacitance module to repair the card and will attempt the time jump in the near future.

Visit the excellent blog of RF Côté and check out all his inventions.

Vlogs, Green News and Mail Art

greenthing >> tag! you're it.

A Dozen Stamps

Received this envelope from Pati Bristow a few days ago and it was chock full of stuff including stra Da Da artistamps, a handmade No-War postcard, one fluxus buck and assorted other goodies.



We have been sending this vellum envelope back and forth across California for 11 trips. I'm jamming it full of stuff and dropping it in the mailbox for trip number 12 tomorrow.

You can check out some of her ATCs sent back in November 05.
I also received excellent documentation for her last mailart call "No Place to Rest, Chairs that you can't sit on."

You can read more about this call and her latest calls by visiting her LiveJournal blog.

*** UPDATE
Number 14 dropped in the mail today (19 August 2005)

Summer Blessings

Mick Boyle sent this great hand made postcard titled "Smoke Hands." I really like the textured matte finish and the almost translucent gold hands. His blog shows 2 versions of the card and this one is the "dirty" version. I like my mail like I like my martinis: dirty! I've collaborated on a few digital works with Mick in the past and his pixel skills are impressive. Lately, it seems, he has decided to focus more on mail art NOT created by a computer.



Please check out his most excellent blog-o-omatic at: http://digitalmailart.blogspot.com/ and send something his way through the mail. You can always count on getting a great reply . . . maybe even a purple radish!

School's Out

Received a large envelope containing several postcard-sized drawings (in colored pencil) and a bunch of poems from GDP of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Requiem for the Robot

Received this limited edition block print from the Anti-Robot Army in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Their manifesto proclaims:

• Censorship causes brain damage.
• Dissent is central to democracy.
• Your government and media outlets may be lying to you.
• The guiding principle of the Public Relations industry is deceit.
• Language is not a transparent medium for representing reality but rather a cultural system that shapes our values and beliefs.
• The more you consume the less you live.

They also have an ongoing mail art call which is listed at kiyotei's den or you can read more about the Anti-Robot Army on their propoganda blog.

Postcard from the Concrete Poet

Here's a nifty little postcard made with spray paint and vinyl characters that was sent in by Gustave Morin of Winsor, Ontario.



According to his bio at Isomniac Press, he has published several magazines and a book titled A Penny Dreadful which is reviewed here.

You can also check out some more of his postcards on The Bentspoon Blog:
#1
#2

Mail Bag

Recieved my first all-fabric envelope yesterday from Risten Roarquist of San Francisco.



It's a lovely little piece decorated with elephants and dinosaur bones.
Looks like she sent a beautiful one to Mick Boyle too.
You can see more examples by Risten at Frips web site or Air Freedom Flight of Italy .

Little Egg Rules

Received this great pen and ink postcard from Denis Charmot of Marnaz, France.



He informs me that he found the French cartoon stamps online in a recent post. BUT I was missing the most important character! He included this fellow by the name of Titeuf.
You can see more of Denis Charmot's work and mail art by visiting his excellent web site.



Apparently this cartoon is sweeping France by storm. It is the creation of Swiss cartoonist Philippe Chappuis. His cartoon characters are appearing everywhere from billboards to notebooks. Denis writes in his postcard that Titeuf is "very appreciated by the French children for his politically incorrect contents." This cartoon strip only became popular in France last year, so it is amazing that it is already the subject of postage stamps.

The word "titeuf" means little egg.

You can read more about this comic strip, its creator and its phoenominal success in France by reading this article from the Scotland Sunday Herald.

Pinky's Brain

Received this ATC from Pinky of Genova, Itlay. Also got a cool postcard and some mailart calls.



Couldn't find a lot of Pinky stuff online, but there is a cool piece entitled ONLY for HEROES art that appears in the excellent PEEP ezine (issue 6).

AKA Don Mabie

Here's a great Bob Dylan compilation by the psychadelic font-master Chuck Stake.



Chuck is also heavily into Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) and has been producing the brightly colored mini art since 1997. He has been very busy organizing regular trading sessions in Canada.

You can see and read more about his work at the original ATC web site in Switzerland and The New Gallery in Calgary, Canada, where is he a board member.

ATCs By Rael Mail

Rael Mail of the Netherlands sent a great set of nine artist trading cards (just enough to fill an 8X10 Ultra*PRO collectible card sheet).

Virus Mail

Received four ATC's from Pascale Hulin of Jumencourt, France for my mailart call. This ongoing call has been plodding along since June 2003 and Pascale's cards bring the total received to 194 cards. You can check out this call and the documentation so far by going to the page at mailartist.com.



His envelope also had some very cool postage which I assume may be popular cartoon characters in France.

Luna Bisonte Prods

I recently received two fun booklets of visual poetry by John M. Bennett.



You can always tell his work by the uniquely scribbled text which is as recognizable as a Ralph Steadman sketch. John has been getting a lot of traction with his I// l amp/ san d/ : : :// cLuster/ poem which is being documented in the Five Million Copies blog.

John M. Bennett is currently the curator of the Avant Writing Collection at Ohio State University and you should definitely check out his excellent web site to see more examples of his text poetry, visual poetry and sound poetry.

JDCB Gallery

Honoria Starbuck has a cool collaboration going on over at her LiveJournal.com Blog.

It's a Johnny Depp Coloring Book with pages that resemble Man Ray's ray-o-grams.

Here's my Golden Boy:



It's lame, I know - so you can do much better. Surf on over to her site for the full details and send something to her via email or Blog-post. And don't forget to check out the EMMA (Electronic Museum of Mail Art) website which she currates.

Cone X Shunz

The other day I was drinking a cup of Joe in a popular local cafe called Vinaka's. It is a funky place where you will find surfers, artists and even the mayor sipping coffee at the tables inside and outside. It is always busier and tastier than the Starbucks across the parking lot. I sat over by the magazine section where alternative newspapers, local band flyers and assorted print paraphernalia is displayed. On top of some copies of the Reader, there was a paperback with a label on the cover stating: "FREE Book." The book was titled A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by DAVE EGGERS. The sticker went on to say that I could have the book as long as I logged onto the web site www.bookcrossing.com and register my find. You are supposed to go to the journal entry page, enter the BCID number, and leave a brief note so that others will know what's happened to the book. When finished with the book, I'm supposed to pass it along to a friend or release it into the wild for someone else to find!

So I did. I read the book and it was pretty good and I posted a journal entry on the website.

The next day I got an email from the person who left the book saying thanks for posting and that she was into ATCs and liked my web pages. She got my web site address from the bookcrosssing profile. So now I found a local person to swap artist trading cards with! Hooray.

She's got some excellent images of her artwork, illustrations, ATCs and dolls on her blog at WildSpiritArts.

So if you see a book lying around with a big sticker on the cover . . . snap it up, read it, add a journal entry and pass it along!

Complex City Art

Here is a close-up detail of Rael Mail's truly original drawings. Like a master Jazzman listening to the rhythm section, he can improvise (with his pen) and create unique artwork through progressive strokes which he stitches together to form a new melodious image.



See more of this mailartist's work:
http://www.art.net/kiyotei/raelmail/index.html
And send him some mail if you like what you see.

Tasty Add & Pass

I usually don't enjoy the common Add & Pass addiction, although I will send stuff along. I know many mailartists have a soft spot for the format. But every now and then I receive an original collaborative invitation that is a joy to be a piece of. This documentation from Johnny Automatic is a completed Pizza #2 from a recent Add & Pass project.


Click to see a larger image slice

Now this is some tasty work! Pizza #2 was topped by Pinky (France), C.Z. Lovecraft (USA), Jose Roberto Sechi (Brasil), Carmen Spiniello (Italy), Stardust Memories (Holland), Pascal Lenoir (France), E. Sundermann (Austria) and kiyotei.

Blog Smog

Ruud Janssen of the Netherlands is the Pied Piper of mailart Blogs and sent this wonderfully colorful postcard reflecting his passion for this new medium.



See more great work by this long-time mailartist when you visit his Blog, terrific web site: IUOMA or rap with the man on his popular Yahooligan message board!

Androgynous Hand-Drawngynous

Received a ton of mailart since I returned from vacation. Wish I had the energy to post it all here, but I'll include some of the highlights (not found elsewhere on the web). This pencil drawing by Jaromir Svozilik of Norway was sent as thanks for a newspaper clipping I sent to him. He ARTicipated in the Beatles mailart call by the Camarada in San Diego and his work was selected to appear in the local alternate newspaper for an article about the show.


I really enjoy pencil drawings and Jaromir's style is funky and pleasing to my eye. You can check out more of his work including crayon, acrylic and sculpture by clicking on this link to the virtual market.

Blog Stickers

These are kinda like bumper stickers for your blog.

You can read more at the BlogStickers web site.
Or make some of your own in the Blogsticker Factory

Frippy Moss

Sending this postcard to Frips of Belgium.
It was made using Sharpie markers on yellow card stock.


Why don't you check out her excellent blog or visit her web site and send something in for the ongoing No Meat Today mail art call.

Quanyin's Rainbow

This is an email art submission for the mail art call Quanyin:The Goddess of Mercy & Compassion-Commemorate on the artismoking website. The anti-smoking call has received some fine contributions so far, so check it out and please consider sending in something yourself.

Beautiful Weekend in the Desert

After a week of rain, the desert is blooming again. Took some great photos of the Borrego Springs/Ocotillo Wells area and some rare wildlife shots on the way home on SR-22.

These shots are stills captured from a video I shot of some Bighorn sheep feeding on the side of the mountain near Culp Canyon. The video is really jerky and zapruder-esk in quality but you can still see the animals in some of the frames.



You can see some more shots of wildflowers and coyote on my photoblog.

Cult Figure 2005

My Madge


Every year since 1997, Ken Miller has found a cult figure to manipulate. This year it is the lovely Madge. See all the contributions and read more about this ongoing project at Cult Figures on Ken's Shouting at the Postman web site. Better yet, send in a manipulation yourself. Be sure to wander around his site while you are there because there are some truly righteous gems to be found. You can also read my flashlight interview of Ken.

Pixel Pairings

Lately I've been enjoying Mick Boyle's collaborative art in a few online blogs including an especially delightful entry in the the 5 Million Copies Project that he did in collaboration with Elizabeth Zo. Mick has his own blog with mail art and digital works and he sent me a few images to play with this morning.
Here are the results:

Mail Art T-Shirt

Claudio Romero of Italy sent me a mailart call in postcard format a while ago. Apparently he sent quite a few . . .


If you want to see the 130+ contributions, check out his web site photo album.

He does not have a deadline for the call (it is ongoing) so email him if you want to contribute and ask for a mailart t-shirt postcard of your very own.
email:

For all other info mail to:
Claudio Romeo / V.le Kennedy 144 / 20050 Villa Raverio (Mi) / ITALY.

Hair of the Dog

Just got a great furry postcard from Jean Kusina of Freemont, Ohio. She always sends the coolest stuff. I haven't heard from her in a while, so it was especially nice to get this postcard. In addition to her mailart projects, she is an excellent writer / poet and a sculptor too.


One of the wackiest things that I ever received at the post office was a collaged doggy dish from Jean.

Desert Photos

Just created a new blog to use for photography.
You can see some shots I took during my Holiday vacation in the desert.



Visit my photojournal!

Ed'zZ Birthday Bash for Bob

I got this mailart invitation from the Eggman Ed Giecek: Bob's Birthday mailart call

Seems Mr. Dylan is turning 64 this year.
More info on ed'zZ excellent blog: ed'zZ Blog

Here's my contribution to the party: