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:

Directory Assistance.... can I help you?

I just updated the dmoz (aka open directory project) directory for mailart and artistamps. I've been a volunteer editor for this category for a few years now and I try to keep it up-to-date and make sure there are no bad links. If you know of any sites that need to be added, please go to the appropriate category, click on "suggest URL," and add a short description of the site.

One of the newest sites which was added is by Mozoprimo, A Dutch artist with great ATCs including collages of fish, manikins, found objects and camels with candles.

Banana's Add & Pass

This postcard was sent to the den by Anna Banana from BC Canada. The back of the postcard reads "Sticker Tree Project" and asks the recipient to add the stickers from fruits and vegetables to the branches. It took me about 2 months to eat my quota and fill up the branches on this card.
You'll find mangoes, apples and pomegranates plus a fake fruit sticker.



There is a poem on the reverse of the card which reads:

Who will then snicker
When all the leaves
of all the trees
Are
replaced with
corporate stickers?

Anna has been in the mailart network for quite some time and is probably best known for her VILE magazine project (which she co-edited) from 1974-1983. You can read more about her influence and activities in this article from The Spare Room web site.

Artist of the Month

kiyotei is artist of the month on art.net. I still remember joining up with this group over 10 years ago and all the help and collaboration I've received from Lile Elam and the rest of the art.net artists. I'm proud to be a part of the group and here's wishing us all another 10 years in cyberspace together! Cheers!

Special props to Tom Coffin, Jaxxun, Marketta and Jennifer Crystal Fang-Chien for inspiration. collaborations and perspiration.

Interlacing Channels

Popped down to the post this morning and was surprised to find a rather large package in the box. The return address was reminiscent of Johns Wayne's real name but the city was Taipei Taiwan. Racking my brain to remember if I purchased a sweatshop t-shirt of Happy Bunny or a loaded CD-Rom of warez, I opened the package to find two paperback books (one large and one small).

The large book immediately caught my eye because the art on the cover was by long-time collaborator, Denis Mizzi of Australia, who ARTicipated in my first mailart call "X-Ray Spex" in 2000.

A brief scan through the books contents reveal quotes from religious and ancient texts juxtaposed with observations from the author's travels. The name on both books is Madison Morrison and upon opening the small book, I found a handwritten note on the back of a change of address card. It said, "Why don't you send me some of your work? I saw you listed in Braincell 593. All Best, MM."

For those of you who don't know, Braincell is one of the most well-known and long-running mail art projects created and maintained by Japanese artist Ryosuke Cohen. His wonderful project arrives from time to time in my box and is a colorful and fascinating beast. The collages are created from stamp designs, rubberstamps, stickers, drawings and seals he receives from other artists. He then prints these materials onto A3 size paper and creates 150 sheets and sends a sheet back with a list of addresses to each participant. He publishes the Braincell project at intervals of 8 to 10 days and each sheet includes about 60 people. Ryosuke is always accepting artwork and designs, so check out his pages for more info and the mailing address if you are interested in collaborating with him. You can view an example of this project at the Artpool Website in Budapest.

A search for the author by name on Google brought up another interesting mailart connection. It seems a certain Dr. Madison Morrison, who graduated from Yale and received his Ph.D. from Harvard recently spoke about Homer and Western Tradition of Literature at the Jeju Culture & Art Foundation (JCAF) in Korea on October 19, 2004. I had heard of the JCAF because The Jeju International Art Show in October 2001 hosted a mailart call titled "Peace Island." I submitted artwork to the call and received a beautiful jam-packed printed documentation for the show. You can view some really great photos of the conference and mail art exhibit by visiting Jas W. Felter's (Vancover, Canada) Peace Island pages.

Coincidence??? Mail art connections passing the globe from Hungary to Japan to Korea and on to Cali. Gotta love it. All art is good. I'm looking forward to reading these books.

Pati Mailed

Received 6 snazzy ATCs (artist trading cards) from Pati Bristow of Los Altos, CA today. She used a variety of old stamp sheets, office supplies (affectionately known as paper assholes) and advertising scrap for these recycled mini-collages. They are quite colorful and I always enjoy seeing one person's trash turned into art and not a landfill.



She has been a prolific contributor to the ATC Virus call with two batches of cards send so far including Abstract Virrii and Peace Virus for a total of 18 virus infections.

Some Recent ATCs

Some recent ATCs that I sent out in limited edition batches. The first one was done in markers, the middle is a digital creation and the third one is painted in opaque acrylic with pen.

From left to right they are tilted: Kanji Bones Green, Spells in the Cupboard and Tattoo Doodle Bear. I'm always up for trades, Jams and Round Robin swaps, so email me and let's set something up.

A new ATC book is coming out just in time for the Holidaze. It's by the good folks at Stampington.com and has over 500 ATCs to view. This company has been around for a while and is best know for the great catalogues they produce. There is a bunch of cards to wander through in the book including one of my watercolor ATCs.


Pronghorn Shaman

Day of the Dead is upon us. Celebrate life and honor the memories of relatives long gone.

For the third year in a row, the nation of Matangi has issued an artistamp for the holiday. The mailartist.com has been updated to include this artistamp on the Matangi Island Postal page for the ficticious island nation.



A close-up image of the artwork for the stamp, including the 2002 and 2003 issues can be viewed by visiting the Day of the Dead page.

If you would like a sheet of stamps, contact me and we can arrange a swap.

Tom Ridge Read My Mail Art!I retrieved my mail from the P.O. Box today and noticed that it had been sliced open on one end and taped back up with a piece of fluorescent green packing tape.

The official-looking emblem on the tape was an eagle surrounded by the words U.S. Department of Homeland Security. There are also large letters reading U.S. Customs on the tape.

They must have been freaked out by the return address from Turkey and the 2 CD-ROMs inside.

I hope the agent enjoyed reading the documentation from Sinasi Gunes' mail art call: Watch.The mail art call on the theme of being watched is quite ironic eh?

The web site for the call including docs is here:
http://www.simulasyon.net/watch/"
Check it out - Good stuff there.

Here is Mr. Security himself with my mail:


P.S. Sinasi Gunes has a new mail art call which follows:
Theme: Woman and Ecology
Deadline: June 30,2005
Media: Photographs, emails, cartoons, collages, poems, visual poems,paintings, prints, digital images...
Size: Postcard size
Send to: Sinasi GünesAbide-i Hurriyet Caddesi
Arslanoglu Apt.80/18 Sisli / Istanbul TURKEY
No selection, no fee, no return.
Works will be displayed on this website.

I suggest you send him something soon so you can have your privacy invaded too!

kiyotei

For web design in San Diego County, try: San Diego Web Design

Just returned from a vacation to Blanchard, Idaho. Not much there - but 30 minutes drive will get you to some cool places. Saw a bald eagle, tame deer, wolf cubs, and caught a garter snake. Communing with nature gives me that little extra recharge. I haven't been able to breathe right since I got back into town. Wondering if the smog is affecting me worse now that I had my lungs cleared out in the woods. Sent out a bunch of mailart today and updated the mailart call page. Check it out and send out something to another creative person - like yourself.

Had a blast at the Technomaina Circus on Saturday night. Very unexpected entertainment. If the "circus" comes to your town, I highly recommend that you check it out.

Added 2 new sections to kiyotei's den: An art news page and a flashlight artist page. Chris Keeley is the featured artist.

Posted a new "secret places" photo-narrative called Box Canyon Journey.

Met with Manboy (Bruce) and Cecilia of Technomaniacircus to discuss exhibition of the dog's life call at their upcoming show at Club Xanth. Looks like this could turn out to be a cool show. Just imagine: dogmailart and circus freaks, jugglers, sex, and performance art. What a volatile cocktail!

Wow - it has really been a while since I published anything here. Too busy with other stuff I guess.
New News: Dog's life is finished - documents are being gradually sent out.

Check out my Caves of Doom photo-journey at photographica.org. This is a cool collaborative site run by my excellent friend, Jonathan Prince, from www.killyourtv.com.

Updated the Dog's Life call with 11 new submissions including a great Good Dog Award from Ken Miller of ASKalice and Shouting at the Postman.


Do not play this game if you are a Pictionary addict. You will probably be fired.

Spent the weekend in Maui. Did a lot of snorkling around Lanai and Turtle Town but didn't see any turtles. Saw about eight whales crusing around the west side of the island. Went on a jeep ride of a back country cattle ranch.

Ate dinner at Nick's Fishmarket with Bob Gates. Nice guy, but he does a lot of name-dropping. The Crab Leg Pasta and Château Lafite Rothschild were excellent.

My good friend Dragonfly Dream has a cool new collaborative idea on her webpage called "Bald is Beautiful!" She has been battling with cancer since December 2000 and has documented her experiences on her website.

I sent her my manipulated image with tribal tattoos and also dropped it into the eternal Gridcosm at level 703.

Met the artist, Riley L. Johnston, at the Carlsbad art show. He had plenty of sand paintings on display outside and the humidity was steaming up the glass inside the frames of a few. We talked about the Navaho "hypno-therapy" of sand paintings and I gave him a baggie of red sand that I picked up from the Valley of Fire in Nevada.

The funny thing to me about the All Your Base Are Belong To Us phenomenom is that it might actually be something that George W. Bush would say during one of his speeches. Check out the cool Zero Wing FAQ to get all the historical data about this net.Craze.

The first AYBABTU post to Gridcosm was Grid 678 on February 15, 2001.

Still don't know what this is all about? Read the Register (UK) for an excellent article about this subject.