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).