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:

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.