Mail Art

FISH MAIL

Postcard created from recycled cardboard
with collage over the 'printed' side.
Collage created from cotton fabric,
scraps of handmade paper and an ad,
a scrap of watercolor and ink,
stamping, hand-drawn swirls,
and the canceled postage image.
An extra fine-point Sharpie marker will
write on almost anything, including fabric.

What is Mail Art?

Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. The term mail art can refer to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, or an artistic genre. Mail art is also known as postal art and is sometimes referred to as Correspondence/Mail Art (CMA).

Mail artists typically exchange ephemera in the form of illustrated letters, zines, rubber stamped, decorated or illustrated envelopes, artist trading cards, postcards, artistamps, faux postage, mail-interviews, naked mail, friendship books, decos, and three-dimensional objects.

An amorphous international mail art network, involving thousands of participants in over fifty countries, evolved between the 1950s and the 1990s. It was influenced by other movements, including Dada and Fluxus.

One theme in mail art is that of commerce-free exchange; early mail art was, in part, a snub of gallery art, juried shows, and exclusivity in art. A saying in the mail art movement is "senders receive", meaning that one must not expect mail art to be sent to oneself unless one is also actively participating in the movement.

Excerpted from Wikipedia on-line article.

MAKE (AND SEND) SOME MAIL ART TODAY!

Jolly Halloween Mail Art

Here is a postcard I sent to my friend Lou...her art is awesome and she shares her enthusiasm and joy of creating with everyone. Visit her blog at Metamorphosis.

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Halloween is coming quickly and I'm looking forward to the Halloween Blog Party that I will be having on Oct. 26, 2008! Stop by to see Pumpkin Head Jack, an Egyptian party girl, Druids from the past, and other enticing goodies! It will be fun and I hope you will join in! If you would like to participate in the Soul Journal Halloween Blog Party on your blog, just click on the spooky red icon on the top right. I also recently visited a mysterious and extravagant blog party on Vanessa's site, and you can see the sights at A Fanciful Twist. Jolly Halloween!

Mail Art!

I love receiving Mail Art, and I was delighted to find this postcard from Diana in the midst of bills, advertisements, and political propaganda...so refreshing to find art when you least expect it! Diana creates beautiful dyed papers that she has for sale through her website, and I believe this postcard was created using some of her paper. I love the tiny white dots that she's added with gel pens...really makes the design POP! Thank you Diana.

Mail Art Postcard

A Mail Art postcard I am sendingto a friend in Kentucky...mixed media including craftacrylic paints, stamping with acrylic, junk-mail image of sunflowers, magazine clipping, and hand-carved stamps (the faces & green stamped design). I wonder what the mail carrier thinks about mail art...I suppose they are not surprised by much any more...anyway, hope it brings some joy to the people who see it...

Mail Art

This is a Halloween postcard sent to a friend in Artgang Ohio. We've had a great time sending art to each other in the mail, in many different forms. This Ohio artist's group gets together once a month to try out new techniques, and share what we've been working on with each other. On-line groups are great, but there's nothing like cementing a friendship face-to-face! We've had so much fun together and it's wonderful to be with people who actually "get it"--the mixed media art that we do! I knew Diana likes vintage Halloween, so I had a blast making this.