A Bubble-less Trash Bauble from Lynn Radford

I'm always happy to get mail from my old hometown (Pittsburgh, Pa.), and Lynn  Radford will always be beloved in my heart for finding a perfect re-use for those obnoxious, frustrating, landfill-filling blister packs that the packaging devils have so successfully filled our lives with. She makes wonderful Trash Bubbles! I suppose she has recently managed to deplete her supply of bubble-stuff (which could, of course, be easily resupplied by a trip to any corner drug store or, especially, WallyWorld). Nonetheless, there is no end of the trashflow needing to be re-purposed into grin-inducing objets d'art, so Lynn has produced a lovely trashcard.

She notes that this should be considered "clearance scrap:" trying, I suppose, to get the ephemera detritus off the studio work surface so she can be prepared to construct new bubbles once they appear in her shopping card. Thanks so much, Lynn. Nope, the cast is not off my leg yet, so I have lately been deprived of exposure to price tags, SKU tags, and the other sticky tokens of consumption. Thanks for reminding me what is going on out in the real world! Hugs to a home-girl!

New Correspondent: Brooke Cooks from Seattle

While it is always fun to receive mail art, it's a special treat when it comes from someone you have never before encountered in the Eternal Network. This treat arrived in a pretty, tasteful, forest green self-made envelope subtly enhanced with washi tape. The only hint that this new correspondent might have something of a gritty side came in the form of a Johnny Cash postage stamp.  More incentive to look inside...

 

Brooke's card is simple and very cool. I love seeing a successful collage put together from just a few elements.  Taking in the card I find my self reading/observing/intuiting sensuousness, foody-ness, exotic and dangerous beverage, romance, liberation politics, and Glance--could that be a more polite and restrained form of Gaze? Well, this is everything I need to know that I will enjoy engaging in an ongoing relationship with Ms. Cooks in the mail!

Thanks, Brooke. Love the card. Watch your mailbox!

Stuck on the Sticker Dude: Goodies from Joel Cohen

There is very little in life these days that pumps me up like finding a big fat envelope all gussied up with incredible, colorful, creative, fun, rubber stampings. This beauty arrived a couple days ago from Joel Cohen, NYC, "The Sticker Dude."  Take some time to just "read" this envelope. I love the little drawn figures, especially the roller-blade lady on the reverse!

Inside the envelope it just gets better. Joel included a couple of cards with some pix of Ray Johnson, and, of course, a great abundance of Sticker Dude stickers!

The Sticker Dude is certainly carrying on his own part of the mail-art tradition while spreading around sticky happiness and a bit of well-earned wisdom.  Apparently a lot of the illustrations for Joel's stickers comes from his partner-in-art, Tom Kerr. I enjoyed learning much more about Joel and Tom by doing a bit of web surfing, beginning with Joel's Ragged Edge Press sites. Take a look!

More Wonderment from Mariana Serban...Happy Dance!

It's another one of those big envelopes with one of Mariana Serban's humongous rubber stamp images. Just a couple weeks since the last one...oh boy, I had better get productive today!

Nearly always, Mariana's correspondence art includes correspondence as well as art! That is such a nice extra that some of us forget to add to works we send off to the eternal network. This heart-piece--maybe a foreshadowing of Valentines to come???-- is made of colored tissue adhered over torn painted paper.

I might have trouble believing that a package actually came from Mariana if it didn't include at least one of her fantastic (literally) drawn figures. Here we have a fellow and some fish caught up together in a tumultuous surf under a disinterested moon. Or that's what I see, at least.




Thank many times over, Mariana for your sweet gifts!

What Came in My Barfa Box?: The Seedy Underbelly of DKult Gift Exchange

This year's was the fifth non-successive annual Barfa Spewart Holiday Gift Exchange; only the second one I have participated in. Conceived by the obviously deranged mind of DKult's own DK, the Popette of TrashPo, the exchange is meant to be a friendly exchange of gag-me-with-a-spoon holiday tackiness of the sort one might receive from a born-again follower of Martha You-Know-Who. Well somehow my lucky stars guided the fickle hand of fate to have me chosen as gift recipient this year from Diane herself.  One day, shortly before Christmas, a largish package arrived.

I knew immediately that the so-called $10 max expenditure had been exceeded by postage alone. I was still laid up, fresh from surgery, still sporting a heavy plaster cast, and it took a day or two for me to get it together to finally open the Barfa Box.

 

Even the protective bubble rap was stained by mysteriously slimy substances.

And like one of those Russian doll thingies, or maybe I am thinking of Latvian piano crates or...well, it was a nested box in box affair. I pull out the box within and find:

 

 Crispix??? Never heard of it. Immediately I suspected that the box was a fake, maybe produced from whole cloth, or blank paper, by some illustrative magician like David Stafford. However, after reading every word on the box it finally dawned on me. This is no bit of mail-art magic, it's just a cereal box. Of course it is...it's TRASH, and this is a box of TRASHPO from DK. Still, I had to examine the duct tape closure for any signs of suspicious white powder. However, I was soon overcome by curiosity about the strange slosh-slosh sounds emanating from within.

A quick peak revealed a typical Diane Keys style trash stash, but with some very interesting variations.

The first thing I pulled out was a very reasonable little packet of stuff that included a nice note from DK. The stuff was all married up with a red-striped clothespin, natch!

Next thing out was...well, a little skin treat. Glad I'm not a Zombie, I s'pose.

Torn pages from a kids' book, a handout for an acting school, and I guess it looks like the instruction chart for some complex rhumba moves...but until my leg heals up I don't guess I'll try it out and see if I can Dance With The Stars...

Now this is just a piece of signature DK TrashPo. It needs no cutting and pasting or re-arranging. I don't know who--or what--Spookle is, but I s'pect she's a latter day hippie mixing up some fine tea, or bath oil, or love potion #10... It'll damn sure smell good!

Well what sort of holiday stocking would be considered complete without some well-decorated, Jesus-blessed, heart-hearthy edible undies. Yep, the box was empty. I guess one of DK's other many spouses got the real treat implied here. All I can do is fantasize and wonder...boxers or briefs?

What can I say about this? It's a painted, decorated rock...a pet rock...a praise the lard pet rock. And what is it with that butterfly thingie. Does it look as suggestive to you as it does to me? I am sure there is a place for a new paperweight in my life somewhere...

Finally, we come to the sloshing truth! It is a TrashPo Sno-Globe. Brilliant! a lovely little jug of junk and glitter. Shake it and wonder...wonder where you went wrong in life...  I have thought often about opening it up and investigating the many sparkly and intriguing bits of....well...of crap floating around in there, but I have resisted. Instead, I have the sno-globe sitting quietly next to me at my studio work table. And now, after nearly a month since arriving, it looks like this:

 

Yes, the devil is growing his spore inside. When and if the bottle ever starts to swell or hiss or bubble, I have already researched which appropriate hazmat disaster offices I should contact. Meanwhile, I'll just give it a little shake and enjoy...

And the package was properly signed by you know who:

Thank you dear Attitude Girl. I absolutely cannot wait until next year's (or next decade's) Barfa Spewart tacky gift exchange.

WOW--Two in One Week!: Playing "VideoGame" with Linda French

Having made it through a prodigious pile of wonderful mail-art that has been awaiting my opening, enjoying, documenting and acknowledging, I have come to a small, enchanting card from Linda French in Minnesota, USA. Linda had also sent me a wonderful little package of materials to spark my creativity and keep me off the streets, but this card had slid to the bottom of the deck, and I am thrilled to share it here.

The card is approximately 3x5" heavy stock with rounded corners. The front of the card could be painted, but I am more inclined to see it as a monotype made of impressions of leaves or similarly shaped pieces, circles, and brush strokes, all punctuated by hole-punch circles. The blue hummingbird postage stamp is perfect!

The back is a gorgeous, elaborate doodle of circles, rectangles, lines and dots of blue and white inks/paints on a metallic-silver ground. Three little red figures make the whole thing pop and spin.

Thanks, much, Linda. It's a sweet card, and it will be a challenge to come up with a proper reciprocal!

Getting My Goat: Mail-Art Love from Mail-Art Martha

Stamped to show this is not simply DKult TrashPo, but also an official  communiqué of Her Nibs, The Queen of Retailia, Mail Art Martha of Beckingham, Kent, U.K.

 

This is one of the neatest get-well cards I've ever seen. A custom coloring book-page from Martha, preparing me for a happy New (Chinese) Year (of The Goat) and keeping me properly occupied in my current convalescence.

And an annual report from the Queen's Court of certain Official Royal Activities.

Not duplicated here are personal notes from Her Nibs wishing me speedy recovery and giving stern warning that I am NOT to endanger my health by attempting to send her any mail-art until I am completely healed up. Silly Queen! 

Please do not blog this one, thank you: Really wonderful mail-art from...

I'll never tell.

And that's all the hint you get.

Thanks, good friend!

What better use for a catalog file card: Sweet mail-art from Erica Durante in NJ, USA

Stamps, stickers, tape and a wonderful old manilla (did you ever call it oak tag, or was that different?) index card. Great fun from my good pal. Thank you, Erica!

Emergency Care Package of Mail-Art Supplies: Wonderful Bits and Pieces from Linda French

 

Recently arrived: this somewhat cryptic little package the size of a CD, self-identified as an IUOMA Recuperation Care Package. No doubt from a mail-art well-wisher wishing me well in my recovery from foot surgery, but no indication from whom.

Inside I find a personal note from Linda French, from Minnesota, a new (for me) correspondent--although we have chatted online a bit. In her note, Linda writes, "These are just a few bits and pieces to add to your "laid-up" stash for making mail art..."

Bits and beautiful pieces!  I know that Linda is a member of Mim Golub's "Circles" group on the IUOMA-Ning platform, and it looks like she has been busy making circles. I guess I know where some of these bits and pieces are going to end up.  What a treasure trove!

Thanks much, Linda. Now to find a clear spot at my studio table to put these gems to some good use!

More New Year Wishes: Mariana Serban

Peaceful New Year wishes from my good mail-art friend in Romania, Mariana Serban. Love the new giant stamping on the large envelope!

Inside I find three of Mariana's characteristic figure works. I would do anything to be able to draw like this! The third drawing is certainly pure Mariana, with her personal stampings and the asemic script work all over and within a white figure on black backgrouond.  Intriguing and gorgeous!

Thanks, Mariana. Hope you are going to have a wonderful 2015, and I look forward to sharing more mail art with you soon.

New Year Greetings from Mom-Kat!

Nothing says "Happy New Year" like a sweet Happy New Year mail-art card that comes with promises of more postal fun in the coming year. This is from Katerina Nikoltsou, and there could be no doubt about that as the trademarked/patented Grecian-Blue stamped envelope is unmistakeable.

Inside is a rustic-red card festooned with celebratory stars, glittery-gold foil, pink-bubbkles washi tape, a baker's dozen of Happy New Year wishes in various languages, and Mom Kat herself in a blue--what else? artistamp.

Thanks, much, Katerina for the good wishes and the cool mail art. Yes'm, I will do my part to make sure I can see you in the mail this year!