Oh it’s been a month! I’ve received some incredible mail and have so much to update, but sending mail has been my priority these past few weeks. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

Off to the postbox.

This bundle of 42 pieces went into the red Canada Post box last week… All stamped, addressed, labeled, stickered (some were even scented with pine) and hand written I’m now working on batch two, which will go to the USA and contain about 55 more postcards and Christmas envelopes (mostly for my 43 Things friends). So yes, I love all your mail and will respond asap, but my mind won’t let me rest until I get this most noble task of Christmas Cards checked off my to do list.

Bonjour,

La “ronde épistolaire” lancée en juin continue et je reçois de bien belles créations dans ma boîte aux lettres…

Merci Emma, merci Nath !

Click on images to ENLARGE:

Anna beschwerte sich darüber, Versuchskaninchen für einen neuen binationalen (Politik)-Master zu sein. Irgendwann kamen wir drauf, dass der “Master stinkt”.  Schade, dass die Protestwelle bisher nicht nach Frankreich übergeschwappt ist.

Natürlich hab ich, wie immer, die Postkarte vor dem Versand photographiert, aber Anna hat mir auch gleich Fotos geschickt. Das Urheberrecht der beiden Bilder oben liegt bei ihr. Danke Anna.

It’s another few weeks before the mail art kits from the swap are due, but yesterday, I received a fun ‘taster’ from one of my swap partners:

This is a handmade postcard made up from photos Mandy Fariello took herself.  It’s very cool, and has made me look forward to the forthcoming kits arriving even more!

My own kits are maybe 2/3 complete at the moment: the contents are decided, and the zine is in the final stretch of writing… but one way or another, the results will be there for all to see, in December .

Solch ein Zettel vor zwei Monatenin meinem Postfach (das sich immer über Post freut. Also: Postfach 0301, 79003 Freiburg). Der Ausgabeschalter war zu, ein wenig genervt bin ich in die Schalterhalle der Post und hab mich angestellt. In der Freiburger Hauptpost ist immer mehr los als im Reisezentrum der Bahn.

Ich bin mal gespannt was passieren wird wenn die Post alle ihre Filialen 2011 schliesst. Denn als ich in Berlin zu ner Postfiliale bin um mir selber ein Packet zu schicken (wollte nicht so viel Zeug schleppen), und dort gleich noch Bargeld abheben wollte wurde mir gesagt sie seien nur ein Postshop, keine Postbank, die wäre gleich um die Ecke (was sie auch war). Mag sein dass sich das in Berlin lohnt, extra Postbankfilialen zu eröffnen nachdem man die Post und DHL Filialen schliesst, aber was passiert ausserhalb der Ballungsräume? Aber eigentlich wollte ich ja von der verschollenen Nachentgeldsendung schreiben:

Diese war nämlich zunächst nicht aufzufinden, ich solle am nächsten Tag wiederkommen, man würde mir einen weiteren Zettel in mein Fach legen sollte man sie finden. Im Fach waren über die nächsten paar Tage hinweg keine neuen blauen Zettel und nach ca. einer Woche bin ich wieder in die Schalterhalle um mich zu erkundigen. Dieses mal landete ich bei einem anderen Beamten, der mir versprach noch einmal nachzuschauen. Und schwupps lag am nächsten Morgen ein neuer blauer Zettel in meinem Fach.  Wieder (zum dritten Mal) in der Schalterhalle kam ich zum selben Kollegen wie am Vortag. Ich hatte  noch eine zu verschickende, frankierte Postkarte in der Hand. Der Kollege erkennt mich wieder und geht meine Post suchen. Nach kurzer Zeit kommt er mit einem offenen, weißen Briefumschlag zurück:

“Ich lass Sie kurz reinschauen, dann können Sie sich überlegen ob Sie die Karte annehmen wollen. Ich würds nicht tun, da steht ja nichtmal ein Absender drauf. In dem (von der Post gespendeten und adressierten)  Umschlag war die folgende niedliche Karte:

Sachdienliche Hinweise die zur Ermittlung des bzw. der TäterIn führen melden Sie bitte hier an mich oder per Postkarte an die o.g. Postfachadresse. Denn ich hab leider keine Ahnung wer sich hier bei mir für was bedanken will. Und mich auf diese Weise dazu zwingt, der Post noch 106 Cents nachzuzahlen. Aber wie immer hab ich mich sehr über die Karte gefreut.

These went out last week.

They’re paintings on pages from an old biology book that I did in 2006 at Penland. I had been saving them to make into a book and just decided to send the pages out individually instead.

Leben und Arbeit/biography

Brigitta Milde wurde 1955 geboren. Sie studierte Kunsterziehung und Deutsch an der Humboldt-Universität Berlin und Kunstgeschichte an der Universität Leipzig. Seit 1982 war sie Leiterin der Städtischen Galerie am Markt in Annaberg-Buchholz. Dort zeigte sie wiederholt Mail Art-Ausstellungen von Guillermo Deisler und aus den Archiven von Steffen Jacob, Jürgen Schöberl, Joseph W. Huber, Steffen Giersch und Uwe Dressler. Seit 1993 ist Brigitta Milde Kuratorin an den Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz und seit 1999 ist sie Leiterin des dortigen Carlfriedrich-Claus-Archivs.

Mit der Mail Art beschäftigte sie sich zwischen Anfang der 1980er und Anfang der 1990er Jahre.

“Rückblickend scheinen mir die Neugierde auf ungefilterte, unzensierte Informationen über Kunstprozesse jenseits der engen Grenzen der DDR und die Lust am Gedankenaustausch die Hauptmotive gewesen zu sein. Natürlich ging es auch um den Spaß am Selbermachen, um Handwerk, Material, Experiment.” (an Franziska Block)

Projekte/Projects:

• 1987/88 Por Chile y America Latina mit César Olhagaray, Galerie am Markt in Annaberg-Buchholz

______________________________________________________________

Brigitta Milde was born in 1955. She studied art (education) and German at Humboldt-Universität Berlin and art history at Universität Leipzig. Since 1982 she had been head of the civic Galerie am Markt in Annaberg-Buchholz. There she organized various Mail Art exhibitions of Guillermo Deisler and works from the archives of Steffen Jacob, Jürgen Schöberl, Joseph W. Huber, Steffen Giersch and Uwe Dressler. Since 1993 she has been curator at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz and since 1999 she has been head of the Carlfriedrich-Claus-Archive there.

She had been doing Mail Art from the beginning of the 1980s to the beginning of the 1990s.

“In retrospect it seems to me that the curiosity for unfiltered, uncensored information about artistic processes behind the narrow borders of the GDR and the lust for the exchange of thoughts were the main motives. But of course it has also been the fun of doing it yourself, the craftsmanship, the material, the experiment.” (to Franziska Block)

Ausgewählte Arbeiten/selected works

(o.J.)

(1986)

(o.J.)

Literatur (Auswahl)/literature (selection)

• Milde, Brigitta: Kommunikation kontra Isolation, Alphabet-Grafik aus aller Welt, in: Alphabet-Projekt, Portfolio eines Mail-Art-Projektes, initiiert von Hans Hess, edition ljub 1992.
• Milde, Brigitta: Farbäquator – equator of colours, Dokumentation eines Mail-Art-Projektes zum Thema Farbe, edition ljub 1993.

Beiträge zur Mail Art in Zeitschriften/Faltblättern:

• Por Chile y America Latina, Internationale Mail Art, Annaberg-Buchholz 1987.
• Guillermo Deisler, Federn-Projekt, Mail Art-Ausstellung, Annaberg-Buchholz 1989.
• Guillermo Deisler, in: Katalog 5 Jahre UNI/vers(;), Mail Art, visuelle und experimentelle Poesie, Annaberg-Buchholz 1992.
• Mail-Art als individuelle Kommunikationsstrategie, Gedanken zur Postkunst anlässlich einer Ausstellung von Günter Hofmann und Hans Hess, in: fama, offizielles Organ des Neuen Sächsischen Kunstvereins e.V., 3. Jg.Nr. 4/1994, S. 38/39.
• Guillermo Deisler 1940 – 1995, in: Spuren, Künstlerbuch von Eckehard Koenig und Hans Hess, edition ljub 1997 (Nachwort).
• Guillermo Deisler 1940 – 1995, Künstlerporträt anlässlich der Neuerscheinung des Guillermo Deisler gewidmeten Buches Spuren von Hans Hess und Eckhard Koenig, in: Laterne, 6. Jg.Nr. 3/1997, S. 16–19.
• Glotzt nicht so romantisch, Mail Art-Ausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag von Bertolt Brecht, in: numero, New Mail Art News, H. 3/1998, S. 23.
• Das Mail Art-Projekt Frottage, initiiert von Hans Hess, in: Kunstzeitung Laterne, 12. Jg. Nr. 4/2003, S. 6 ff.
• Klaus Staeck, Plakate, Mail Art, Fotografie, in: Jahresschrift 2008, Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring e.V., Pulsnitz 2009, S. 43–47.

Links

Leben und Arbeit/biography

E. F. Higgins III was born in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA in 1949 and grew up outside of Chicago. He had a childhood fascination with stamps (both postage and rubber), and as a child he began carving rubber stamps for printing. He studied painting and printmaking at Western Michigan University and the University of Colorado. In 1976 he moved to New York City, finding an apartment near Katz’s Deli, a well known meeting place for mail artists. In 1975 he produced artistamp sheets via offset lithography, and some of his work was featured in James Felter’s exhibition, “Artists’ Stamps and Stamp Images” in 1976 at Simon Fraser University.

Often the images for his stamps are taken from a painting. The image from the painting is photographed, reduced and then printed as the stamp. Higgins’ country represented on the stamps is known as “Doo Da,” and his logo is a “wingnut” – a hardware nut (i.e. a nut and a bolt) with wings on it. The word “wingnut” in English is slang for someone who is wacky, or slightly crazy. Many of Higgins’ paintings and stamps have this sense of humor about them with subjects such as fishing lures and the ubiquitous wingnut logo.

More about E. F. Higgins III can be found at http://www.efhigginsiii.com/index.html

______________________________________________________________

E. F. Higgins, der dritte, wurde 1949 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, in den USA geboren. Er wuchs in der Nähe von Chicago auf. Seit seiner Kindheit war er von Stempeln und Briefmarken fasziniert und er fertige schon als Kind eigene Gummistempel an. Später studierte er Malerei und Grafik an der Western Michigan University und der University of Colorado. 1976 zog er nach New York City in ein Apartment in der Nähe des Katz’s Deli, einem bekannten Treffpunkt für Mail Artisten. 1975 produzierte er erste Künstlerbriefmarken per Offset-Lithografie. Einige dieser Artistamps wurden 1976 an der Simon Fraser University in James Felters Ausstellung “Artists’ Stamps and Stamp Images” gezeigt.

Die Vorlagen seiner Briefmarken sind häufig zuerst als Malereien entstanden. Die Gemälde werden danach fotografiert und verkleinert als Briefmarken gedruckt. Higgins’ Label ist das “Doo Da Land” und sein Logo ist eine Flügelmutter (“wingnut”) – eine Schraubenmutter mit Flügeln. Das Slang-Wort “wingnut” bezeichnet eine Person, die verdreht oder leicht verrückt ist. Viele von Higgins’ Arbeiten, Stempeln oder Briefmarken zeichnen sich durch einen speziellen Humor aus.

Mehr über E.F. Higgins III unter: http://www.efhigginsiii.com/index.html

Ausgewählte Arbeiten/selected works

(1982)

(o.J.)

(o.J.)

Literatur (Auswahl)/literature (selection)

Links

Aimee:

Anne:

Claudia:

Leben und Arbeit/biography

Michael Bidner was born in London, Ontario, Canada, in 1944. He resided there and in other cities in Canada. Bidner was a pioneer in the mail art movement (some early mail art was shown in Paris in 1973), he created numerous artistamps (the term he coined to describe stamps created by artists). In 1984 he curated the first international exhibition and bourse of artsistamps, Artistampex, at the Forest City Gallery in London, Ontario, Canada. He was in the process of compiling a catalog of all the artistamps worldwide, the Standard Artistamp Catalogue and Handbook (Canada & Worldwide), when the project was cut short by his death 1989 due to AIDS. The catalog was ultimately completed as an interactive CD by Rosemary Gahlinger-Beaune and Giovanni Bianchini. Bidners’ entire collection was bequeathed to the ARTPOOL Archive in Budapest, Hungary.
______________________________________________________________

Michael Bidner wurde 1944 in London, Ontario, in Kanada geboren. Er war ein Pionier der Mail Art-Bewegung. Einige seiner frühen Mail Art-Werke wurden bereits 1973 in Paris gezeigt. Er fertigte zahlreiche Artistamps an und prägte sogar diesen Begriff, um Stempel zu bezeichnen, die von Künstler hergestellt werden. 1984 kuratierte er die erste internationale Ausstellung und Börse für Artistamps, die Artistampex in der Forest City Gallery London, Ontario. Er war lange damit beschäftigt, einen weltweiten Katalog aller Artistamps, das Standard Artistamp Catalogue and Handbook (Canada & Worldwide), zusammenzustellen. Durch seinen Tod in Folge einer AIDS-Erkrankung 1989 konnte er dieses Projekt nicht mehr vollenden. Rosemary Gahlinger-Beaune und Giovanni Bianchini produzierten letztlich als eine interaktive CD als Katalog. Bidners komplette Sammlung wurde dem Artpool-Archiv in Budapest, Ungarn, überlassen.

Ausgewählte Arbeiten/selected works

(o.J.)

(1984)

(o.J.)

Literatur (Auswahl)/literature (selection)

Links

• Michael Bidner at the Artpool Archives

Ever pushed button E3 on a vending machine and had a poem come out instead of a Mars bar?

Well, now’s your chance.  Because there’ll be an art vending machine at Footscray train station as part of Big West Arts Festival from 20 to 29 November.

Isn’t this a delightful idea?  It has a lot in common with the spirit of mail art in democratising art and circumventing the whole paraphenalia of its legitimation. And using a vending machine to dispense art also shows up the real lack of equivalence between what can and can’t be commodified, between what can and can’t be consumed (no matter how promiscuous becomes our application of this verb).  So in a strange way, dispensing art through a vending machine — the ultimate machine of commodification — de-commodifies it. 

*****

What’s even more delightful is that this is part of an honourable tradition.  Because it turns out art vending flourishes in many places around the world, and in each place it is experienced as a delightful, and wholly original idea.

The creator of the Footscray exhibition is “art-vend” and as the creator says on his or her website:

I’m going to admit that while I came up with art-vend independently, google serves to trump everyone who thinks they have an original idea.  Matt LeClair of www.callithump.org has a wonderful site about [art] vending machines …

And in turn, Matt LeClair makes the same wry observation:

Art vending machines tend to operate for a short time in limited areas. So much so that most people encountering an art vending machine for the first time believe that it is the first of its kind and that its creator had come up with a completely original idea. In fact, many of the people who run art vending machines often believe they’re the first ones to think of it. I must confess, Callithump! shared the same conceit. We were blissfully vending up in Orono, Maine, telling a more worldly friend about what we were doing when they said, “Hey, just like Art*o*mat ® !” Art*o*mat® even had a machine in Maine …

As George Orwell said in Coming Up for Air:  “Whatever thought you think there’s always a million people thinking it at the same moment.”

*****

More about the Big West Festival anon. And for a postscript on art vending machines:
http://solidgoldcreativity.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/the-vending-machine-tradition-continues/

In the meantime, check out the Art*o*mat® page that shows their vending machines.  They’re works of art in themselves:
http://www.artomat.org/locations.php

By the way, if you want to submit an artwork, poem or story to be included in the art-vend exhibition in the Big West Festival, you’ve got a few more days.  Contact art-vend.

*****

Image: courtesy of Clark Whittington of Art*o*mat®

This week has been spent focusing on the essay. It is great to begin to draw the ideas out. There is still a way to go and it isn’t a process that comes naturally, but like I said last week, it is a process that I am enjoying.

In Tuesday’s online chat we had individual chats with Andy, so I was able to discuss the essay. Andy was asking when a photograph became a photograph: When you push the shutter button, when its stored in the camera or when it is printed.

From reading an article by Cathy Weis on ageism, I am beginning to question if my understanding of embodiment. I have been thinking of embodiment in a linear way, time based due to our biological nature, and if in fact the notion of embodiment is far more diverse, and possibly more like a tag cloud.

I have read recently that can be argued is that rather than disembodying us cyberspace has in fact has embodied us.

This week I also managed to spend a little time on jotting down some notes for a prototype for the final show. Below is a 1^st draft for the final piece prototype:

Prototype draft 1

But having shown it to a couple of friends and discussed the options with them, they advised me against trying to travel down to Camberwell and create an installation.  Their feedback was the ideas in the presentation were too ambitious in relation to my resources and situation.

So had a good think through options and am going to look in to making a non linear narrative piece with Korsakow. That way all my recourses will be directed to a focused and contained piece and the time frame will be more realistic.

So the next step will be to spend a bit of time going back over Korsakow with my sister who knows more about the programming than I do and get up to speed and aim to put another draft presentation for the prototype together in a week or so.

I am comfortable with proceeding with a more contained project, a lot of my worries for the final piece have been based on options of getting down to London.

Korsakow is a structure that feels appropriate as it allows for interaction and the non linear narrative structure is representative of the way digital media has opened up choices and changed familiar processes. It feels as if it may echo some of the ideas above about the cyber world freeing us from a linear time biological lead understanding.

Appreciating why some of the questions we were posed in the early part of this course matter so profoundly, such as who controls the net and the sharing of information. Given how societies have structured and controlled themselves with biological based hierarchies that are in many ways obsolete in cyber space. (These some how are often found re asserting themselves. Like the sexual stereotyping of many avatars).

Just to end on an exciting piece of news about Mail Art One. At the end of last week I was contacted by the gallery director for the DLI gallery who wished to contact one of the contributors with a view to working with them.

I am really pleased about this as it was one of the things I hoped might be achieved through the publication.  Its aim was to be eclectic, democratic open to any one who wanted to could be included. I am glad I stuck at producing it. It feels really good to have facilitated that introduction.

I was thrilled to be included in Apples for Poppy Anne’s Great Snail Mail Revolution.

My mail-mate is from Pasadena, California. It was lots of fun to create a small care package to send across the country to my new friend!

A peek at what I sent:

The folded paper on top is a map of the contents.

To the left is a handmade book (farmers purse) which I stuffed with some MI fall leaves, The metal rooster on the right is actually a pair of scissors, there are some handmade MI beeswax candles among other things.

And drum roll…..this is what I was gifted! It was such a pleasure to open each carefully chosen, made, and written bit. I savored reading all of the thoughtful little notes she sent.

A women after my own heart. We both have art degrees. She’s a painter.

She hand carved all of these stamps and printed little personalized note cards for me!

Carl sends the most beautiful mailart- thanks Carla

buz blurr is filling a car with keys- don’t you just think that is the coolest thing in the world

Over the last year, even though I have been sadly remiss in reciprocating I have been the happy recipient of a lot of wonderful mail from Jack Lattermann at Cascadia Artpost- Thank you Jack, your art and politics always put a smile on my face-

I am completely grateful for the amazing stamps Jim sent me. Jim you are a treasure. Jim’s stamps have inspired me to document my stamps online and try to make some kind of record of the evolution of the islands history.
Here is a page with a link to a stamps Jim created in the 1980’s.

thanks Bill, I notice Bill has custom USPS Permit cancel – Wow I am so jealous. Pretty cool Bill.

Basically this is a blatant plug for my Margaret Wise Brown website that is dedicated to the work of Margaret Wise Brown .

It’s painful but it gets you there really fast

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El Mail Art, es un movimiento de alcance planetario que consiste en  el intercambio y comunicación a través del medio postal. Su historia data de muchísimo tiempo atrás, tanto como el servicio postal, ya que es ese su medio de difusión,  sus primeras manifestaciones las hallamos  en el grupo Fluxus o los neo-dadaístas. Dice al respecto George Maciunas: Fluxus-arte-diversión debe ser simple, entretenido y sin pretensiones, tratar temas triviales, sin necesidad de dominar técnicas especiales ni realizar innumerables ensayos y sin aspirar a tener ningún tipo de valor comercial o institucional”

8 Trabajos de la muestra.

Inspirado en tales vindictas, “Cali” Esquivel, propone  lo que podríamos denominar “transgresiones” del sistema por ambas partes, ya que a  veces los artistas postales juegan con las especificaciones estatales del correo, y otras, los funcionarios permiten la circulación de esos objetos tomando parte en un juego del que ya forman parte sean o no conscientes de ello. Quizás esa, sea la dualidad oculta que genera la admiración y estupor del visitante a la muestra de calle Mendoza 1527, sede de la Fundación Centro.

La muestra está enmarcada en la consigna "los bordes" de alcance provincial.

Digamos que el  canal es parte integrante, y a veces la de mayor peso, puesto que aporta tanto el ruido, como la incertidumbre, o bien directamente  la intervención sobre la obra de las distintas fases administrativas por las que transcurre el viaje postal.

Distintos países como símbolo de hermandad, reflejan este arte.

Nos cuenta Esquivel – curador de la sala de Fundación Centro Rosario- que llegaron a la muestra –enmarcada en la 5º semana provincial del arte- una cantidad que supera las 300 postales, remarcando que  algunos participantes se presentaron con más de una obra.

De la lejana Turquía, el místico  Japón y  el país de Angela Merkel  llegaron sellos postales. El país de Picasso estuvo presente, mientras que la bravía Polonia se hizo un lugar… – La nación de Jean Claude Vandamme y los descendientes del Lacio (donde reside Berlusconi) tuvieron su espacio, al igual que Canadá y Brasil. Del país de la murga y los rostros que pinta Alejandro Briggiler, se recibieron propuestas…

Fundación Centro Rosario, a la altura de la vida cultural de Rosario.

Y no podía faltar  en esta muestra…el país que fabrica los briosos y estilizados coches   Renault que cruzan lagunas y bañados…nobles “rocinantes” (los coches) bólidos metalizados que atraviesan raudos las autopistas argentinas bajo la “cruz del Sur” en heladas madrugadas , llevando las buenas nuevas al pueblo, como en otro momento de  nuestra historia lo hiciesen las diligencias y jinetes pintadas por Florencio Molina Campos…gauchescas estirpes pampeanas reflejadas por el olvidado compositor  Remo Pignoni (*), predecesor de Lolo Bauducco y Omar Perotti … en su ritmo de huella “Por el Sur”,  melodías de nuestro período nacional heredada de los europeos,  que sonaban prístinas por las heladas mañanas en el liceo municipal Antonio Fuentes del Arco de Santa Fe, (actual Secretaría de Cultura Municipal, ) sombras traducidas en la pulida madera de roble de  los viejos pianos aporreados por la fallecida María Esther Ianelli de Vaca Cardozo, Juan Mannarino o Neda Giacomino, saetas grisáceas  devoradoras de yardas acotadas en los trigales que pintó  en “Confidencias”…el antecesor del alicaído y falto  de la mano generosa de la  ventura…el  Intendente Murabito, don José Pedroni, verbo encarnado en azada y fruto…!!

Ah!! -dulces recuerdos almibarados en sepia,   que tan bien las describiese el vate de la sureña localidad de  Oliveros, Carlos Carlino, (¿?)cuando  en su “Poema con labradores”,  enaltece al yugo y el arado de aquellos gringos, el campesinado verdadero, no los capitales sojeros transnacionales  que no entienden la transformación  del país!!!

En fin,  Francia estuvo presente.

Como que también fue un portal para que distintas  provincias mostrasen su interés en participar de la muestra: Tucumán, Mendoza, Córdoba, La Pampa, Corrientes,  Capital y prov. de Bs. As., Rosario y de poblaciones cercanas. En lo que atañe a nuestra ciudad, Abel Monasterolo, Viviana Tosello, Roberto Romero enviaron sus trabajos, como buenos santafesinos en un porcentaje mayor al 100 %.

Y como lo diría “Cali” en un e- mail hecho llegar a nuestro correo, con su dulce y tierna candidez  que lo distingue: “…Una verdadera unión planetaria, el verdadero sentido del arte correo: la comunicación.” – El Dr. Oscar Martínez, presidente de la institución no pudo estar presente por compromisos en Santa fe, mientras que Luz de Ciudad estaba en el Salón de Máscaras de la Escuela Mantovani.

La muestra puede visitarse de Lunes a Viernes en la dirección antes mencionada, de 16 a 20 horas. Fundación Centro Rosario.

click aqui para ver el album de fotos

(*) Damian, no te olvides de Remo Pignoni.

photo credit

Since UFC 104 is coming this saturday, of course I have to do my signature Friday Predictions. But I didn’t want to forget about thing I have been playing around with this week: mail!

I have been looking for rubber stamps, and inventive ways of decorating my mail I send (don’t kid yourself, I send a lot of mail despite being engulfed in web culture)

5. Rubber Stamps – my favorite places to look for eccentric, one-of-a-kind stamps are the Edward Gorey site and Etsy, bien sûr. 

4. Snail Mail Projects – Five different projects involving mail, including Tweeting via Snail Mail.

3. Clubs – Being a member of the Letter Writers’ Alliance, I am always interested in other letter-writing clubs/societies. I have found the Regional Assembly of Text and A Passion for Letters (who, by the by, has an mind-blowing list of links).

2. Letters of Note - Correspondence deserving a wider audience. The saddest one is Beethoven’s to his brother about why he was so angry and pushed everyone away – his family didn’t know he was deaf.

1. World’s Smallest Postal Service. So adorable and cool. I like to send mini notes to friends who need a lil cheering up.

Wondering what will get sent through the mail? Apparently, a lot more than you would think.