Mail Art
Ranked #1,406 in Arts & Design, #16,150 overall
Where Art and Mail Collide
This lens is my attempt at pulling the various strands of the mail art movement into one cohesive resource. Mail Art, or Postal Art, is many things to many people: sending art randomly to friends, swapping art covered envelopes with other artists and many variations including artist trading card swaps.
My friends involved in correspondence art in the 1980's and '90's were counterculture folk interested in recycling and giving postal workers something interesting to look at. I found mail art to be part intellectual artsy snobbishness (and I can talk cause I've been there, done that) and part silly madness. It was a way to let the otherwise serious artist's trickster side come out. Today there are so many people of varying degrees of artsy-ness sending works of art through the mail to each other that it's become more of a fad and less of a statement. But, at the same time, I think it's a good thing that the line between an "artist" and the rest of the populace is getting blurred. To me, the concept of mail art is what started that merging of worlds.
Art courtesy of Lord Marmalade on Flickr
My friends involved in correspondence art in the 1980's and '90's were counterculture folk interested in recycling and giving postal workers something interesting to look at. I found mail art to be part intellectual artsy snobbishness (and I can talk cause I've been there, done that) and part silly madness. It was a way to let the otherwise serious artist's trickster side come out. Today there are so many people of varying degrees of artsy-ness sending works of art through the mail to each other that it's become more of a fad and less of a statement. But, at the same time, I think it's a good thing that the line between an "artist" and the rest of the populace is getting blurred. To me, the concept of mail art is what started that merging of worlds.
Art courtesy of Lord Marmalade on Flickr
What is a mail art call or exhibition?
A mail art call and/or exhibition is when a piece of art is sent in to be displayed either in a real life or virtual exhibition.
Mail Art Calls/Projects/Swaps/Invitations
Opportunities to send and receive mail art.
- Mail art Page
- **THIS MAIL ART PAGE IS UPDATED ON A WEEKLY BASIS** The Mail Art Projects listed here come from a variety of sources. Please contact me if you want to announce your own mail art project : Gandha Key, email:gandha07[@]yahoo.co.uk
- Mail Art Projects
- Overview of Mail-Art projects provided by the authors of this blog. If you want to enter information as well. Send an e-mail to info@iuoma.org The blog can contain all kind of projects the group wants to share. There is also a blog for a general Mail-Art Discussion
What's a swap?
A swap involves a group who sends the set amount of entries to the swap leader, who then sends them back out to members of the group.
Good Mail Day
A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art
Good Mail Day: A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 02/16/2012)
Readers will learn to create decorated and illustrated envelopes, faux postage and artistamps, find penpals, make a mail art kit, and much more!
How to Do It
Different methods to create your mail art
- Mail Art at Art By the Yard
- A brief explanation of how to create mail art.
- Go Make Something - Mail Art How-To Instructions
- What On Earth Is Mail Art? * Metal Flashing Mail Art * Plastic Bottle Mailgrams
- How to Be a Good Mail Art Participant - Associated Content
- Might be obvious to some, but if you've never exchanged art by mail this is a good list of what to do.
Mail Me Art:
Going Postal with the World's Best Illustrators and Designers
Mail Me Art: Going Postal with the World's Best Illustrators and Designers
Amazon Price: $6.94 (as of 02/16/2012)
Mail Me Art began with an idea. It became a community. But it doesn't end there. Open this book, experience the array of mail art illustration, and become part of the journey.
Mail Art Books
Ray Johnson, the "father" of modern mail art
Ray Johnson was a collage and performance artist who was part of the Pop Art movement in New York. Although less famous than his friends Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, the de Koonigs, etc. his influence can be seen in the collages, mail art, artist trading cards, altered art, art swaps/round robins and other mainstream paper arts activities of today.
After a decade of making collages he wondered what to do with them all and started sending them out in the mail to friends and acquaintances along with instructions to send the pieces on and even alter them. In 1962 he dubbed it "The New York Correspondance (sic) School".
The documentary How to Draw a Bunny inspired me to create this lens. It shows how even the most eccentric and celebrated artists have the same problems as the rest of us artistically.
After a decade of making collages he wondered what to do with them all and started sending them out in the mail to friends and acquaintances along with instructions to send the pieces on and even alter them. In 1962 he dubbed it "The New York Correspondance (sic) School".
The documentary How to Draw a Bunny inspired me to create this lens. It shows how even the most eccentric and celebrated artists have the same problems as the rest of us artistically.
Nick Bantock
The man who made mail art mainstream
Nick Bantock's first book, Griffin and Sabine: The Extraordinary Correspondence (1991), is written and illustrated in the form of letters between two people. The more artistic side of the rubber stamp crowd grabbed onto this idea and made mail art and collage a popular form of artistic expression. Today there is a line of Nick Bantock rubber stamps and ink. His work continues to be very popular in the paper arts world.
Postcrossing
Postcard Swaps
Fascinating Looks Inside the Postal Art Movement
and some pretty pictures, too
curated content from YouTube
Mail Art Blogs
Image courtesy of wiccked on Flickr.
- Mail Art Postcard Exhibition
- This is an exhibit of mail art postcards. Any techniques or media are welcome, from hand made to digital creations. Not all cards submitted will be posted. Artists may send their pieces by traditional postal mail or by email.
- Frips Mail Art Blog
- The catalog/blog of mail artist Frips.
- A.1.Mail Art Archive
- Current blog that catalogs mail art.
- arriving and outgoing mail art
- "In this blog you can see my outgoing mail art - collARTages - as well as the arriving mail art."
- mailXart
- mailxart's journalLog
The Latest Buzz about Mail Art
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- jillianailsa
- Mail Art for @jessicagowling!! Like them googly eyes?? http://t.co/6t4vdXWQ
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- jillianailsa
- Mail Art (Again) http://t.co/i81RRE28
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- occupywithart
- RT @hyperallergic: Subscribe to Art Practical's Mail Art Series - http://t.co/7JCkkvF3 #sponsor
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- becsech
- RT @tinythein: making money doing mail art #socollege
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- Thrifting4Good
- RT @hyperallergic: Subscribe to Art Practical's Mail Art Series - http://t.co/7JCkkvF3 #sponsor
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- hyperallergic
- Subscribe to Art Practical's Mail Art Series - http://t.co/7JCkkvF3 #sponsor
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- mailart365
- New mailart - Limner's Mail Art #16/365, "Never Run Out of Time": Limner's Mail Art #16, "Never Run Out of Time"... http://t.co/Iu4WuDlC
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- tinythein
- making money doing mail art #socollege
automatically generated by Twitter
Artistamps
An outgrowth of mail art, artistamps are faux postage usually featuring imaginary places.
The Latest Blog Posts About Mail Art
Image courtesy of Lord Marmalade on Flickr.
- Mail as art in new exhibition
- THE Toowoomba Repertory Theatre will host a mail art project and exhibition this month showcasing works from local and interstate artists. Mixed Messages is an exhibition of whimsical and contemporary interpretations of the theme, presenting works on ...
- US Postal Service Loses $3.3 Billion, Warns of Cash Drain
- ?We have a Postal Service that essentially is living from paycheck to paycheck, which is a very risky proposition for the American economy and the 8 million private-sector workers whose jobs rely on the mail,? Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition ...
- U.S. Postal Service Loses $3.3 Billion in Quarter as Mail Slows
- ?We have a Postal Service that essentially is living from paycheck to paycheck, which is a very risky proposition for the American economy and the 8 million private-sector workers whose jobs rely on the mail,? Art Sackler, coordinator of the Coalition ...
- Steven Leiber, Dealer in Artists' Ephemera, Dies at 54
- His archives eventually comprised material relating to nearly every current of late-20th-century experimental art, including Minimalism, Earthworks, Performance art, video art, mail art as well as Fluxus and Conceptual Art. Mr. Leiber made a ...
Further Reading
- The Electronic Museum of Mail Art
- Chuck Welch's online museum of mail art.
- Postal Art History
- A brief history of postal art from the turn of the 20th century.
- Mail Art | Artist Trading Cards | Artistamps
- Links to mail art or postal art information and art calls.
- Vortice Argentina
- A wealth of information about mail art here.
- Mail Art
- A group of sites (webring) with content relating to mail art. Probably more information here than you can ever have time to get through.
- Open Directory - Arts: Visual Arts: Mail Art and Artistamps
- A huge list of links about mail art.
- A Mail Artist's Anthology. Ruud Janssen , TAM & IUOMA , 28 Year History in MAIL ART.
- MAIL ART. MY WORK IN THE MAIL ART NETWORK. MAIL ARTIST. PUBLISHER OF MAIL INTERVIEWS, FOUNDER OF THE INTERNATIONAL UNION OF MAIL-ARTISTS IUOMA, TAM RUBBERSTAMP ARCHIVE, TRAVELLING MAIL ART
Casa Maison Haus von Collage
The blog of mail artist Jim Kaufmann of Iowa City, Iowa
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byThe Artist Trading Card or ATC
Artist Trading Cards are another outgrowth of mail art. They are individual pieces of art created on 2.5 x 3.5 inches substrates (the size of playing cards). Technically they are never sold, only traded. ACEOs, or Artist Cards Editions & Originals are the commercial version.
Comments
Are you a mail art maven?
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jimmyworldstar
Dec 5, 2011 @ 2:56 pm | delete
- I've read about this phenomenon before. It's a really clever way of getting art to people and making it popular for the masses. It's compact, you can spend as little or as much time as you want on it too!
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EMangl
Oct 3, 2011 @ 4:16 pm | delete
- :-) In the 70th i put stickers in telephone houses "reserved for clark kent - mailart was here"; in the days without pc and internet i and some friends sent each other crazy things by snail mail, some things never arrived - possibly some postman has a big collection now of weird stuff :-))
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paintingsgalore22
Aug 27, 2011 @ 1:04 am | delete
- i have been hearing about mail art and do not know about it. thanks, this is very informative.
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Close2Art
Aug 6, 2011 @ 1:28 pm | delete
- This is a legal way to make graffiti, I love seeing the faces of the postal workers when I bring in a really neat piece...thanks for sharing this, great lens....;)RWJR
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Michelle77
Jul 22, 2011 @ 9:32 pm | delete
- new to me~ very intersting!
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by Intuitive
Intuitive
I'm an artist, massage therapist, Reiki Master, crafter, blogger, foodie. I'm also the neighborhood Squid Angel for the Alternative Healing, Spiritual... more »
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