Cock-a-doodle-2

So I've made another artistamp. This may not come as a surprize...or thrill you as much as it does me. But, hey, it doesn't take much to make me happy. A completed art project (even a mini-art project like this one) will almost always do it. Let me play with my paper, pencils, paint, ephemera and computer and I'll happily stay occupied for hours. Sometimes I go right through the day without noticing the time or that I was or wasn't hungry. Kind of obsessive I am...when I'm working at what I love best....making art. And I'm happiest when I make art.

Today I'm going to make a few pieces of mail-art...so I can have something ready to send to other mail-art people after the holidays. Then I have to set time aside to re-organize and majorly clean up my messy art spaces (they seem to have sprung up all over the house)....and I feel the need to make some art for myself....something bigger than stamps or mail art....something that will maybe hang on a wall or sit on a shelf. Not all of this will get done today. But it will get done. Yes, it will.

To Get Mail.....You Must Send Mail

To get mail, send mail.....that's the Mail Artist's mantra. And to think that I almost forgot to tell you that in my earlier post. Besides, I wanted to show you another of my MailArt postcards....and a few of my Artistamps. The one above is first in a series of stamps I've been working on. Issued by The Camel Islands (a tiny grouping of five islands in the Dromedary Archipelago)...(Hey, they're my pretend stamps!...I can do pretend countries too!)

This is the first in a series of stamps issued under my very own name (the Greek version) that honors humble household vessels.

This issue is from another of my little kingdoms, Apiary Island, the home to myriad beautiful insects and ruled by Queen Bee. Maybe I should refer to it as a queendom.

And this, of course, is Queen Bee. And wonderful creatures they are indeed.....aerodynamically not at all suited for flight; they DO! Which just goes to show you that nothing is impossible. Bees fly because they believe they can. Now I've just given you a meme to think about and incorporate in your deepest self. Or not. Your choice.

And this is a postcard. This is the non-minimalist version. I my previous post I showed the minimalist version...which I mailed to a wonderful artist in Japan.

Still Here...still making art & stuff.

Hello! In case you thought that I might have dropped off the side of a mountain...I want to assure you that I'm back and still making stuff. My latest passion is MailArt.

I Joined the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA) a couple of months ago so now I'm doing mixed media pieces that I send out as postcards. I'm also creating Artistamps (Faux Postage) with which to decorate my postcard pieces...or envelopes (if whatever I've made would fall apart unless enclosed).


So far I've limited myself to postcards....they,re a lot less expensive to mail. And, yes, even though I make "phony postage stamps"...I do affix the real thing to where it's supposed to be affixed: the upper right-hand corner. Did you know that postage for mailing a postard to Japan, Australia or Russia is $0.98? I found that the USPS provides a handy-dandy list of weights, sizes, prices, etc. for just about any kind of mail....and on-line too! I love my computer!

Most of the mail we find in our 'real' mailboxes these days consists of junk, junk, more junk, and maybe a few bills (very few, we hope). We communicate by emailing, texting, twittering or phoning....and a lot of of that is in code-speak (you know....LOL, DH, etc.).

Remember how you felt the last time your mailbox contained a real letter from a friend, a postcard from someone on vacation....written in the senders own hand, doodled hearts or stars...whatever...in the margins??? That's what MailArt is all about....sending and getting mail from all over the world...and....more than that, you send and receive little offerings of your creative self. It's taking the time to make something, send it away, and imagining what the reaction to your little piece of mail will be. And it's also opening your mailbox and finding more than junk and bills. It's more than fun....I think that it brings something more human into this digital world in which now live. My pictures are of four cards that I sent out the other day. Happy landings!