Send mail or not send?

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

Dear friends, this is not the first time I have learned that my American friends have not received my mail. This was not the case before.

I live in Russia. Maybe the US Postal Service has slowed down? Can I send my collages to the US or is it better to wait? If I am waiting, how long should I refrain from sending mail?

[Mim Golub Scalin]

Dear Ilya, 

I'm so agitated about our postal service. The new person that's been put in charge at the highest government level, is doing his best to create chaos in the name of making the service better. This is so wrong. We've never had anything like this happen before. The USPS was sacred. Sadly, no more, BUT we have elections coming up and if all goes well, this person will be replaced and the new person will put things right. In the meantime, the mail carriers, carry on. I am fortunate, I get mail daily and my dear mail carrier picks up mail at my door, including packages. If you check out my Facebook page, you'll see I"ve reposted my love poem to the postal service. 

best to you

Mim

[Carien van Hest]

Hi Mim,

Less service, higher costs. Here in the Netherlands, thousands of public mailboxes were recently removed by the postal company. Due to declining mail traffic, lack of staff and a cost-cutting policy. And again we pay more for a stamp. What is all this? Is this a global trend to restrict our personal freedom in things they cannot sell (data) or know (letter confidentiality). It is just like with public transport: if it is offered less, fewer people will automatically use it. This is not a service to the citizen!
I feel it is a discouragement policy.
What do you think about this?

[Richard Canard]

I think it was Leon Spiegelman that said (years & years ago). "Mail Art & Money don't mix." When I first got involved in this correspondence thing--- a  U. S.  postcard cost 4 cents & very quickly became 5 cents.  & while Mister Spiegelman's commentary primarily fits another aspect of the mail art phenomenon-- one can also apply it directly to  "Rising Postal Expenses" (& perhaps the eventual disappearance of "Mail Art" itself). Here, (in the great U.S. of A.) the U.S. Post Office recently "upped" the postcard price to 56 cents (& my understanding is that it is also scheduled to rise again soon). The so-called "service", "convenience", "friendliness" of the U.S. Post Office are currently in it's waining moments. Primarily, (I can only assume--because I am merely one of those eccentric silly "mail artists") as a result of the current  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy (a friend [incidentally] of Donald Trump!)

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

Dear Mim,

I am very grateful to You. I will probably still send collages to the US, although my heart is restless. I hope for the best!

[Summer Rountree]

The mail is running a little slower than usual but nothing where I wouldn’t be worried About not sending anything at all. They are just tidying up some loose ends Etc. It’s maybe running 2 days later than normal In the US for letters packages are still going just As fast as they were before.

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

I sent an envelope in June to Cambridge, MA and another envelope to Idaho. Both messages have not yet been delivered to their recipients. Usually, mail from Moscow to the United States goes for one month...

Dear friends, thank you for your detailed explanations.

[Fleur Helsingor]

Hello Ilya --- I picked up my mail on Friday, August 21, and your wonderful mail art was one of the items that I received. I mailed one of my new art cards to you yesterday.

I know that mail to some areas in the U.S. has been slow. I have relatives who live in rural areas and they have reported delays in mail delivery.

[Kit Gonzales Moore]

I read this, Ilya, and wonder if you're getting mail again, and is your mail being received?  I would love to share out with you.  My experience, lately, is I send out mailart regularly, actual drawings and paintings, and receive very little in return. I would love to find faithful artist friends who love art, either sent or received.

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

Hello, Kit.

I am glad to Your message! Mail is delivered from Moscow to the USA. Until recently, US Post Office did not deliver letters to Russia; these are sanctions caused by the War. The post office will tell You whether they accept letters to Russia today or not. Alas, the War is making its own adjustments. Whatever the current US postal policy is, I'll send You my collage.

Ilya Semenenko-Basin  

P.O. Box  99 

Moscow  119048 

Russia 

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

Dear friends,

I am delighted to see this age-old discussion revived once again. It is the right thing to do. The panellists touched on the thorny issue of rising postal costs. The issue raised by honourable Carien van Hest could be the subject of a separate Mail Art project, an independent exhibition. 

I have a philosophical attitude towards those facts that I define as non-lethal (that which does not threaten us, does not offend us, does not humiliate us, and does not kill us). These non-lethal things just have to be neighboured with - we can't change them. So I stay on the mailing as much as I can, although I don't send as much or as often as I used to. That is my approach to this problem. 

[Juan Petry]

hi ilya,

this will not solve the problem, but it will give more facts to the discussion and will help to rise attention for mal-function of this postal services.

i will try to send you this type of mail art too.

join it if you like it.

best

juan

[Ilya Semenenko-Basin]

Hi Juan, 

When You write "...this will not solve the problem...", it is not easy for me to understand exactly what You mean, which exactly will NOT solve the problem of high prices at the Post Office. In Russia, the prices for postal services are not very high, in any case, for me these prices are not burdensome. Besides, I don't have a very large list of addresses, I don't send mails every day. 

You mentioned a device or a mail program. I would like to know more about.  

I.