A Little More Syntax from Linda French (Two Harbors, Minnesota, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

Mail-art by IUOMA member Linda French (Two Harbors, Minnesota, USA)

February 25, 2015 - Linda French is as prolific as she is generous. She sent me another gorgeous piece while I am still pondering what to send her in response to her first mailing. I look forward to receiving mail from Linda because I believe her work so wonderfully represents a large segment of the current mail art scene. Observers have noted that the mainstream in contemporary mail art is best characterized as a kind of folk art. I agree that the current folk art tendency exists, although it is not the only one. Perhaps it is better described as a neo-primitivism or a benign outsider art. If mail art inherently promotes the egalitarian, participatory culture and the anti-institutional, then a naïve populism is indeed another possible permutation in the algorithm of need.

Many thanks, as ever, to Linda French in Minnesota.