Received: Cryptic post card from unknown mail artist (St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

September 27, 2010: A second installment of mail art arrived from my unknown correspondent in Minnesota. I've been waiting for an opportunity to say some small thing about cryptic mail-art (yes, I've joined the hyphen camp), as I think it is fairly unique to what we do and a definite part of any mail-art history I know. I only know a very small part of it compared to others here. I go first to Webster's Dictionary: "cryptic: (1) hidden or mysterious; baffling..." The example above I would call cryptic. The artist, I would guess, had a clear intention; but it comes across to the receiver as baffling or mysterious the way it's expressed. The paradox is, the way it's expressed makes it enjoyable and makes it mail art. The other side is equally clever to moi, who is obviously very easily amused:

[Marie Wintzer]

I definitely get paranoid with cryptic mail art. I'm also getting mail art from RCBz and from the start I can't get rid of the idea that RCBz and GA are the same person. Completely irrational?