Secret Masters of Add & Pass: Jon Foster (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

 

Mail art by IUOMA member Jon Foster (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA)

 

May 27, 2019 - In several previous posts, I have noted an add & pass (A&P) mania that has gripped the Eternal Network. Starry-eyed Tenderfoots alongside those lovable, rancorous old codgers of “back in the day” are scrambling for A&P sheets as if it were a modern Gold Rush.

In my humble MinXus Mail Bag I now officially report an overwhelming deluge of A&P sheets that has been building from ominous, rumbling storm clouds upon the horizon for over a year. The heavens have opened full force.

Add & pass mania is good news in terms of the well-being and vitality of the network. Comparatively, I think, things seem to be going very well. The add & pass is an artistic genre historically linked to mail art, so the current activity is a sign of the continuity of tradition.

But what is the toll of A&P Noveaux upon the individual correspondence artist? Are we returning to factory-like production to respond to an inflationary demand? What are the consequences of guilt derived from not being able to respond to and mail every A&P sheet received? Are we producing a generation of A&P “specialists” who will be artistically obsolete when the deluge has subsided and, perhaps, the tide even turns against the excesses of A&P Noveaux?

Ah, but I am forever an optimist when it comes to mail art! My intention in this and other related blogs is to document the origins and completion of contemporary A&P sheets. Jon Foster appears to be playing a role in these exciting developments, based on this recent mailing received.

Someday, I imagine, mail art historians will seek the identities of those who were central in this “movement” – to give them belated credit, of course. Even now, some of us would like to know who to thank for this overflowing cup of creations.

Mail art is full of conspiracies and theories. I wonder if A&P mania is the product of a secret cabal who seek to control the network for obscure purposes. I note that the A&Ps seem to originate with a handful of individuals, although I make no claim to have yet “cracked the code” of A&P mania. But I will be sure to report on exciting developments in the A&P area as they develop.

 

Mail art by Jon Foster (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA)

 

 

 

 

When Jon Foster isn’t busy putting new add & pass sheets into circulation, he does some interesting mail art. He kindly sent these pieces:

 

 

Mail art by Jon Foster