Mail Art and the Post Office

[Peter Dowker]

Does anyone have any stories, anecdotes, facts or anything at all on the subject of how the post office(s) and the post men and women view (or don't view) mailart. Anyone have any interesting or funny stories on this topic? I'd enjoy hearing them.

[Lyucinda]

Dear Ruud!
That is me who have sent the package of about 9 catalogues of "Mailartissimo" to you from St. Petersburg. To this moment I was already warring about the receiving of them. I am sorry, but I sent the package to the address you gave to me. And you promised to confirm the receiving and give comments or ideas what can be done with the project. As well as you advised me to forward them to the mailart archive of IUOMA.
I hope that you will get all safely and inform me about the fact!&! I was glad to get at least this information.

[Ruud Janssen]

Dear Lyucinda,

Yesterday I collected the mail at the P.O. Box and received the parcel with the 9 catalogues! It is a great treasure for the TAM-Archive. Thank you!

At the moment I am filled with all kind of work, but as soon as I find the time I will scann the covers and will publishes the books first on this IUOMA-Platform. Lots of well known names in the catalogues!

in the last years I participated less in mail-art projects so the collection of catalogues of the latest mail-art projects are a very welcome addition to my collection. I have hundreds of books and hundreds (thousdands?) of catalogues of mail-art projects....... Never actually counted them.

So please give me some time to react. The parcel arrived here unharmed and safe!

Thanks again,

Ruud Janssen

[Peter Dowker]

I can't see why the lamination would be a problem but it sure (in my opinion) spoils the effect of the great paper. I know it's a compromise but why not try sending them out in envelopes?
Regards,
Peter

[King Shane]

I visit my post office daily in the course of my job, and know the front desk people quite well. They know me by name, and I've dropped off enough of my mail art at their counter, that they've actually started commenting and asking questions on the occasions when I draw something on an envelope/postcard, and tell me how much they enjoy it when I recieve some that they can see when they're putting it in my box.

So, because I live/work in such a small area, and the PO is so small, whenever anyone mails me anything that can be viewed without opening, it's not only enjoyed by myself, but by up to 5 postal workers as well!

[Peter Dowker]

Thanks for your comment King Shane......aren't small, local post offices great!
Cheers,
Peter

[Bradford]

Before I got my address, I had mail sent to me addressed with my name, "General Delivery", and the city/town/zip code. Since then, all you have to do is write "Brad / 57732-0676". If it is foreign, add "USA".

[eepy]

Completely agree with this!

Last week one of our athletes won Canada's first gold medal in the Olympics and Canada Post very quickly issued a commemmorative stamp. Apparently not all post offices got the stamp but our little post office did, and the two postmistresses were bouncing with excitement. They'd already put a sheet in my p.o. box in case they sold out before I saw them.

It's my favourite time of the day, that short walk to the post office... the anticipation, the cameraderie.

eepy post
Box 41021
Loon Island P.O.
Port Coquitlam, B.C. Canada
V3C 5Z9

[Ti Ar Raden]

Lovely story.

[Ed Varney]

When Dogfish, a mail artist and the grand tyee of Tui Tui (located in Seattle, Washington, USA) turned 43, he came up to Vancouver, Canada, because Canada at that time had a $.43 stamp and he wanted to use it on a mailing along with a stamp of his own commemorating his birthday. Anna Banana and I went to the main Vancouver Post Office and he bought the stamps, put them on a large bunch of envelopes, and then asked the cklerk to hand cancel them. The clerck looked at the puile of envelopes and said "Why don't you do it yourself." She handed Dogfish the cancel stamp, he took it all over to a table, and he proceeded to hand cancel all the envelopes himself.
He was really amazed the the clerck would allow him to do that, he said "In the states, they would never give you the cancel stamp over the counter and let you hand cancel the envelopes yourself". After stuffing the envelopes in the mail box, we all went out and had something to eat together.

[Peter Dowker]

Nice story Ed.....
I can hand cancel my stamps any time I want here at my small local PO in Quebec.

[migulin]

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[andytgeezer]

I love the fact that people find it so weird that people still communciate in this way. For most people seeing mailart, I find that they are amazed that people would create such beautiful work for strangers. They wonder why people would put in the time and effort. I think that's what is appealing for me though. The fact that people take the time and put in the effort makes mailart the personal medium it is.