Mail Art UK

Welcome Laurence.  Enjoying your Rupert  avatar - one of my favourite characters from my childhood.

Thanks Michael - glad you like the avatar. Yes, Rupert was one of my favourites, and I have recently re-connected with him / childhood.

HOLA WALL

TE ENVIO MI DIRECCION POSTAL PARA SUMARME AL PROYECTO

CLAUDIA LIGORRIA

CONSTITUCION 1742 PB "A"

(1646) SAN FERNANDO

PCIA DE BS AS . ARGENTINA

TE ENVIARE ARTE CORREO PRONTO

MIS DESEOS DE UN GRANDIOSO 2011

I do try and take part in online petitions - I recently did one about the selling off of the forests- and try to participate in mail art shows that are for "good causes" but mostly for me, personally, mail art is a fun medium and I would hate it to get bogged down in agit-prop and political stuff. Plenty of other outlets for that kind of thing like the online petitions and various groups one can join.

I did a mail art projects and exhibitions about PEACE  and although they were reasonably partook of ( cant think of the right word!)  they didnt make much impression on the real world!

HOLA MARYANNE

ESTOY DE ACUERDO CON TU PROPUESTA, EL ARTE CORREO ES UN MEDIO DE COMUNICACION A LA DISTANCIA.

EXPRESEMOS OPINIONES, CONTEMOS QUE SUCEDE EN NUESTRO ENTORNO O EN NUESTRO PAIS, QUE LUCHAS TENEMOS PARA MEJORAR NUESTRA COMUNIDAD, MANIFESTEMOS NUESTROS PENSAMIENTOS OPUESTOS O A FAVOR.

ES CUESTION DE EMPEZAR PARA ALGUNOS ARTISTAS Y DE CONTINUAR PARA OTROS QUE YA SE MANIFIESTAN POR MEDIO DEL ARTE CORREO.

ME SUMO AL PROYECTO QUE PROPONGAN DE DENUNCIA O EXPRESION

SUBANLO A ESTE FORO Y LES ENVIO POSTALES .

HAGAMOS UNA CADENA PARA QUE OTROS ARTISTAS PARTICIPEN.

CUENTENNOS QUE PASA EN SU PAIS.

ABRAZOS Y MI TOTAL APOYO DESDE ARGENTINA

Michael this  is a brilliant idea. In my latests projects I have very little response from UK artists, where have they all gone? Let's stand up and be counted. And I shall send a story to Westminster libraries, the closure of which has me very upset.

Thanks for everyone for sending pieces - I agree with all of you that these closures of all the things that we love, the libraries, the postal service, etc is a disgrace. 

I hope that what we do by just taking part in little things like what we are doing with this, getting people going through the doors of the library, will help in whatever small way it may. It's only if we do nothing, not use our mail service or our libraries that they can have an excuse to close them. 

Yes! mail artists in London and beyond, we will be meeting to see the Field Study show at the Victoria and Albert Museum and do a Field Study Manifestation, perhaps one of the ongoing projects of David Dellafiora. See my website for details of the projects

www.mailartmartha.org.uk

It is a pity you cannot come over, Michael, it would have been great to meet after all these years of correspondence.

New blog featuring old tapes from the archive of the A.1.Waste Paper Co. 

ORDEOTRAIPSE

Hey folks I have just noticed that we don't have an Artomat here in the UK as far as I know. I've just heard about this (http://www.artomat.org/history.html) and am fired up with the idea of getting an Artomat on the road here in the UK. 

I was thinking that perhaps one of those old Kitkat machines that you had to tug would work quite well. It would be ace if the UK artomat could have a UK flavour.

This is a project I'd love to do with a group of UK mailartists. Would anyone be up for it?

Here's some info about how to host an Artomat. http://artomat.org/hosting.html 

I think this could be done. Anyone know where we could put this?

Something very similar here already in UK called HAYVEND which I contributed to for many years back in the early 90's.  I dont know if its still going but it still has a web presence -

http://bak.spc.org/hayvend/index_2.html

@michael - really interested to see the new blog about audio mail art. I have a new album released in Germany (http://quartier23.eu/index.php?Rubrik=main&Inhalt=artikel&d...) but am always interested to make/swap musical mail art with anyone interested - my last mailart piece was as the Invisible Fluxus Orkhestra for Franticham's Assemblage Box 5 (http://planetdada.co.uk/wordpress/?p=192)

Thanks Martha- yes sorry to to be in London for the V & A meet up.   Maybe some other time!

Thanks Sean - will hopefully get some time to add more to my new mail art audio blog.  

Thank you Michael for the New Year salutations. May you and family have a spiffing 2012!

Thanks Martha - same here. All the best.  Surprising isn't it that nobody is doing a mail art project with the theme of The Olympics considering the rarity of it being held in London!?    Seems like an ideal opportunity for someone to squeeze some money out of the Farts Council or other preposterous body or other!

Well, is it so surprising? perhaps artists are not that keen in sport? My reaction to the Olympics in London is one of quiet dread.

I received a wonderful card from the London Mailart Meet - a really lovely surprise! It's really great to see so many names on the one card.

http://iuoma-network.ning.com/photo/a-collaborative-card-from-the-l...

One question - who printed the address label? 'South Wales, England, UK'?! Uh-oh ;D

UK Mailartists, I just realised that sending to my REAL wall this month is actually FREE for you. Yup. I sent that block of wood to myself this morning and it cost me NOTHING.

That's a nice thought.

The address to send to is a FREEPOST address, so make sure you send to

FREEPOST RSYT-RXLS-EXJC
Real
The Royal Opera Arcade Gallery
1-2 Royal Opera Arcade
London
SW1Y 4UY

and don't hold back...

That label was printed by Dean Sarah

Thanks for the info Andy - great!   Expect tons of stuff !

A bit late for the free posting, Andy, but it was only a postcard, may be now I could send something heavier. Oh! Temptation!

Sarah; the labels were printed by Dean Marks who was born in the USA and lives in France, so we can forgive him the faux pas. He is very enthusiastic and prolific, I cannot keep up with him.

Here’s a UK postal experiment that I’m going to send two mailart birdies to (139 and tomorrow's 140) ... anyone else want to join in?
You and Yours, BBC Radio 4 would like your help comparing the delivery times of first and second class post. --> http://bbc.in/MsGHrB

We’d like you to send two letters or postcards, one with a first class stamp and one with a second class stamp, to:

You and Yours, Dock House, Salford, M50 2BH.

Please include your name and the date of posting. Two postcards or envelopes will do. 

Taking part should cost £1.10 (60p for a first class stamp, 50p for a second class stamp).You’ll be helping us with a UK-wide experiment, and we’ll feature the results in a programme soon.

I am sending the two postcards too, Sarah, you are right, and we may get Mail Art on the news.What about adding Mail Art  UK to them?

I received some fab Ninjas, complete with quilled ninja stars from someone in the UK, who's also doing the 365 challenge, but I don't know who...? Andy, is this yours? The sharpie-d envelope makes me think it could be! :)

Unfortunately there wasn't enough postage on it, so the Post Office stuck stickers all over it and demanded money. Meanies! :)

Sarah you are right, I think, those quilled stars seem to be the work of Elena Geezer, Andy's wife. Elena does some fabulous work.

Sometimes I feel I'm only one as majority of mailartist are in USA. There are some UK based mailart calls so rare. Hi and nice to meet you all.

Welcome chimerastone8 to the UK mail art group here at IUOMA.  You are number 35 so quite a few active members in the UK. Surprising that so few of them have a project on the go. I've done my share over the years but my archive is bursting at the seams and the internet has rather taken over!  It's not the same ofcourse- I'd much rather get an amusing postcard dropping through my letter flap!  Time for the younger generation of mailers to take over!

Oh no you had to pay! I'm so sorry Sarah! I can't believe they charged you £1.19, it was just a standard letter and that stamp was new (they ripped it off another mailart piece hence the tears which I lovingly disguised with sharpie)

The Quilled stars were of course Elena's touch

I realised just when I got to the Post Office that I had numbered it wrongly, as 268. I've not even got up to 268. I think it was 238

I think maybe it was too thick? That would probably make it a '2nd Class Large'. It was only 19p short, but the evil-doers charged an extra £1 'handling fee'. It's ok though, the Ninjas probably killed them all ;)

Following Michael's comment I am in the same situation. I have done many shows and initiated many projects as you can see in

http://issuu.com/mailartmartha/docs/stg_story?mode=window&backg...

Now I am trying to combine the SnailMailart with the eMailart. I put the art work I receive in my blog which you can see on my page here and next summer I shall make another eBook. I also send a piece by snailmail to each artists when I receive their work so it is an exchange the old fashion way also. This eBook business is great as people outside the mail art community gets to see the work and they love it, going by the number of hits.

Martha, I love your ebook. What programme/website do you use?

Thank you, Rebecca. Sorry but I have only seen your question right now. I process the photos and other illustrations in PhotoShop  and write the text in my Desk Top Publishing program, Serif Page Plus, where I add the photos and organize it all. Then I save it as a pdf file. After that I go to Issuu.com upload the pdf and they produce the eBook all for free. It can be done in Word too and I am sure many other programs as long as you can save to pdf or another of the formats Issuu accepts.

By the way you so not need to make a book to join Issuu, you can join just to read books or in preparation to make them. When a few of us have joined I will form a mail art group there.

New book just out compiled from 80's and 90's festive  nonsense I used to scrape together each year for family and mail art friends. The best of which now in full colour in 124 page book on Black Scat Books and Amazon. Please write a review if you can- much appreciated!