Tofu's Blog (45)

In the U.S. it was Labor Day on Monday. I spent the holiday working. My task was to print over 100 postcards with hand carved rubber stamps reminding everyone to vote for freedom, democracy, sanity and our future. Vote Kamala Harris! This batch was dropped off at the post office yesterday.…

Inspired by the new sea turtle postage stamps from the USPS, I started carving some rubber stamps and the results are now on the way.

When I send mail art, I never how the postal service will handle it. Sometimes the recipient gets it with a postmark across the image.   I like when this happens, I feel it authenticates the piece as mail art.…

My latest series of mail art.  Sunflowers done with hand-carved rubber stamps.

Sending out a series of 50 hand embroidered postcards would be overwhelming.   But what happens when you carve rubber stamps inspired by Ukrainian folk art?  This latest mail art series is on its way around the world.…

My latest artist stamp that I am adding along with regular postage to my outgoing mail. Commemorating our foggy summer and of course Sutro Tower.

Ukrainian Embroidery Mail Art Call

What better way to spend a lazy summer afternoon than going through your school yearbook.  Or for me, cutting up some old yearbooks and making about 200 ATCS to mail out for a new series for the Fluxus High School Yearbook.…

I hope I get some mail art from the UK with these.

https://www.collectgbstamps.co.uk/explore/issues/?issue=23103

There is a finite amount of space in my archive boxes, but I strive to save all the mail art I receive.  Many artists include various ephemera, stickers, and other materials with their mail art.  Things I might use in pieces I create myself.  Many of the envelopes are works of art in themselves.   Starting in January 2020 I began to use much of this material for a new artist book.  I repurposed a large…

The Oak Woodlands are one of my favorite spots in Golden Gate Park.  One of the few spots in the park that looks much like the land did before the park was developed.  There is no gift shop and no postcards, so I have made a series of my own.  I was tempted to protect these hand-painted cards by sending them in…

Sometimes you receive a piece of mail art where the envelope is as in incredible as what’s inside. That is what happens whenever I get something from Kathy Barnett. The envelope is great, and I love the champagne drinking head juggler (you can move and adjust the little heads).…

https://tofuartsf.blogspot.com/2022/04/brain-cell-brain.html

I am not sure if I was supposed to preserve all of Ryosuke Cohen’s brain cells in my overflowing mail art archives forever.  Using one of my hand carved rubber stamps, I did a series of brain cell brains.  All applied to unused Hungarian franked postcards that end up in a collage fodder…

https://tofuartsf.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-year-of-tiger.html

Covid has kept me home and I have not travelled to Mexico for two years now.  Ideally, I’d be there for the Día de los Muertos celebrations — it is one of my favorite holidays. Instead, I will make my ofrenda at home in San Francisco.  And this past week I have been carving rubber stamps and making some mail art for the holiday.   These postcards are on their way locally and around the world.…

The first time I went to a San Francisco Correspondence Co-Op meeting was the group’s first anniversary party — back in 2012.  Here we are nine years later, and the co-op is now 10 years old.  We missed having our party in 2020 and finally had out first in-person gathering las month, safely, outdoors in a quiet, park.

Every time we meet, one of us does an artist stamp to be shared with co-op members.  Many keep their stamps in special passports.   For our 10^th anniversary…

https://tofuart.tumblr.com/post/656253850449281024/paisaje-del-ducado-de-ellington-a-collage

Sometimes with mail art you receive mystery mail — it is all part of the process.  This week I received an altered postcard from the U.K. as well as a collaged postcard with my address nearly hidden (the back is blank).  The British one does not have a postmark, the other one was sent from Grafton, Vermont in February — so it…