Thom Courcelle's Blog (204)

Some short time ago, Nancy Bell Scott posted her own picture of this lovely work she completed, and titled it "Finish Line." And I am the lucky recipient. But on the back of the piece she has written a new title: "The Road Between."

I'm not sure, but I think I like the latter title. "The Finish Line" seems so...final. Like we pushed…

I couldn't have asked for a nicer surprise if I had gone trick-or-treating door-to-door!  So wonderful to hear from Mary, who has been a regular Halloween mail-art friend. This year, she sent a hand-stitched quilted piece on cardboard with plenty of Halloween themed characters—cats and bats and skeletons and ghosts... The soft, cozy fabric makes them all seem…

Just ask David Stafford!!!

Yes...but what KIND of casserole, God's chosen want to know... I mean, it's the Last Supper, after all. The reverse of the postcard goes into even greater detail...

If I didn't know better, and if the postcard weren't so stiff, I might've guessed that this piece was an old used paper napkin on which…

I got quite a mail art surprise from Dean (that Artist in Seine). Completely unexpected and a thrill to gawk at and peruse through. As "boekie" mail art goes, this one's a star—a collection of all sorts of classic and antique images, papers, ephemera, textiles and even holograms (!) that make for une grande tournée d'art collage.

Wish that you…

The thing about Mail Art is... that they often work REALLY well as bookmarks. Especially really magnificent and beautiful pieces of Mail Art that I wanna keep near me so that I remember to blog about them.

But the OTHER thing about using Mail Art as bookmarks...is that if you read as much as I do and have a gazillion books around that you're…

Boy, did I get  wonderful mailing from Melissa Wand.  I had sent her a Souvenir of the 2016 U.S. Election, and she sent me back this envelope with a couple of cute politically-themed postcards,a nice note, and several political cartoon clippings.

But I have to admit that the best part of Melissa's mailing was the envelope...because it IMMEDIATELY…

Riddle: What has scales, is weighed on a scale, and on a scale of one-to-ten ranks as a twelve?

Why that would be Allison Baker's first mail art piece to me! Allison didn't hold back at all in testing the limitations of the post office's mailing parameters for dimension, size, or shape. This fishy-shaped…

A most unusual piece of mail art arrived recently from the Netherlands...

Although the envelope is constructed with a traditional "sealing flap" (see picture directly above), there were instructions on the…

Mike Dyart sends some "Esoteric Art" that contains a history of the Nothingists—extremists countering the no less extreme demands of the Everythingists...

This is the history of Russian Dadaists (supposedly). Mike's quasi-serious history of a geo-political art history is illustrated with an empty landscape of formerly swaying corn-stalked field…

Mail Art postcards galore...

Above, Jan Hodgkin, Washington State, USA

Ian C. Dengler, Texas USA, shares some humorous artistamp postage... A closer look:…

Fiorentina sent me a sample of her artwork from some of the pieces she had earlier posted online which I found so admirable. It is just as beautiful in person as it is on the computer screen. She also turned it into a little "table tent" so that I could stand it upright and admire it face-on.

Such detail and flourish! And characters with much…

Here is a gallery of some of the wonderful, amazing mail art that has hit my mailbox recently...

Jack of Cascadia Artpost has been generous to me this summer. This is the second in a series that I have received from Jack titled "Commodity Civilization," with some pretty astonishing collage work, and some of the most genius artistamps I've…

I'm a bit tardy adding my shower of applause that is deserved of Gina Ulgen for her magnificent Shakespearean mailing. What was it that Shakespeare said about lateness?

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late."

Oh...wait. That doesn't really describe me. I'm definitely a minute (or more) late with…

I saw these beauties in the photo gallery when Dorina has posted them, and was verily impressed with them. And sweetness that she is, she gifted them to me through the mail. They are just as astonishing and lovely in person.

I had not realized, however, that they were REVERSIBLE! And on the flip side of each piece was a complete other…

A wonderful and fancy piece of mail art arrived in the post from James Chester. He has sent me the deed and title to a series of properties along the Boardwalk, and included a landscape drawing of the property I've  apparently inherited. Look at those rent prices! I certainly wouldn't mind renting a house for $200 ! Why haven't I moved to Boardwalk…

Latest correspondence from MomKat. I actually LOVE that Athena rubber stamp...perfect for Kat in her Grecian haven/heaven.  Great wide-size wash tape, too...it's always good to spread a little "L-O-V-E" around!

This piece also includes some selvage/selvege...a new vocabulary word for me that Kat recently helped decipher and add to my noggin's…

Well, I admit it... I was completely jealous of a piece of mail art that friend Carina Granlund received recently. But there wasn't any need to be jealous...because I was lucky enough to get my very…

Hmmm... There's a theme here between the wash tape on Amy's envelope and her fabulous quilted piece inside. I had to double check my calendar to make sure it wasn't time for Halloween greetings!

But, no... the motif of bones and skulls were a pervasive theme in a historical context. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance were full of recurrent…

A most unusual package was left on the front stoop yesterday. Newer IUOMA member Vikki Johnson and I decided to exchange fiber art mail art, so I knew that this amazingly decorated box would contain something quite interesting... I wasn't expecting such a large "production," but quite a lot of work went into this piece...so I'm going to make a visual…

The best up-cycling I've seen in a long time! A business envelope turned inside-out to show its confidentiality pattern on the outside, with the envelope window revealing a peek at the delicious contents inside...…