Thom Courcelle's Blog (204)

Debra Mulnick; Richard Baudet; William M.; Jennie Hinchcliff; LIGMA; Laurence Gillot; and Finn Badger...

Here are highlights from each:

FABULOUS envelope art from Debra Mulnick telling the story of "Jack and…

I think this might be my first mail art piece received from Mike Dyar of San Francisco. Anyway, it was a little bit startling and wondrous to receive in my post box. It's very minimalist—a testament to what one can do with a simple shingle of corrugated cardboard—and yet...sort of holds significance for me.

That little blue…

Super cool self-made envelope arrived from Carina Granlund in Finland, filled with cute and humorous fare. She included two newspaper comic strips from a Scandinavian newspaper. They appear to be annotated with dates (1956 and 1957) so perhaps they are clippings from a more classic era of cartooning!…

This "anonymous" postcard arrived providing me with much delight. By the style and humor I'ma gonna say this is a David Stafford creation. Unfortunately, it looks like the postal machinery has once again altered a piece of mail art from the artist's original intention...whatever chaise or tuffet or…

I got this TERRIFIC and very simplistic hand-painted Ray Johnson Bunny postcard from Nadia Aroca of Barcelona, Spain...

"Ooooo..." I exclaimed, imitating the single letter on the postcard. "What could that mean?" I wondered.

Well, I must confess, I've been doing some historical research for a writing project...which includes historical…

Very creative output by Debra. The swirl image at the far right of the "double cherries" postcard appears to be a self-carved rubber stamp image. Interesting how it mirrors the "question mark" on the other postcard! Here are close-ups of each post card along with their reverse sides, which were just as creative and which alo used some antique postage stamps…

Yup... I received number 334 out of 365-and-a-half...and I'm super thrilled to have made the cut on Stripygoose's massive bird mailing. As Stripygoose's bird drawings go, this one's a champion! I love it and its feathery details!!!

Details about my particular bird were on the backside of the artwork...…

Toni Hanner sent this lovely collage in a crafty handmade envelope—very spring-like to suit the season...

A closer look at the collage work...

Terrific!  Thank you,…

Chris Well of Faint Press send me an amazing collage/painting as well as some poetry. Mmmmmm....great stuff.…

Something arrived in a pretty amazing envelope. It was a large envelope completely covered in zentangle design. I couldn't tell if it was Sarah's work directly, or if it was a pre-printed design. But even if it was pre-printed, it took an artistic eye to turn it into a fancy envelope...full of even more delightful surprises...…

It DID get made into a commemorative ARTISTAMP sheet...

Matthew Stolte's collage and reverse paint print artwork looks just fine when converted into the medium of artistamps:

Honored to be the recipient of one of only a 15 sheet print run! (see lower left of sheet).

If that wasn't nifty enough, Matthew send a an…

Birthe Petersen (Denmark) and Nadia Aroca (Spain) recently sent some really great work to me through the mail...

From Birthe, an intriguing figurative envelope with a white shadow spectre…which turns out to be the perfect spot for my address to go.

And that was just the envelope! Inside was a whole other piece of art, collaged and…

I received several mail art pieces either postmarked or celebrating "Leap Day" in 2016—that is, February 29th, which only comes around once every four years...

From MomKat in Greece, a hand-drawn, collaged, hand-stamped reminder that time sails away...…

Large board mail art post from Dean, with an emphasis on the history of Toulouse...

"Ne pas enlever cette étiquette." I would NEVER!!!

The reverse side has an aerial view of some of the monastic communities' buildings in Toulouse named after Saint Saturnin (I think), and a split image of the saint himself. Saint Saturnin…

"Yummy Cabbage Cream Cheese Cake…."

As far as I can tell, the recipe goes something like this:

1 can apple pie filling

1 box Jiffy White Cake Mix

1 cup chopped pecans

1 cabbage

Mix all ingredients together. Stir with a wooden spoon 1,322 rotations. Caution! [May cause bursitis.] Bake for…

Lucky me, I got a fatty envelope from Amy Irwen… with all kinds of goodies inside ripe for use on future mail art...

Included were two of Amy's sewn-on-board ATCs, both texturally and visually amazing On the left, "Window Series #21"  and on the right "Storm Warning."…

One of the saddest and MOST EMBARRASSING things that happened during my move in 2014 from the west coast US to the east coast US was the loss of a special DKult Trashpo mailing that was sent from MailArt Martha. She had taken such care with the package and REALLY SCORED A 10-POINT EXECUTION with this piece. I laughed and laughed when I originally received it and was amazed at the brilliant creativity of it...

…AND THEN I LOST IT IN THE HECTIC PROCESS…

What's black and white and read all over? Mail Art in my postbox from Carina Granlund!

Whoa… Finland postage stamps are fun!

Is that a trick question?…

Ever had one of those humbling "trying-to-keep-up-with-the-Joneses" days with the mail art you receive? Well, David is always keeping me on my toes and upping the ante on how to be hilarious...

Not only great mail art… but prolific, too!!…

Dean must've been studying with the monks of Tibet, because his mail art is becoming very transcendent and mandala-like...

Wait… THAT guy doesn't look like a Tibetan monk!

Mérci, Monsieur Mailartiste…