Hallowe'en Loot! Documented on All Soul's Day...

[Thom Courcelle]

If mail art came in a candy sack, I would be dragging my haul along the ground back to my lair so I could roll around in all my sweets!  As it is, I got some really SWEET mail art in celebration of All Hallow's Eve--the day that marks the thinnest veil between this world and the other where our forebears ethereally mingle. Just look at this stash:

This is truly some impressive stuff... and it's not like some years when you were a kid and all you seemed to get in your candy sack were some tootsie rolls and hard candies. This was like getting a whole sack's-worth of Babe Ruth bars and Nougat Logs! If these were real sweets, I'd be having a sugar belly ache for days!

From Val Herman, a silly Scooby Doo greeting from his travels in Great Britain. and on the reverse side, a hint of the artistic explorations he may have made during his visit to the Island(?) The graphic is great on any account!

And from Diane Keys, a red flag of warning that she altered in a brilliant piece of mail.  It's AWESOME!  Police tape marking a "DANGER" area--something too delicate to be mailed of it's own accord, Diane "found" some clear plastic into which the tape could be inserted and sewn-up to make the perfect cross-over of Halloween foreboding and TRASHPO art.  It's one of my new favorite pieces by Diane and will have to be blogged in the Trashpo Group at some point, too, so members there can be jealous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parys St. Martin sent me a kind of two-fer-one art deal... A great sample of her digital work was burrowed and hidden inside a black envelope, which in turn was hidden inside an envelope made of canvas that depicted another digital work of Fluxus:

[OOoops!  And because I'm a duffer when it comes to these blog posts and computers, I seem to have come to the end of my photo limit here.  Sooo... will continue with pictures and with blogging in the comments fields of this blog post. STAYED TUNED!!]

[PIRO]

Thanks Thom,

Wonderful blog and Halloween art you got.   Great display and words, always a delight !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Thom Courcelle]

A wonderful Halloween greeting from Wendy Barber in North Carolina. Repurposed Cereal board!!  Hurrah!  The collage is an excellent dissertation on the autumn season, and the correspondence was well appreciated, Wendy! It's true that this holiday marks a craft-person's dive into the flurry of "making."  Hand-made and home-made gifts are always so much more appreciated!

Also liked your little back-envelope stamp:

And finally, some super creative Halloween cheer from Holly Cooper, who is proving to be VERY prolific with her postal art gifting. Each one has been a wonderful surprise, Holly, and shows just what a versatile and creative mail art-eest you truly are!!  Her Hallowe'en greeting is a postcard picture of the gravesite of LIBERACE!!!  Who didn't love that man and his haute flamboyance??  Holly altered the postcard with Day of the Dead imagery, reminding us not only of the celebration of this part of the human life cycle and our ancestors, but reminding us in her juxtaposition of themes that life should be celebrated flamboyantly and with gusto and music and cheer--and possibly dressing up in capes and jewels and coiffures. A perfect synthesis and comment on the holiday, Holly! I LOVED IT!!

The follow-up to All-Hallow's Eve is, of course, All Soul's Day, and I wish everyone a blessed time of reflection no matter how you celebrate. May fond memories of loved ones bring you peace or revelry as you make salutations to your own life well-lived!

[Thom Courcelle]

Speaking of Cats, Guido Vermuelen send this multi-media painting and collage artwork that he titled "Every Thursday 380 Cats are Open Until 8PM"  A mystery until one looks deeper into the bits and pieces of the collage. I love a Halloween mystery.. and BLACK CATS fit perfectly with the season!!

Another nocturnal creature bringing Happy "HOO"-loween greetings from ChaosAtlanta who sent this REALLY great owl postcard.  Bonus was the poem on the reverse side!  And get a load of those artistamps on there!!  The postal clerk used a ball point pen to "cancel" them!

[Thom Courcelle]

Louise Kiner! Please never stop making me laugh! If anyone can elicit a guffaw from me it is Louise, who sent me a self portrait of herself as a fanged werewolf!  (She also included some extra sketch artwork of our old friend, ZOMBIEKITTY.  DANG IT!!  I cannot hold back the laughs looking at that demolished cat.  I know it's wrong!  But I just can't HELP IT!!! You are giving me stomache cramps from laughing, Louise! Thank you!

 

[Thom Courcelle]

Our sweet tooth un-satiated as yet for this blog, continuing to plow through the loot...

Roberto...ROBERTO!... sent a most delightful greeting that made me smile ever so with his Halloween assemblage. It's really not a mystery why Edgar Allen Poe has been attached to this particular holiday... he is the master of macabre; his stories retold year after year to invoke the spookiest of terrors. The portrait image Roberto used is just excellent and overlays [what I assume to be] text from or about Poe. But Roberto highlited the text different colors within the portrait outline giving it a DEPTH that it otherwise wouldn't have had--quite brilliant.  There's also a cutout in poor Poe's forehead that reveals some graphic underlying the top portrait collage and the subtlety of it makes it look like Poe has a third eye--something he would appreciate, I daresay.  The whole thing--I can't be surprised at Roberto's talent here, because he astonishes me again and again with his cleverness.  There's a quote of Poe's on the reverse side that nearly made me squeal (or cackle) in delight:

 

[Svenja Wahl]

Love the Dan-Ger!

[Thom Courcelle]

From Parys St. Martin: