Jay, Angie, Katerina, Carina and Dan Mouer's Barfa Toxic Mystery Piece

[David Stafford]

Jay sent me this collaged landscape which depicts a wizard who has inadvertently let loose upon the world some sort of infernal knowledge. His cloak of many colors is not protection enough against the forces he's unleashed. That's my story anyway. Thank you, Jay.

I missed the banana mail art call this year but Angie included me in her recipient list. I believe this is a handcolored? linocut. Beautiful, Angie. Thank you. 

Seems only right to try out the design in some sort of futuristic display with requisite phallic accents.

Katerina sent me her New Year's card with a few gold stars for "okay" behavior as well as a book collaboration she's working on with John M. Bennett, Mascaras de los Espejos (Masks of the Mirrors?) and …

…of course, her new spring collection. Thank you, Katerina.

A real ephemera grab bag from Carina which includes a lament about Finland's march into the world of the info economy. These are some of things Finland has left behind in its struggle to remain a 1st World Country: Drinking Glasses, Rubber Boots, Soap and Sugar. Luckily, they are still making Fazer chocolate but the manufacture has been outsourced to a small town in China where people still remember how to strip the cocoa bars from the enormous cocoa bar trees that grow freely along the Yangtze River. Patti and I are gearing up for our centennial pilgrimage to Petsmo, a journey we take every 100 years or so and Carina has agreed to send me the orientation material of which this is a part. Thank you, Carina.

And now the long awaited unveiling of Dan Mouer's entry into the Barfa Stewart Mail Art Call (As per the agreement with DKult trashpo extremists and Price Waterhouse, Dan and I exchanged the tackiest Xmas gifts we could find under ...$10?) Dan has been giving me Facebook updates on the travails he has had this year with his entry. Apparently, he had some difficulty finding a facility that would shrink wrap toxic waste. 

Here's the picture that ran in the Santa Fe New Mexican upon the arrival of Dan's piece. The neighbors enjoyed the hoopla.

Okay, this is where the visuals are a bit dim so I'll fill in the blanks with words. Dan's piece is a toxic snow globe (in the shape of a soda bottle) filled with trashpo and glitter. Deploying members of his international archaeological network, the trash was collected from one of the five plastic gyres that are swirling around our world. A staff writer from Toxic Waste World accompanied the Post Person and the whole thing will be part of the 9 part-NOVA Series: Making Shit from Other Shit. Thank you, Dan. It was well worth the wait.

And thank you everyone for a great mail art year. (Bumblebee, your mail art grab bag is in the mail).

[David Stafford]

Thanks, Angie. DVS, I agree entirely.

[De Villo Sloan]

Did I mention I was BANNED from participating in this year's Barfa Stewart Tacky Gift Exchange? And this was after the jackals who sponsor this activity did expensive damage to my car by putting a voodoo spell on it.

I mention this because Mr. David Stafford (a close personal friend of the gift jackals I should add - they made a fan club just for him) deceptively refers to the gift exchange as a "Mail Art Call," which it most definitely is not. It is a gross frenzy of hyper-materialism that is an insult to the values of mail art.

The gift exchange should never be confused with "serious" mail art.

[David Stafford]

Possible investment opportunity. 

[David Stafford]

This plot has thickened beyond belief. I might have guessed this was a regift from you, Diane. Suddenly it all fits...oh, I've done that schtick already tonight.

[DKeys]

hahahahha  to make this even tackier--i made this for Dan so it is re-gifted!  I can't believe it has stayed sealed this whole time. It is no doubt aged to disease spreading perfection by now. i do believe it is a microgyre that can also work as a whirlpool. Bathing in it does wonders for your skin--it is a low cost alternative to microdermabrasion

[David Stafford]

It's not supposed to be uncapped until New Years 2020. Big celebration, cameras, spokesmodels, the whole works.

Re: Dan Mouer's Toxic Snow Globe: It's not really that bad if you think of it as the last surviving liquid on a desolate planet without anything but craters and dinosaurs and Matt Damon floating overhead in a spacesuit. Then it seems pretty good....plus the things floating around inside don't have to be little bits of plastic waste. They could be futuristic vegetable protein that has the look and feel of real plastic but is actually quite nutritious. But all these questions will be answered in five years.

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

(p.s. nice Greek door mat ya got there :-)

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

How did the US Post and Homeland Security allow Dan's "Toxic-(liquid)-Trashpo" in the mail?

...did it come "air mail"? with people on the same plane? Oh, my, oh, my...

And you won't un-cap it, right? Well, unless you do so in near-by Roswell or Area 51, please!

(it looks alien :-)

[David Stafford]

Special thanks to James Vaughan of X-Ray Delta One

[David Stafford]

The missing chapter! Suddenly, it all fits....