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).

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

David Creations in the Spring Collection :-)

Wow, she is stunning in "Greek+Bennett BLUE"! 

Thanks for blogging...and creating :-)