Received: Pulp fiction mail-art from Jon Foster (Winston Salem, North Carolina, USA)

[De Villo Sloan]

October 5, 2010 - Jon Foster from the southeastern part of the U.S. sent me this very economical or minimalist piece of mail-art that I appreciate very much. The majority of space is distressed blank cardboard. Although, as you can see faintly, there is some - what I take to be - indented store coding of the "found variety." The obscured eyes are interesting, given that there is such a preoccupation with eyes in mail-art. In terms of pegging a theme, a book title sums it up for me "Blindness and Insight." The front is nice too and a bit more populated with images:

I was trying to describe Grigori Antonin's mail-art style about a week ago, and I found myself calling it Old School. That's meant to describe work that isn't digitally produced (relies on things like real glue, labels, stamps) and is fairly economical in terms of its use of images and texts, without a lot of overlaying or inter-connection of images, as in complicated collages. This approach certainly has a proven track-record among mail-artists. Another thing - perhaps totally imagined - that I see in Jon's work is a nod to pop-art and Warhol. Maybe it's just because Jon's work seems so distinctly American - thinking of TICTAC - in the tradition of popcult and pulp fiction. A wonderful area to explore and that is almost impossible to exhaust. Jon has an interesting blog:

http://flightoutoftime.blogspot.com

Thanks much, Jon

[jon foster]

Cool Jen, I'll send you something.

[Jen Staggs]

Loved this piece. I expect the woman to yell "What's the passwoid!?"

[jon foster]

Thanks for the kind words and dissection.