You finally really did it. You maniacs! You sold mail art.

[Mail Art News]

Link: American Visionary Art Museum's Postcard Shop

Well, they finally found a way to sell mail art. I'm a little proud that my postcard is in there. To see it up for sale for $22...it is what it is. I knew going in that they were going to be selling whatever whoever sent them. Now I can say I've had art on display in the American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM). 

;-)

That was a themed show. I'm not sure how many people followed the suggested prompt. Hey, if you want to get art into the AVAM, here's the address. 

Sideshow
800 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD 21230

Another link: http://www.sideshowbaltimore.com/cardworks.html

[Juan Petry]

hello richard,
I wouldn't go so far as to make a statement like: "Mail Art is non-commercial art and therefore can't be bought or sold (Lon Spiegelman)."
In my workshops with art students, I allow myself the following joke: "There are two groups of participants in the art market. Some are interested in money, others in art! Collectors belong to the second group." That's also an incorrect generalization, but it illuminates an aspect that I'm just discovering in the field of Mail Art. Here, most artists seem to be collectors (and thus custodians of art = culture) at the same time, and the economic pressure isn't like that very prominent. The handing over of works of art to the group (of the other artist-collectors) is then perhaps the payment.
I am part of a small decentralized community. The currency within our fellowship is "Intentional Giving". This is also how I see many of my campaigns in the field of mail art.
In social interaction, I use it to reach like-minded people. However, if I also want to reach new groups and overcome my echo chamber, it is helpful to respect the usual behavior of others (buying things).
Unlike Lon Spiegelman, I don't see art as a prison.
The art market arose from the realization that there is a market for artefacts of culture. In the beginning, the public display of these artifacts was proof of their suitability for this market. The historical processing such as e.g. at Lomholt Mail Art is also paving the way.
The balancing act between creative activity and "paying the bills" remains for those who create culture. Even those who withdraw from the market in order not to have to expose themselves to this market will not escape this market if their work is recognized as a cultural asset. As the name says, the trader trades, even with Lon`s art in museums, where you will buy a ticket to see it.

[Mail Art News]

Sept 30, 2022

Dare R. C.,

Here is the postcard I sent them. 

Thank you for writing and sharing your thoughts and experiences and memories on the matter at hand. I selected the big reveal scene from Planet of the Apes as a way to express my mixed feelings on the AVAM selling the postcards (without giving a cut to the artist). So yes I used the scene for attention grabbing purposes (a vehicle on a tangled highway of humor and morality?) and hopefully it doesn't cause too much confusion in the mind of the blog post reader. In the movie, the reader will remember, Bright Eyes, Charlton Heston realizes the planet was Earth all along and must have gone through some horrible nuclear war in the distant past. Nuking the Earth is a bad thing. 

Selling mail art doesn't have to be all bad or bad at all, but in this case, it's almost in that "do it for the exposure" category that artists hate so much, but then again it's mail art which is usually done for free, excluding the costs of time, labor, materials, and postage, so I went into this knowingly and in the spirit of mail art. 

And the AVAM claims to show the cards in the museum near the gift shop, though I haven't verified personally. That's a good point about a person being more likely to preserve mail art they paid for. And that keeps the mail art dream alive. 

Best Fishes, 

T. Brown

[Richard Canard]

29.09.22   Dare Mister Thomas Brown,...  Is that your postcard image ??? (the haunting image of a dilapidated "Statue of Liberty" on an unknown beach from the film "Planet of the Apes" (?) with the actor Charlton Heston being brought to his knees in complete disappointment of & or by his fellow Americans. [A powerful scene that has in turn haunted my own memory of the film for many years now]) ...... & also, I think it was mail artist Lon Spiegelman who said quite some time ago: "Mail art & money don't mix."Or was it "Money & mail art don't mix."??? But of course, lots of mail art pieces have in recent history shown up on ebay, etc. ....Not to mention, of course, that any tid-bit by Ray Johnson has dollar marks all over it nowadays.  I guess it is all inevitable. If I had known about it ---I  would have gladly sent a postcard to the  American Visionary Art Museum....But one also wonders... Does the AVAM not consider Mail Art worthy of it's own museum collection but rather a way to make money for the  Museum Shop????  I don't know... but I suspect that the average individual is more inclined to value & preserve something that he(she) paid cash for rather than something that just  happened to show up in the mailbox with rest of the junk mail.   Thanx for sharing here at the IUOMA & best to you.    SinCelery, Richard Canard

[Mail Art News]

greetings Juan, 

do you have suggestions of a group to join?

[Juan Petry]

hi thomas,

if you like the idea to sell mail art you could join an existing project.

best

juan