A good mailart day

I haven’t been a particularly active mailartist lately, but a little while ago I got motivated and sent out a few things to various mailart calls. Some of them are documented on-line and you can see what I sent in under the “Mailart” tab. Sometimes when you send out mail art, you get some back, and today I got two fun envelopes.

One came from Japan, surprisingly without any postage. It’s been canceled and everything, but there is absolutely no sign of any stamps of any sort, and perhaps even more oddly, the envelope wasn’t even sealed. Here’s what was inside:

It’s part of a project called “Braincell” which is the baby of a fellow named Ryosuke Cohen. He collects rubberstamps, stickers, artiststamps and whatnot that people send him from all over the world, and uses thme to assemble a sheet that resembles the one I received. He sends a copy out to everyone who sent him something. He also includes a full list of participants with their addresses just in case you feel inspired to make the next “braincell” connection. Oh, did I mention that he does this every 10 days or so (yes, you read that correctly) and he has been doing it since around 1997 – I’m in issue #766. My contribution is the happy little red cupcake near the bottom right corner.

I also received a trio of mini-zines from my friend Tanglecrafts in the UK.

They are part of her “Going Postal” project where she is collecting postage themed artist trading cards (ATCs). As part of the project she assembled these little booklets which include 3 ATCs each and some information about the contributors. Coincidentally, my friend Pengrafyx’s ATC is right next to mine in one of the booklets. As with all things Tanglecrafts sends out, they came very nicely nestled in one of her handmade recycled envelopes.

Blatant commercial message here: Check out Tanglecrafts Etsy store to see and maybe buy some of her exquisite craftworks – the things she makes are just so wonderfully, professionally done.

Sometimes when you send out mailart, you get something back right away and sometimes you get nothing. Then there are those delightful surprises when you get something back long after you’ve forgotten all about it. If any of you send out “decos” you’ll know exactly what I mean. Well, over a year ago, I sent a postcard out to someone. This is it here. At the time I was hoping to get something back to include in my mailart zine “What Art Mail”, but nothing came. Then, out of the blue I received this fun little fabric postcard:

There is a caption on the back that reads: “Into every life some bunnies must fall.” It makes me smile and that is always a good thing.

Speaking of not getting mailart back, I am about three booklets behind on my “It starts with a pencil” project. If you are waiting for one, they will get done, soon I hope.