But is it Art?

I started stamping back in the 70s. Yes I did, even before some of you were even walking. I had taken an eraser carving class and part of the handout was a list of rubber stamp companies. I sent for every catalog and became hooked. Not much was available and almost all of them were very small and they were mostly cute, chubby animal images. You know, fluffy bunnies, flying pigs and coloring book-like flowers.
After stamping envelopes to family and friends for a few years, I heard about Prodigy, the internet server with chat rooms. I joined a rubber stamping group and was amazed that there were others who liked to stamp. We were a small group, maybe 20-30 of us and we exchanged stamped mail, shared ideas, techniques and sources for a couple of years. We all became friends. Several of us eventually opened rubber stamp stores, began stamp lines and otherwise continued being a part of the burgeoning world of rubber stamps. We called our stamped work mail art. We had heated discussions online over the definition of mail art, but we all agreed that what we did was fun. Here is an envelope of mine I haven't sent out yet.

One of the friends that I made online went by the name "ex posto facto". Julie was always thinking up new ways to amuse us and the post office too. She and I had a post card exchange going for over a year. She stamped a postcard and mailed it to me. I added something to it and mailed it back to her. This back and forth went on, the post card growing thicker and thicker as we added bits of paper, tickets, pennies, photos and always a new stamped image. Then one day it just disappeared. Some postman probably thought it was trash. Julie started another bigger back and forth project. She printed out hundreds, then thousands of "Fluxus Bucks" and sent them out into the universe to mail artists. They were to alter them and send them back to her. If they sent her five back, she would send them five more blank ones and five altered ones from other artists. It multiplied and became a huge mail art project encompassing not only the USA but many, many countries. She may still be doing this. She also started a group of like minded artists called the 3 O'clock Mail Art Choir. Love the name.

Some of the others who were part of that early Prodigy group that might be familiar to some of you are Mike Meador (Coffee Break Design), Wayne Gartley(VivaLasVegaStamps), Rice Freeman-Zachery (Writer Somerset, author) and Connie Williams (Stamp Your Art Out/StampawayUSA).

When I opened my first store in CT in 1991, I issued a challenge to my Prodigy friends. Send me something in the mail to test the post office. I called it "But is it Art?". Our mailmen judged the contest. The store received hoola hoops, shoes, boots, rolls of toilet paper, a bra, a magnolia leaf, puzzle pieces, jars, toys and lots more, all sent without any kind of wrapping. My favorite was leftover Chinese food, complete with chopsticks all the way from San Fransico. It got delivered even though the bottom had gotten soggy and it was, shall we say, pretty aromatic. The post office was very proud that it got through. The contest generated another heated discussion among the online group. The purists arguing that it wasn't really mail or art. The participants argued that if it went through the mail, it WAS mail even if it wasn't art.

Bill Gaglione (Picasso of Stampland Rubber Stamps) was active in mail art before any of us had heard of it and he is still active. Ruud Janssen from Holland has been active for at least two decades in mail art.

If you are interested, here are some links:

Ruud Janssen's International Union of Mail Artists
Post Mark Arts
And one more here

Comments

[Andi Sexton (rrlscrapgal)]

Super post!!! LOVE hearing about this great exchange...

[TACE]

I think I've only been sending decorated mail for...hmm since I was a teenager. My friend and I would exchange letters over the summer when school was out. I haven't rubber stamped that much, but I did carve my own stamp from a couple of erasers though, it's around here some where. I love that people get so *in* to their passions, Chinese takeout leftovers through the mail, holy cow!! That's pretty wild! I would guess that wouldn't happen today considering the mail people go through their "perishable, liquid or hazardous" spiel every time I'm there. Really interesting post, had no idea there was so much mail art stuff happening in the world!

[Dot McQuade]

I really love hearing about your part in mail art history... didn't you write about mail art in your zine, Ginny? I sure wish you would do that again... I really enjoyed receiving them!!

dot

[stephanie]

This is fantastic! Do you think these 'works of art' would make it through the mail these days? I LOVE that the postal carriers were so into it!

I'm off to check out your links here...thanks!

[Judi]

Oh, lord...Prodigy! I haven't thought of it in years! I must look in my mail art drawer and see if there is something from you, Ginny:-) Were you part of the Weird Christmas card exchange? That was a great one. As to the other...I think I sent you a big plastic fish in the mail....I was very into that big fish :-) I still have one left....hint, hint...

[Rachel Greig]

What a great post Ginny!! I love mail art, the weird, the wonderful, the wild... it's all good!

[Ruud Janssen]

Hi Ginny,

Thanks for writing this article and mentioning a link to my site. Yes, already 28 years in mail-art, but you seem to be even longer active.

The internet makes information so accesible for us. We can now tell our history (herstory is a word I also like) and let others read it without any problems.

best wishes,

Ruud Janssen

p.s. The TAM Rubberstamp Archive is now 25 years alive and celebration this quarter of a century presence......

[Wendy Vecchi]

GREAT story, Ginny!!
Art mail is better than BILL MAIL...for sure!
wendy