Mail Art 24: EEEK!!!!

 

And...I'm back...with more mail to haunt mailboxes all across the country and in various parts of the world. EEEK! Tak a gander if you'd like...

VOICES IN THE DARK:  My best friend Erich has just been amazing lately, more so than usual. He totally surprised me recently by showing up on my doorstep unannounced (He lives in California. I am in Washington.) for my birthday and then running off to celebrate it in Vancouver BC. He also made a donation to my little tiki blog fund...which left me rather embarrassed and humbled--but how nice! I've sent him a few pieces of mail art in the past, but thought I'd send him something else as a thank you. (I actually had this ready for the last post, but held it back because I didn't want him to see it until after he received it.)  I never know how an envelope will come out. This one isn't great. It's simple, but that simplicity really kind of works. I like it. I hope he does--and THANK YOU again, Erich. You are the BEST!

SATAN'S PANCAKE HOUSE: If you've been paying attention and following along, every once in a while I'll come up with a "Satan's" something that strikes my funny bone. So far, I've had SATAN'S PORT-O-POTTY, SATAN'S WINNEBAGO, and SATAN'S DONUT HUT (which is lost in the mail...). Some are better than others. For whatever reason, I found the idea of Satan having a pancake house amusing. I had fun with the tag lines, as you can see. One I didn't have room for unfortunately read: "The omeletts are light and fluffy ...and EVIL!" Ha! I'm sorry. The idea of evil omletts I find pretty hysterical. This is going to mail artist Carien van Hest in the Netherlands. Her English is great. I just hope she gets the humor of this and understands American breakfast places...and is not off-put by the whole Satan thing. It's all in fun.

PSYCHIC HORROR: Mike Parsons is an IUOMA (International Union of Mail Artists) member. He messaged me recently saying something he'd sent me had been returned to him. He rattled off an address that was clearly not mine. And, a few days before that, someone else mentioned that they'd lost my address and wanted it. NOPE! Sorry. I don't want more mail. I want less. I'll still make mail for them--and send a Christmas card--but I don't want to receive mail and feel the burden of needing to respond. So, please...I hope they do NOT bother trying to find my address.  The envelope I made was originally supposed to go to a fellow in Russia named Ilya. I tried mailing him something right after the war with Ukraine started, not realizing the US was no longer dealing with the Russian post office. I later sent him a letter through a fellow mail artist in Portugal. Again, he never got it as Portugal apparently stopped sending things to Russia. Now, Carien in the Netherlands, has agreed to forward it on for me. As I was making it, I stuck a US stamp on (so I could figure out placement.) Oops! So, instead of Ilya, it went to Mike who was next on the list. It's simple, but I like it.

Russell Manning, who I don't believe is a member of IUOMA (so I have no idea how he ever originally got my address. Perhaps he is a lurker there without an account?), sent me some mail.

Inside were these two printed cards. There was a third card glued to a piece of paper on which, at the very bottom, in tiny letters he wrote he had received the mail I sent him on April 28. That's it. Just the one sentence. 

CASTLE OF TERROR: For him, he gets the rather disappointing CASTLE OF TERROR. It was actually supposed to go to Ilya, but I stupidly went ahead anf put a US stamp on it again. ARGH! Why is it disappointing? There's very little color--it's all washed out. You've got the white castle and moon on the left. The ghost is rather faded out. Even the screaming woman is mostly white. BORING!!! Sorry, Mr. Manning...

THE HOUSE OF PHANTOM FLATULENCE: This also should have been for Ilya...but I couldn't have the first thing he gets from me be a big fart joke. So, it went to the next person on the list, Theo Nelson. The damned stamp just about ruined it...

HAUNTED NUDIST COLONY: Again, this should have been for Ilya. But really, I couldn't send him an envelope about a nudist colony. Nothing is shown, but I didn't even know if the suggestion of a naked people would make it through the Russian mail system. So, Greg Diaz, this is coming your way...

One of the IUOMA's former members (He's disappeared. I wonder where he went and why?), Mark Johnson, was kind enough to take my Monster-A-GoGo avatar and clean it up. (The original was a screenshot of the gif version, so there were movement blurs here and there.)  I should have posted it earlier. 

ZOMBIE GIGOLO: In what should have been an envelope for Ilya, again devolved into something not appropriate for Russian mail. As soon as I realized the theme, it went to the next person on the list--Mark--to thank him for the amazing clean up of the avatar. He did it all on his own volition and surprised me with it. I hope ZOMBIE GIGOLO isn't too lame of a response.But really... Phantom farts, haunted nudists, and now a zombie gigolo? Where is my brain these days? (Avoiding the same 'ol-same 'ol haunted house dreck, I guess...)

SHE-THING FROM THE GRAVE: This one could have/maybe should have gone to Ilya, but... I decided to send it off to Coco Muchmore. She did a presentation in an art class about mail art a while back. I made several envelopes for it. Surprise! She was invited back for a follow-up...in just a few weeks. I won't have time to help her as much as I did before, but at least I got one ready for her.

THE HORROR OF BLOOD MANOR: Okay--FINALLY! Something for Ilya in Russia. I'm not particularly proud of this. I'm actually nonplused really. But...it's SOMETHING. Finally. After more than a year of trying. I just hope I left enough room for the stamp that Carien will add to send it off from The Netherlands.

SATAN'S DATING SERVICE: My friend Ray Wyland, better known as Tiki With Ray found me and tracked me down because of my tiki blog, Monster-A-GoGo: The Tiki Tourist. He wanted to interview me for his Tiki With Ray video show on YouTube, which we did last  October. My mail art friend Amy Kiessling came to the shooting. I think it must have been her that mentioned mail art. He asked about it and I sent him some. He loved it. Although it's not tiki, he has been wanting to do an episode featuring my mail art. In the video, he wants me to show him how I do it. So, I thought up an envelope and printed up several copies of the materials to show him the steps I go through. Ray had seen a photo of SATAN'S PANCAKE HOUSE (above) and told me it was his favorite one of mine he'd seen so far. So... I decided to do another SATAN one...and ended up with SATAN'S DATING SERVICE. He is coming to film on May 21st. (Two days from the time I am writing this.) I'll delay posting this until AFTER the taping, as I don't want to spoil the surprise. (The address area is blank at the moment. I will be attaching the recipient's info after the taping. If Ray likes the envelope, I will send it to him. Otherwise, it will go to the next person on my never-ending list.) I'll post the video in a future installment once he publishes it. 

Argh... The title I thought was too small. So, I reprinted it at a larger size and glued it on. You can still see the old one behind the new one, but... it looks better, I think. (I hope...). It's got to be video ready... EEEK! I'm so nervous.

By the time you read this, Ray will have shot the mail art video already. I hope it comes out well...

Thanks for looking. Stay tuned for future posts!

CHEERS!

Skip to the NEXT post here:

https://monsterago-go.blogspot.com/2023/06/mail-art-25-theyre-coming.html

Miss a post? Take a scroll through and see previous enstallments on my home page here:

https://monsterago-go.blogspot.com/