Mail Art #28

Welcome back for more mundane mail art. Jeepers! My list of people I "owe" mail to continues to grow and GROW and G-R-O-W!!!! I can't keep up. It's been almost a MONTH since my last post and all I have for you in all of that time is just 10 envelopes. (Well, actually it's only 9. One of them I made previously but held it back...) For better or worse, here are this post's 10 envelopes:\

IT CAME WITH THE HOUSE: This first envelope of thus new batch is kind of a dud.  This went to my horror author friend, Scott Nicholson. (I have never met him in person, although I may get to this October! I actually have one of his teeth on display in my living room! Ha!) Scott kind of jumped to the front o' the line. Why? He was kind enough to donate some money to help keep my tiki blog up online. (I had to upgrade my page to have room for more photos/media. Yowza! It was kind of pricey--so I started a donation page.) HOWEVER, I NEVER intended for people I know to donate to it. I was hoping it would just be random people I do NOT know.  While I appreciate my friends helping out, it is also rather embarrassing. Anyway, as a meager gesture of thanks, I made him this envelope. 

THE NIGHT KNOCKER: A while back, I posted an interview that (Tiki With) Ray Wyland did with me in regards to my mail art. In the video, Ray invites viewers (who are members of his Tiki Goth Club) to request an envelope. I was dreading that, but I only got about 6 requests from it. (Phew!) I got them all made and sent. Except one guy, Stephen Alexander Jr., apparently never received the envelope I made for him. That's not a surprise. My mail art goes M.I.A. frequently. I told him I'd make him something else, but that I'd have to put him at the end of the line again. However, for the next two people on the list--while I have themes in mind for them,I have no concrete ideas yet. This idea showed up (knocking at my brain one night! EEEK! I answered!) Hmm. I could go to the third person down... But no. I decided to just get this kid's redo envelope out of my (rapidly thinning) hair and be done with the video requests once and for all. I kind of like the title and taglines. The execution of the envelope itself is okay... (It's better than the one above, anyway.) I used the "Knock! Knock! You're DEAD!" tagline earlier on something else--but it seemed to fit this idea, so...

HEAT-PACKIN' HOUSEWIVES: This is going to Lisa Petrucci, the currant CEO and widow of founder Mike Vraney's Something Weird Video. I am a HUGE fan of Something Weird and all of the bizarre, strange, and jaw-dropping titles they have unearthed and saved. I recently had two rare opportunities--one was going to a yard sale at the home of Something Weird's CEO. The other was going to a farewell open house at the Something Weird offices. (Lisa is downsizing the company--and is moving the business into a basement office at home.) I shared the story (with LOTS of photos) HERE. Lisa doesn't know me really--but I wanted to send her an fan-boy thank you for the honor of getting to attend those two events. This is what I came up with. It's supposed to emulate some cheap, low-rent title Something Weird might have carried...but it didn't come out so well.

Hold the phone! Just before mailing this off--after I had already posted it above--I was bothered by the lame line under the third woman. "Jill needed a new car, but the bank wouldn't give her a loan." SNORE! This envelope didn't come out that funny, but the lines under the first two girls are at least moderately campy. But a new car loan? Blah! I thought maybe she needed "cigarette money"? Nah--it wouldn't fit. Then it hit me--"mad money". That fit the space. What bank is going to approve a loan for mad money? Looking at the new line though, you can tell (because the paper slipped down a bit) that there is something else underneath it. It's still not great, but is now just a tiny bit better...

The envelope below is NOT mail art. It was actually a birthday card for my friend Vye, decorated as if it were for Suzi Quatro Day (which is a joke and a long story). I only share it because of  how paranoid I am of mailing things here in my hometown. Because I simply glued a picture of Suzi Quatro to an envelope---I had to mail it from out of town. Crazy! (But then, a good proportion of what I send out DOES go missing...) I hope your Suzi Quatro Day was fabulous!

NOT JUST ANOTHER NIGHTMARE:  Eh...not great. I really wanted to put in one of my vintage screaming people, but there was just no room. 

HOUSE OF 1,000 DOLLS: Hmm... another mediocre one. Oh well. Don't be surprised if there's another doll-related envelope soon. I printed off/cut out a lot more doll images than are shown here. They need to be used somewhere. Let me think...

NIGHT OF THE DOLLS:  And here is the quick-o envelope using the doll leftovers. Even the taglines are leftover (which is why they are blue).  Snore...

HORROR AT THE HULA HUT: This one certainly got crowded. EEK! In fact, it got so full, the last letter of the recipient's last name was covered by the screaming girl in the tiki's mouth. This is for tiki artist David Gambale as a quasi-thank you for having me over to his Kon-Clusion party (after Tiki Kon) and for selling me a very nifty piece of his work. I was delayed a while on this one as I couldn't find any screaming tiki people. I eventually asked Anna Sophia Maria, a previous recipient of one of my envelopes (who is also a tiki enthusiast), if she would be my tiki scream queen. She came through--so THANK YOU! The tiki not only pops off of the border of the envelope, but it's mounted on cardboard for a quasi-3-D effect. I HOPE it makes it through the mails and reaches him. Oh shoot... I think I forgot to stamp the back with my Monster-A-GoGo stamp. Waaagh.

DIGGING UP DELILAH: This one is...disturbing. I found the great grave robing picture--but couldn't think of how to use it. This is what eventually popped into my head. No humor--just unsettling horror. I hope Anna Maria Sophia (my tiki scream queen in the Horror at the Hula Hut envelope above) is okay with it. Hmm. 

The amazing Bonnie Diva sent me some mail recently.

In addition to a groovy envelope, I got an art card of hers with a note on the back...and (WHOO_HOO!) one of her Bon-Zines! Thank you!!!!

THE SEX DWARF: No, it's not a faux horror movie. I recently saw a mini-documentary on the early 80s group Soft Cell. Although they are best known for the song TAINTED LOVE, their non-charting song SEX DWARF is just very fun. I've had the song going through my head for days and realized it needed to be a faux movie, too! It's not that exciting. The tag lines are basically lyrics from the song. The "what really goes on..." blurb is from an actual movie ad. I want to say it was for "Disco Fever" (starring Fabian!), but I'm not sure. An easy, no-brainer envelope. I hope Bonnie Diva isn't too disappointed...

CARDINAL SYNN 2: NO REDEMPTION: In a previous mail art post, I shared 4 of 5 envelopes I was able to whip out in a l-o-n-g day of nothing but mail art. The 5th envelope I held back was this one--a "sequel" to one of the others I'd made that day. (In other words, I had TWO different pictures of the evil pope-looking guy and just made a sequel to use them up.) I knew Mike Parsons would send me something again...so that made him the obvious choice for the pair of envelopes. I've since learned that this character is the lead singer of a European heavy metal (?) band called GHOST. 

And that is that. Who knows when I'll get my next 10 done? Before I tackle that though, I am working on another batch of 13 cards for a project by Maxima Strange AND my friend Ray has asked me to make an 11x17 poster for his upcoming tiki Halloween party utilizing my "style" (whatever that is). After those projects are done, I'll start back on the envelopes again. Phew!

Anyway, thanks for taking a looky-loo! 

CHEERS!

Jump to the next post HERE!