Mail Art #29

 

And...after nearly a MONTH (To make ten measley envelopes? Really?), I am back with more mail to haunt someone's mailbox! There are also a few BONUS attractions this go-round, such as Maxima Strange's most recent edition of the Goth Emporium Assembling Zine (and a look at what I sent for her NEXT one). PLUS--I finally (by request) went BEYOND the envelope and made something else. (Shh! It's a POSTER!) Do you think it's okay? Hmm.

Here's the post. Take a look or don't...

Maxima Strange's Goth Emporium project has been on a semi-hiatus for a while--but it's back now! 

Inside was a book mark, the packet of contributor cards, and an art piece by Maxima.

Back in March, I contributed to the last (to that point) project in the series. It was called TRIBUTE II. She has finally assembled it and sent it out.  Here are all 13 of the entries for this issue. 

Once TRIBUTE II was in the mail, she announced the next project in the series; NIGHT CREATURES. I'd had a vague idea for a while of what I was going to do. But once it was announced, I had to act fast if I planned on being a part of the issue. I just found a bunch of images and made 13 copies of each, then slapped them down on the cards. This is what I came up with.

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT: As I usually do, I took the card and made an envelope version of it. The cards, I think, came out better. But this was a quick, no-brainer...and another name off of my list.

TIKI GOTH CLUB'S HALLOWEEN PARTY & SHOCK-O-RAMA TRAILER SHOW:  My friend Ray Wyland (aka Tiki With Ray) likes my mail art. He's had me on his YouTube show to talk about it and I've sent him several envelopes. Recently, Ray asked me to make an 11x17 poster for his Tiki Goth Club's Halloween party--in my "mail art style." Aside from the who-what-where-why-when info, the size stipulation, and that it be in (mostly) color, I was given carte blanche as to what I wanted to do. This actually presented me with a number of problems. My printer does not do 11x17 paper. I had to print three copies of the abstract background and try to fit them together in a way that wasn't obvious... But even then, the colored parts did NOT reach all of the way to the sides--and I had to come up with a plan for that. Since I wasn't making a faux movie poster--just a Halloween party poster with no set theme, I found and printed up a lot of images at far larger sizes than I would have normally used, cut them out and layed them around to see if anything worked. The lettering was also a problem. It--especially the "Halloween Party" part--should have been BIGGER. However, Word doesn't offer the option of going bigger than I already had it. Those were printed the largest they could be. Drat! I was a tad intimidated when Ray asked me to do this. While it's not great, I think it came out okay. I hope he likes it and that others see the poster and want to go to the party. I won't be there (I should be traveling at that time.), but I'll be there in poster spirit. Boo! Now back to our regularly scheduled mail art...

HALLOWEEN PARTY: I was NOT planning on recycling the poster above into an envelope...but I am out of ideas at the moment and I really couldn't wait for something fresh (or even only quasi-stale) to pop into my head. I needed to send Amy something ASAP! She and her boyfriend Chris met us at Inside Passage in Seattle when my friend Gillian was here from California. At one point Amy excused herself to the bathroom--but actually bought me the incredible Kraken tiki mug from the bar. OH MY STARS! What a total surprise! THANK YOU, Amy. I hate to give her a recycled idea for a thank you...but I had nothing else. (And it actually doesn't look bad...)

OOPS! The day I was getting this ready to mail, I suddenly realized I'd forgotten the stamp! EEK! Grrr. It looked better withOUT it. 

THE DARK CORNERS OF MOODY MANOR: Oh God... I am soooo EMBARRASSED! This is just AWFUL! Can you tell that the well has gone dry and I've run out of ideas again? (And you thought the previous post was chuck full o' bad envelopes... Ha!) UGH! And I really needed this one to be a good one, darn it all. This is a "thank you" to a friend who, despite my telling him to please NOT do it, sent me a donation for the web hosting fees for another blog of mine. THANK YOU, Tony. Instead of showing how utterly grateful I am, it looks like I just threw up in his mailbox. I guess I'll just have to put his name back on the list and make him another one down the road. It will be awhile before I can get to him (I have at least 9 more I MUST get done ASAP), but this really is just trash. Damn!

SATAN'S DONUT HUT: If this looks familiar, you are right. It IS. Because I have ZERO ideas at the moment, I thought why not just remake some of the envelopes that have gone missing? SATAN'S DONUT HUT was always the one I liked the best that disappeared into the ether and has never been seen since. This is a bit altered from the original envelope. I didn't save any of the images for it--except the screaming girl...which I forgot to print out. So I just used another I had laying around. (Only, I don't like her there. She's looking UP. There's nothing up there. Oh well.)  Amazingly I found the original donut and box of donuts pictures online. I couldn't find the same picture of the donut shop I'd used before, but I am pretty sure this is a picture of the same donut building I'd used previouly. The devil guy is different (I never liked the original one I had) as is the chef's hat. Hopefully this one does NOT go MIA.

Anna Maria Sophia got her envelope (as seen in my previous post) and posted a photo with it on Instagram. Ha!

THERE'S SOMETHING OUTSIDE: While it is better than THE DARK CORNERS OF MOODY MANOR (above), this is still no winner. Snore...

THE HOUSE ON WIDOW'S HILL:  Another "eh" envelope. Geez! I suck lately. Sorry, Marcia.

The poster is b-a-c-k! Ray liked the poster. His intent was to take it and make printed copies. They'll be used as announcements for the event as well as gifts for the attendees. Ha! I've had something I made reproduced! Below, the original is on the right with the copies on the left. I think they look pretty awesome.How exciting! He's saving a copy for me.

IT CAME FROM THE GRAVE:  There's nothing new or interesting here. I'm just trying to get through my list. UGH! I can NOT believe I am only on the 7th envelope for this post. I still have three more to go before I'll post this.  I have just gotten so s-l-o-w and have lost all imagination. Blah... I'm am actually really bummed this came out so meh. The recipient, Jim Sloan, was the first person ever to come up to me "in the wild" and greet me, knowing I was "Monster-A-GoGo" (and we had never met or communicated before). I really hoped to send him something nicer, but...

THE FREAKY TIKI LUAU:  This one actually came out okay. It was originally supposed to be called THE FREAKY TIKI LUAU OF DOOM, but somehow the "OF DOOM" didn't get printed...which is probably best. It might have been too crowded otherwise. Do you know how hard it is to find pictures of zombie hula girls? The three in the backfround are figurines--not people.  My Tiki Scream Queen is B-A-C-K, too. I am so glad Anna Maria Sophia (pictured above holding an envelope I sent her.) sent me several screaming shots to choose from. I was able to use a different pose of her than what I used before. I hope it works for Geneen and Kevin...

If you will recall, not too long back I helped a fellow mail artist out by making several pieces of mail for some students she would be lecturing to about mail art. They were passed out randomly. This popped up in the mail yesterday--- a handpainted postcard from one of the students.

The note was short and simple. She did include her address, so I decided (in true mail art style) to send her something back again.

GRAVE MANOR: This is what I came up with for her. Yawn... It was slapped together with odds and ends I had laying around. I hate to send the poor kid crap, but I didn't want to have her wait for a response for long AND I am totally creatively bankrupt. I don't know if I could have come up with anything more interesting or not. 

More good news... One of the people who saw the interview (Tiki With) Ray did with me about my mail art---and who requested a piece--received his. This was a SECOND piece I made for him. The first never showed up. ARGH!!!! I am glad he got this one though. (And I dig his Monster Cereals tiki mugs in the background!)

Patricia Landon sent me a very clever, very kind, very thoughtful gift. I am building out a home tiki bar. Patricia thought that every bar has the first dollar pinned to the wall or ceiling somewhere. My home bar won't be asking for payments, but she still thought I needed a bill on display. If you look to the right side of the dollar, you'll see she even included a small tiki stamp on it. Brilliant! I don't know if this constitutes "mail art" or not---but, of course, I responded...

BEYOND THE NIGHTMARES:  My artistic suck-a-thon continues with this loser. Sorry Patricia. All I can do is try...

And--oh my stars! FINALLY...that is 10 envelopes! This entry is DONE! (But oh.... I am already backlogged with losts of envelopes I MUST get to.)

Thank you for visiting. I will TRY to do better next time...if you DARE to return, that is....

CHEERS!

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