Things are finally starting to get back to normal after the wonderfully long bank holiday, a two day working week and a beer festival. So, I start off my long, 5 days of work with a rather awesome collection of art that’s been whizzing around the globe this past week.

OUTGOING

Valentine Mark Herman received a set of 4 game themed Arty Slides for display in his upcoming exhibition in Sigean, France.

And finally Ed Fairburn in Cardiff (my closest mail art friend, geographically speaking!) received this funny little cartoon postcard, where Noah’s ark gets a special delivery.

INCOMING

The mail coming in this week has been amazing, with masses of style and colour.

Firstly, there’s a lovely feel of symmetry, somehow, in this ‘ordered-chaos’ of shapes from Lynn Radford, USA.

Not entirely sure I’ve got it the right way around (actually, I’m getting more convinced that it’s upside-down!), but this gorgeously intriguing piece from Marie Wintzer, Japan, is ‘almost’ the same when you flip it 360 degrees.

Alicia Starr sent a collage with an interesting play on colours and shapes. I think it may have lost a few of its colours along the way (and maybe some of the text?), but I love the idea of tearing an experiment out of a sketchbook and posting it to someone.

Amy Irwen sent a cute little pooch, who’s guarding some delicate collage work on the back. Sewn inside some plastic to keep it safe, it arrived almost unscathed, except for a little scar on the little guy’s nose.

Arac obviously knows me pretty well by now! As she says – ‘Lego and rodents, how can I go wrong?’ Loving the S.S. Churchill, and the cursing little critter

The lovely Janine Weiss excelled herself this week, with not one but two collages, as well as a stash of arty supplies for me to use in my own mail art. I really love that gorgeously patterned paper, ans the felt buttons are sure to come in handy.

Neil Gordon sent the smallest ever trashpo mail art – so small that there wasn’t any room for the stamps next to the address, so they became part of the art on the front.

Jon Foster sent some Mail Art music my way, with this ‘Nostrils Knows Hare’ CD. Unlike any music I’ve heard before, I was literally in stitches listening to ‘I hate your Children’, ‘White Head’ and my personal favourite ‘Danger Fart’.

Stephanie Blake’s habit of encasing all of her artwork in plastic caught my eye a while back, and I’ve been admiring her work ever since. So I was more than excited to find this beauty in my mailbox. There’s so much to look at, and the circles (badges?!) inside add another dimension. When this arrived on Friday, it was utterly throwing it down with rain, but Stephanie’s heavy duty plastic kept it all safe. I’m going to have to think hard about a worthy reply to this one.

And there ya go! A bit of a haul, I think, and a great start to a long working week. Until next time x