Artful Mail...

Have you heard of Mail Art? Here's a quick definition from wikipedia: "Mail art is art which uses the postal system as a medium. The term "mail art" can refer to an individual message, the medium through which it is sent, and an art movement. Mail artists typically exchange ephemera in the form of illustrated letters; zines; rubberstamped, decorated, or illustrated envelopes; artist trading cards; postcards; artistamps; faux postage; mail-interviews; naked mail; and three-dimensional objects."

Check out this wikipedia link for more information and cool examples.

Last week in my 2-Dimensional design class our teacher (who is extremely cool and very talented) gave us a handout on mail art. I have seen examples only in Somerset Studio and Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazines, but never in real life...though as I write that, I remember my sister Aimee and I decorating our envelopes to the hilt back before there was email...she did an incredible job with her envelopes...I wonder if I still have any? So, perhaps I was an unknowning mail artist, before the title was ever created (how exciting!).

I've just come across a Mail Art collection here in Vermont and now, of course, I'm anxious to participate. I'm also really excited that I can now make my own envelopes~thanks again to my teacher, who gave us a simple pattern last week. The envelope shown here is one I made out of a 1/2 of a manila folder at work today (it was a rather slow day).

Now I'm off to finish my homework before bed. Tomorrow is another full day and class tomorrow night...I think we are creating books and binding them (!)...which reminds me, I have to find a needle and some thread to bring...