ArtWanted

www.ArtWanted.com/iuoma is the place where I have published some of the artworks I have made. Seems like this site grows quickly and brings many visitors. Funny are the comments it brings from fellow artists and the rating system. I know mail-artists don't like to rate artworks. But we also do know we like certain things more than others. For me it is interesting to see how people I don't know react to the works. Do they understand what am doing and what I want to express?

Ruud

Mail-Art and Mail-Art Blogs

An interesting reaction to the BLOG's by Jim Hayes (USA). He writes on his card that it is just impossible to keep up with all those mail-art blogs that have poped up, let alone find the time to keep one online himself. Yes, the digital world also absorbes a lot of time, and it doen't bring you more time to spend on ceating that traditional snail-mail.

I too find it less interesting to see all the digital work of others. The hard-copies in the mailbox are still my favorite. But I do know that a lot of newcomers have discovered mail-art because of the online world, and have started to send out their pieces.

Ruud

New exhibition

Today my working-room hopefully will be finished. Getting settled in a new house is a lot of work. Next week my first local art-activities. I will exhibit 4 of my larger paintings at a large exhibition in Etten-Leur (more details of the exhibition at : http://www.doc-art.nl/). Not mail-art, but the traditional art-exhibition.

The old P.O. Box is now closed. Only 2 more weeks the mail from 10388 is forewared to 1055 in Breda. After that the 25-year old P.O. Box is closed and all mail to that box will return to sender.

Ruud

Art or Mail-Art?

For me there is a difference between mail-art and art. Mail-art for me is a process, a concept. Sometimes it might result is something that is called Art. Some of the things I have produced (or have sent out) you can find on the site of www.artwanted.com and to be specific at this link:
http://www.artwanted.com/artist.cfm?ArtID=19335 (see my latest works).

Ruud

New Generation in Mail-Art?

The BLOG's in mail-art prove to be a special tool. A small network has been formed of mail-artists that document what they receive and document what they send out. These online mail-artists want to see their own works on other blogs as well, and these blog-owners therefore get a lot of mail-art from eachother. The not-online mailartists are still active, but watching the last braincell from Ryosuke Cohen (Japan) I see that the online mail-artists are increasing in number. The older generation of mail-artists vanishes slowly, and a new generation has joined (or has taken over?).

Mail-art always has been know to be a kind of circle for an artist. Once discovered, he/she starts to explore. Folows the paths he/she finds, and will decide if it is worth the time & money & energy. Sometimes these newcomers dissapear after some years (they have seen it 'all'), but some join the group of most active networkers that build the hard core of this fluxy network.

Each generation writes his/her own history. I hope the current one does the same. The current times with o so many communication forms is quite a luxury for the artist that values communication.

Ruud

New drawing: Being Nosy 

New drawing: Building a home 

New drawing: Oog om Oog 

With Paint Shop Pro it is easy to change the font by Keith Bates and make your own bunny. I printed this one in a series of 10 and will send them out..... 

With the font made by Keith Bates it is easy to make images like these. Even one button brings the Ray Johnson signature..... 

My letter to RF arrived! 

Museum of Temporary Art - donation

http://www.museum-of-temporary-art.com/theexhibits08.html is the link where you can find this image. This rubberstamp was part of the TAM-Rubberstamp Archive since I made the stamp. Now it is donated to the Museum of temporary Art (temporarely located in Cambridge, UK). If you want to send in something for this museum as well, go to the link and check the link participate.

More Mail-Art Blogs, less time for Mail-Art?

I sometimes (often?) look at the statistics of my blog. Call it a strange habbit that comes from my love for statistics (I did study Mathematics for 6 years....). What I notice is that the amount of visitors has decreased over the last months. is it just the vacation? When I look at a longer interval I notice the decrease is structural. Reasons?

More mail-artists started their blogs (some even quit because they found out it is very time-consuming). Scanning all the mail you send out, the mail you get in. Yes, it can cost you more than one hour each day. Less time for mail-art for sure.

Also more blogs to see out there. Can you keep track? Does a mail-artist really go through the mail-art of others all the time or is he just scanning to see if HIS/HER mail-art was published. The Blogs are a mail-art project on its own.

Is it all still interesting? Some blogs show a repetition of things. The same in a slightly varied form. Is that wat one is looking for? Or are there still these places (URL's) where it really is happening?

Ruud

Moving for real

The P.O. Box has moved a few months ago. Next week I will be moving myself with all the boxes that form the TAM Archive. A few days later Litsa arrives with all her boxes (also containing the Fluxus Heidelberg Center Archive and her paintings). You might guess we will be busy for the coming weeks...

Ruud

Mail from Latuff (Brasil)

Envelope by Latuff (Brasil) arrived today. I already send him a card in return..... Maybe it will pop up on his blog.

Mail to John Evans (NY, USA)

John Evans (NY, USA) has sent me always little surprises on my birthday. Also this year! As a reply I prepared this envelope for him which will go to NY today.

My mail-artists photoalbum in the 80-ies

In 1984 I started to meet the first mail-artists. Inside the Netherlands, but also outside my own country. Bacause I was interested to know how people looked like I made an album with portraits of the mail-artists I was in contact with. Here below you find a small selection out of that album. It shows how some of these mail-artists looked like in the 80-ies. Some might hate me for reminding them of how they looked then. Others have passed away. For the new generation of mail-artists is is easier to find out how their contacts look like. But on the Internet one can be fooled easily. Is the miniature image really the person I am writing to? The personal meeting will always tell.

If you know any details of the individuals on the photos, please DO leave a comment for me & others to read. Thank you

Ruud

Historic Mail-Art meeting in New York, 1985. 

Guy Bleus - 42.292, Wellen, Belgium. (1985) 

Ben Allen, Northern Ireland (1985) 

Luc Fierens (Belgium) in 1985. 

Andrej Tisma, Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. 

Emilio Morandi in Ponta Nossa, Italy. 

Klaus Groh (Germany) - 1985. 

Henning Mittendorf (Frankfurt/M , Germany) - 1985. 

Michael Leigh in his old Lambeth Walk 71 address. (UK). 

Hazel Jones (before she met with michael Leigh) - UK 

Al Ackerman (USA) 

1985 

Marcello Diatallevi, Fano, Italy (1985). 

Sonja van der Burg at the Schottenburg expo in Amsterdam, 1985 (NL). 

RE Watington, NYC, USA. (He sent me always beautiful photos of the streetlife in NY). 

Clemente Padin, Uruguay.