From Susanna Lakner (Germany)

One of the best things about mailing stuff all around the world, after the conversations you have and the connections you make with people, is obviously the art folks send to you. “The museum really is the mailbox.” Even stranger is that some of my favorite artists, like ever, the most inspiring ones, the most interesting ones etc., are the people that regularly send me things in the mail. How often does one get to say this? I get original works from my favorite artists in the world. It’s an amazing feeling, and even better when they seem enamored with what you do. Susanna Lakner is one of those people. Just yesterday she sent me this artist book filled with reproductions of some of her collages. A little side note, when her things come up on IUOMA I often mistake them (at least for a second) for my own work. The amount of ideas that I’ve stolen from her is vast. Not only did she include the collection, but she put in a new work.

Sent to Minnesota (Amy) and Wisconsin (Angie)

Sent to Susanna Lakner (Germany)

I’ve written about this a lot, either on this blog or another, maybe I just thought it out loud or right before I went to sleep? It feels like I’ve written about this a lot. Anyway, it makes me insanely happy when someone writes that they like something I’ve created. To me, this is a new feeling. For my whole life I’ve been a Rob Gordon and only recently, in the past three years or so, have I actually started to be a Rob Gordon at the end of Hi Fidelity. In other words, I have a house full of things that other people have created but little that I have created. When I joined IUOMA it started a whole onslaught of creative and silly and creatively silly endeavors that have made me insanely happy. Sure I get a little annoyed when I never get something back from someone, but that’s just part of it. I know that I send mail-art, zines, and terrible music because I enjoy the process of creation and not great praise. I’m a garage band creator, just making my own sound because that’s what I like doing…no aspirations. Last week the great and immensely more talented than me Susanna Lakner, (http://planet-susannia.blogspot.com/) posted an image (the one on this blog) of a couple collages I’ve sent her. They look nice there on the shelf, a shelf in Germany. That’s another thing; I can make something on my almost completely fucked IKEA coffee table and then mail it to Stuttgart Germany to someone seemingly excited about it. That interaction is something I don’t think I’ll ever get used to. Not only do people in Germany have my things, but so do people all over Western Europe, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, and even South Africa. Still waiting to send something to North Dakota but no one really lives there. It’s a wonderful network. Go and check out Susanna’s work, it’s something else. Sometimes I see her things and say to myself, “I’m stealing that idea” and then I do.

Sent to UK, Austria, and Germany

Buttons With My Face on Them

Like a good hardcore punk kid, I’ve always been fascinated with buttons…those lovely little one inch monsters that bands always gave out on tour. Well, some bands made you buy them but others just handed them out. I’ve amassed quite a collection of these; I even have a nice framed display of them in my spare bedroom. At thirty-two years of age I decided to have some of these made and with the help of John Rivera, I had them made, fifty of them in fact. Now I’m in the process of passing them out and mailing them to people who need to wear my face around town. I think it’s a lovely accessory for the kids to have. John made the .gif. I have no idea how to make a .gif.

Two Day Spring Break = Mail Art Making

Sent to Arttower in Germany and Suus in the Netherlands

Mailed To...

I guess I’m doing a little experiment with these cards that I sent out on Thursday February 28th 2013. I wonder how long it will take for images of these to show up on the internet. I wonder if any of the cards will show up. I guess two of them will appear online but no more than that. Most of them were sent to domestic mail-artists so it may take a little longer for the international ones to surface. Now I wait.

Two From Richard Canard (Illinois)

If you’ve been sending mail-art since the 80’s you’re often seen in a shimmering light. If you’ve been making and sending mail-art since the 60’s…whoa! If you’ve been making mail-art since the 60’s and had a relationship with Ray Johnson, you’re royalty. Richard Canard (his last name alias is so subtle and great) is one of those guys. Simply doing it for that long doesn’t seem like a grand accomplishment, but doing it for that long and doing things well, engaging creations very well, now that seems like a great compliment. Richard is one of those people that do it well, great even. He’s the Zen master of mail-art. Like his alias, he’s subtle but a constant prescience. He’s a personality without being there. Everything that he sends is thought-provoking and often fun, smart-assy and filled with a sharp wit. In other words, it’s exactly the type of perspective that I’m interested in. He’s a serious jokester. He’s a Davidson County native…I can’t get past that little fact. Anyway, I try and post whatever he sends to me because when I first get them in my hands I pause for a second or a minute.