FEATURING Magazine: A Call For Mail Art

What is MAIL ART? Well, I went looking around for some ideas, opinions and definitions. Some of the things said are:

"Mail art: Sharing art outside the museums, non-juried, welcoming, and no obligation for the recipient to respond. Magical, mysterious, inexplicable, experimental, guiltfree, and ever-expanding." from Chaospost

"What I like about mail art is:
1. I can use any material, any process that I want, ie. rubber carving, watercolor, photography,drawing, book making, paper cuts, collage.
2. The image and meaning are more important than the medium.
3. It disperses through the world instead of hanging on a forgotten wall." from LaVona Sherarts

by Sarah O'Donnell

"For me it's the thrill of opening the PO box and pulling out wild and wonderful treasures from creative spirits around the globe... and the anticipation that MY creation may provoke a similar reaction across town, across the country or even across the globe." from David Alvey

"I have always seen it as a communication-form between creative people." from Ruud Janssen

by Ozstuff1

"Far from the hallowed portals of the official Art World and largely snubbing the seductions of the Art Market, there exists an alternative universe inhabited by strange creatures who exchange their artworks freely via the international postal service." from Keith Bates

So, it seems mail art is being creative on paper with the point of sending it through the postal mail system to other people for the pure  joy of sharing. It also seems that one can use any medium one wants. (assuming it can then still be sent through the mail using a stamp or two, lol.)

On FEATURING's website the specific details are given: 

by Sharon Tomlinson

FEATURING is looking for all kinds of mail art to illustrate an article. If you like snail mail and love to make mail art, you are welcome to send it to us. There’s no ‘reward’ or something so you have to make it out of love for this art form – but then again: creating something beautiful is a reward in itself, isn’t it?

You can send your mail art to:

FEATURING Magazine
Sint Wilfriedstraat 4
5643 SC Eindhoven
The Netherlands

Be sure your email address is somewhere noted on the art you send us, so we can contact you. Your mail art has to be in by February 25 (take into account that it may take approximately two weeks for your mail art to get to us if you send it from outside Europe)

mosaic mail art

So, hurry, hurry, hurry and get your MAIL ART in to the magazine, make something colorful, eye catching and interesting but do it quickly and get it in the mail, you've only got a few weeks (not including the art's travel time to Europe.)

I hope to see all of you participate in this call for MAIL ART. Marit (our editor-in-chief) says she can't believe how happy and colorful her mail has become since putting out this challenge, keep it coming people!!

See you soon, with art I'm sure, hehehe.
Best,

If you're looking for this week's APR just click here.

Artist's Play Room #42

Last week was all about BRIGHT COLOUR and since I've started this week writing many APR's, I can tell you that colour will play a significant roll throughout this year of Artist's Play Rooms. I found that the most popular themes last year involved COLOR. Whether it was monochromatic, pick your favourite or make art using..., the themes that used colour had the most participation. That's not actually so surprising, since being artists, we're all about colour!! I  intend to liberally sprinkle color themes throughout this year so we can all get excited about that.

It really boosted my mood to see all the wonderful bright submissions this week and I finally got back into the swing of things and made some art of my own too, YAY!! I got my mojo back when a belated Christmas gift finally arrived on my doorstep, TWINKS!! Oh those shimmery pots of watercolor goodness from Luminarte, I'm so in love!! I  now have twenty six of the more than one hundred colours. It's a good start!! Oh, and by the way, speaking of Luminarte, there's an article in the current issue of FEATURING interviewing the inventor and owner of Luminarte products, Leslie Ohnstad. I had a great time writing the article and getting to know Leslie. Pick up a current copy of FEATURING here, you won't be sorry.

Now, here's your awesome art this week...

Mary Walker

Bellalullo

Catherine

Lynn

Boo

linda

Twinkletoes

Debbie

Sharon

Currie

Darla

Gloria

Minn

Hwee

Arnoldo

Jenn

Morag

Stephanie

If you haven't read the rules & guidelines, please go here. If you've landed here after this challenge has been completed but would like to participate in a current or future Artist's Play Room Challenge, just either click on the APR button in the sidebar or click here and you'll be taken to the latest APR Challenge!

Are you having trouble using the Mr. Linky to add your submissions to APR? Well here's some help! Just click on HELP and you'll be taken to my Linky Help Page. Cool, huh? I've got your back!

Week four of 2013 brings another fun theme for my Artist's Play Room. I thought we could do MAIL ART!! This is coordinating with FEATURING magazine who has a call out for mail art. We're doing an article about that very subject and Marit, our editor-in-chief has asked our enthusiastic readers who'd like to participate to send their mail art into the magazine for possible inclusion in the article scheduled to be in the next issue of the magazine, issue 4.

** I will be writing a separate blog post in the upcoming week to give more details but I thought this theme could help get us started. **

Now, as you all know about me, I hate to be hemmed in. If you don't DO mail art then how about anything to do with it. Draw your pens, do a study of your desk, make a painting about the junk mail that you received today, lol. Whatever mail and art means to you, go with it. Here are several examples to help you ruminate on this week's theme.

Traditional Mail Art

My take on having mail

It starts with a pen...

Snail Mail

Send me a letter...

Made from Junk Mail

Can't wait to see what you all come up with. I have a sneaking suspicion that there's gonna be some real "thinking out of the box" kind of stuff this week and you know how I LOVE that. hehehe.

Thank you to all of you who have been asking about how I'm feeling. I'm on the mend, definitely feeling muuuch perkier this week. I'm still getting a few headaches but then that's what Tylenol is for!!

Talk soon?? I've got the hazelnut coffee, YOU bring the cookies!! ;o)
Best,

I'll be back this week with other goodies, definitely at least a post explaining the call for mail art from FEATURING so stay tuned!!

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Water, Water Everywhere...

Yippee!! I finally got my mojo back this morning. Whew, I was starting to wonder where it had gone to, taking a long holiday over Christmas and extending it well into January. But yesterday afternoon my new Twinks from Luminarte finally arrived!! As I've mentioned before this month, I had a niggling suspicion that all my mojo needed was to gaze upon some twinkly bright colors and I'd be off to the races again, wanting to lay down color onto paper. I was right, when I saw all those twenty-five tiny pots of twinkly goodness I wanted to test every colour. I got down to testing them, making little round sticky disks with the requisite colour on them to go on each lid. 

This morning when I woke up, all I wanted to do was paint. What a wonderful feeling. I'm so glad to be back. I got out my moleskine and drew up the new water bottles I ordered. I'm trying to drink much more water than before, hoping that helps in the health department. I must admit, drinking three full canteen's full (27 oz) is quite a daunting task but I soldier on and gulp down water all day. It is helping make me feel better though.

I'm absolutely loving the Kleen Kanteen water bottles. Previously I've been just refilling old plastic water bottles but when I really thought about it, I could taste the plastic-y-ness from the bottle and figured that just couldn't be good. The great thing about Klean Kanteen is they take your health seriously. They're made from stainless steel and can be boiled to disinfect them. (they're also BPA free) I love companies who make great products just because they believe that's the right thing to do.

I'm so thrilled to have my need to paint back. I just don't feel like myself when I'm not thinking about, drawing up or actually painting something. Now that I'm back I have a ton of stuff I want to paint up so keep in touch and I'll have bunches of art to share.

I'll see you in just a few hours with a new APR, I'm backdating this post by a day because I'm so late in finishing it. (I even have to reopen the Linky for this week's APR so I can add my own link!! Never had to do that before, but hey, I'M BACK, lol. Happy, happy. Joy, joy!)

Talk you soon, K? Yes?? Good!

Best,

Book Review: Sue Knott's "Catching On Fire"

I was so lucky to win a copy of Sue Knott's first novel, "Catching On Fire". Lucky for all of you readers, her book is selling at a stunningly low price for the Kindle. Although she is beyond good enough to stand on her own and not give a discount on downloaded books, it's a real benefit to readers that Sue Knott is trying to beef up her loyal followers. I'm recommending you all go RUN to Amazon and download it before the price skyrockets to normal price, it's worth every penny.

I'm not usually without adequate words but I'm feeling a bit that way about this book because I LOVED it that much. I think I'm kinda hard to impress. I read a lot and have high expectations for any book that I'm going to give my precious time to. This book was so well worth the hours I spent reading it, in fact I was bereft when it ended. I wanted more, more of the characters, more of the story, I wanted to know what comes next. That's a rare thing for me to find in an author. In the weeks since I've finished this stellar novel I've thought of the characters often, wondering what's happening with them now, wishing I could look in on their world again and learn more about the story. The good news is that the ending of this book gives the strong impression that the story will continue. Yippee!!

"Catching On Fire" is ostensibly a paranormal romantic mystery but in the meat of the book it's all about the characters. The author writes characters expertly. Although they're not real people, they become real to you as you read. That is the true gift of a talented novelist, to make the reader care and worry about their characters. I can't wait to read more from this artist and and I await the next instalment of this (probable) series. 

(EDIT: I talked to the author, Sue Knott and she confirms that this first book is part of a trilogy!! She begs our indulgence in a little more time, she is writing as fast as her little fingers will allow her and she says the next in the series will hopefully be available by the end of the year. Yippee!!!)

I'll probably be back with art as I've been ridiculously lazy in that arena lately. Forgive me, I'm having so much trouble getting back into the swing of things. I'm hoping my new Twinks arrive today or tomorrow and all the color inspires me to get my tush in gear. LOL.

Talk soon??

Best,

If you're looking for this week's APR just click here or you can ALWAYS just click on the Artist's Play Room button in my sidebar, that will being up all the APR's in descending order, starting with this week. Have fun my arty friends!

Artist's Play Room #41

Yes, I know I didn't participate in my own Artist's Play Room for the second time in as many weeks. Yes, I'm still sick, thank you to all of you who are asking as to my health. Yes, because I've been sick I'm dog tired and because of that I'm so bloody behind in the stuff of life along with my duties for Featuring that I'm feeling like I'm drowning. Today is my "I'm gonna catch up if it kills me" day. I don't care how tired I am or how much I just want to sleep. I can't STAND the pressure that I feel having so much chaos in my life. I'm not good with pressure and chaos. I figure if I can get the thousand and one things on my to do list down to only five hundred or so then I can take a couple days and force myself to get better. For me it's always more sleep that does it. It just seems that the flu this year is especially ugly.

Please forgive me that there is no comments on all your lovely art. I do appreciate your participation.

Currie

Bellalullo

Boo

Gloria

Sharon

Hwee

Arnoldo

Darla

Minn

Terrie

Stephanie

Twinkletoes

If you haven't read the rules & guidelines, please go here. If you've landed here after this challenge has been completed but would like to participate in a current or future Artist's Play Room Challenge, just either click on the APR button in the sidebar or click here and you'll be taken to the latest APR Challenge!

Are you having trouble using the Mr. Linky to add your submissions to APR? Well here's some help! Just click on HELP and you'll be taken to my Linky Help Page. Cool, huh? I've got your back!

What the heck are we gonna do art about this week? I was thinking that since it's been so dreary here maybe we need to brighten everything up a little. SO, choose several of the brightest colours that make you totally happy and make something spectacular. Let's bump up the mood. Those of you who are lucky enough to be living in bright and sunny places can choose the colors around you but we who suffer in the horror of grey days and cold weather hopefully will feel the lift of using some fantastic colours. The brighter and inspiring, the better! Here are some examples...

Art Rocks!

Flower Bunch Watercolor

Red Flowers

Hope you all enjoy the colorful theme, I promise to get better and actually participate!! Come on back on Monday, there'll be a book review on a terrific book, I LOVED it.

Best,

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