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Mail Art

© Suzanne Hill

Here is a concise and honest description of the significance of mail art to artist Sandra Agens: "Mail art is a balancing factor in my life. My occupation uses the logical thought processes of science, and mail art fills the creative gap. Since I have been doing mail art, I am a happier person for others to be around and more productive and less stressed at work. . .I look forward to finding something clever, outrageous, or beautiful in my mail box at the end of the day."

And mail artist Ruud Jansen, who believes in turning every piece of personal correspondence into a work of art, answers the question, "Why do you do mail art?" thus: "Simply because I feel the need to communicate in a creative way. Not only communicate to people around me, but to all kinds of people out there. I like to paint and draw, but don't like the world of the official art institutes. Mail art then is an ideal playground and it brings you many new experiences."

About two years ago I started an art swap with a friend I met online, artist Kim Grant, who lives many states away. Each month we mail each other art. This is another variant on the mail art theme. Kim and I for many months exchanged greeting cards, often related to holidays, seasonal themes, or travel. Sometimes we just mail each other bags of cool supplies we can use in collages and art journals, like decorated papers, yarns, pressed flowers, and stamps. My friend has also sent me bookmarks and paper beads. Lately we've been working on art journals.

Here's what Kim has to say about our swaps: "When I am anticipating the arrival of a journal or swap item in the mail, I can hardly contain myself. I keep going out to check my mail box for its arrival. When it does arrive I treat it like the precious gift it is, I don't instantly tear it open, I go back to the house and at a quiet moment I make a cup of tea, sit in my favorite chair and slowly unwrap the package. I am always in awe of what arrives with Suzanne's creativity, talent, and all of the time involved to accomplish our exchange. Our exchange keeps my creative side going at all times, on trips or just out and about I am always looking for ideas or items for our art exchange."