and he gets *with honors* for (E) stamp selection and *uber-kudos* for (F) stamp placement. three people have said..."how did he get them to deliver it without stamps?" because they can't really see the stamps. they are so perfect.
this is a hall of famer envelope. i can't wait to find out if this was beginners luck or is he the new *ray johnson* of mail art. if you don't know who ray johnson is...rent the movie, How to Draw a Bunny. interesting fellow.
thanks finnbadger.
the envelope is on a black surface. i forgot to crop the photo.
i just noticed that it is addressed to 430 44th
i moved out of that studio
and my address is now 420 44th
i suppose i should go back and *fix* all the scans....
one more thing
check out the cool link that finnbadger posted in the comment section yesterday.
it is very cool
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~mjr/underground/pod/mackintosh.jpg
Very cool envelope. Am I seeing the stamps correctly, are there two weathervanes? Finnbadger is very smart and the typefaced address fits in very well
ReplyDeleteyes...two weathervanes :-) a tour de force in both selection and placement.
ReplyDeleteThanks for showing the envelope, and for giving it such high praise, I'm kinda shocked.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really know that such a thing as mail art existed until about a week before I sent that envelope. I was looking for something else (can't even remember what, now) and stumbled across Jean's blog.
I remembered that I had made some handmade envelopes about 20 years ago (1992-3, I think) so went looking for them in the basement. I must have made around 120 of them, and used about half. I was excited to find them, but who sends letters these days? People like Jean and Smash, obviously. Looking through what's left I thought this one which is all words was appropriate to send, then noticed that it was in fact my 100th envelope (they all have their numbers on the back somewhere).
I had never considered stamp selection/placement before. These weathervane stamps match the paper color really well, and I'm more than happy to sacrifice a few extra cents on postage to get the effect.
I am no letterer, that's for sure. The problem with a unique envelope is that once you make a mistake with it, there is no chance of starting over, so I chose a font that hopefully evokes old typewriter letters, then chose to place it between the lines of type on the paper. I was a little disappointed in how the stark white label strips stood out against the envelope, however your scan looks great!
Glad it got there in one piece, and I guess the pressure's on for the next one.
Forgot to add that whoever canceled the stamps did a really nice job.
ReplyDeleteI did start a blog about the envelopes... http://envelope100.blogspot.com/
Thanks for being a great inspiration!