Mail Art: Why I'm Obsessed & Why You Should Be Too

Over the Christmas break, after the turkey, presents and general mayhem, I found time to sit down, relax and enjoy one of my favourites new pastimes – Pinterest!

I have talked about how inspiring I find it before on my blog, it is quite extraordinary what you can discover! One of my recent boards I have been pinning on is Illustration I soon realised that most of the pins were letters or envelopes – Mail Art.

This is a new discovery for me! A completely wonderful discovery!

Mail art is a populist artistic movement centered around sending small scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of the Fluxus movement in the 1950s and 60s, though it has since developed into a global movement that continues to the present.

Email, text, Twitter, Facebook etc etc has made writing and sending letters a thing from the past. We don’t need to communicate by post anymore and yet there is something so romantic and exciting about receiving a letter or a postcard. For the letter to be decorated with illustrations, fabric or paint makes is so personal and extra special. How I would love to receive an extraordinary envelope like that!

I love the definition of Mail Art from ‘Mail Me Art’

‘The posted package itself is the work of art and, unlike a traditional letter or parcel, it is intended to be received and admired for it’s own sake. While a normal item of mail fulfils a practical purpose such as delivering a bill, a letter from a loved one, a notice from an employer, or a gift sent by a friend, with mail art the box or envelope becomes the centre of attention instead. The artwork is supposed to be fun and to a certain extent disposable, not an in-depth look into the soul of the artist.’

The American artist Ray Johnson ,born in 1927, is considered to be the first mail artist. On my journey of ‘Mail Art’ discovery I soon realised I was regularly pinning three wonderful artists in particular: