Friend of the Affair, Bernhard Zilling files in with this Fluxist Matchbook - Nice reference for 'Dada romance'. After all - hot, hot places come down to smoke and ash! No? Light my Fluxus fire!
I must say that it is always fun to have Bernhard on the Affair. This veteran mail artist always puts a smile on my face with the odd concepts he wrangles with his trademark 'painting/drawing' style. Thank you very much Bernhard and hope your 2011 is a gas!
Fellow 'Alexandrian Artistbook' spellbinder and Mail Artist Francoise sends in her chapter to be included to the international cooperative project. Each artist, 13 total, sent each other a chapter = 13 chapter little/big books. Anyway, this is Francoise's addition - and it is superb! Very well crafted and adorned - with a large dollop of 'class'! Great job.
Really enjoyed the almost ethereal looking 'Pinocchio-ish' sketch/drawings shown here. The power to fascinate is nicely apparent in the panels displayed above. Eight pages per chapter.
The booklet arrived inside of this simple, but handsome and elegant envelope. When I have all 13 of these chapters, here at the Affair, I shall show them off to an unsuspecting world - just as 'Alex' would have liked it! Cheers, Alexandrians! Thank you very much Francoise - love it!
Horst Baur drops into the Affair from Changsha, China! At least I think it is Changsha - I had to decipher the Chinese postal code and it is a bit complicated. This very entertaining altered newspaper is fascinating to behold. It is very large 12" x 15" and is a visual feast, too large to scan, so I took several partial scans and pieced them together - click on it twice for a better view. Very cool and clever and a lot to see!
This is only the 2nd item I have ever received from China. I will send something to Horst in return - the only way for that is to cut and paste the above label.
It certainly is great to have Horst here on the Affair. The Altered newspaper he concocted for this submission is nothing short of fantastic! Thank you very much and see ya in the mail!
The Affair is posed a question by an anonymous mail artist (although I may know who it is). It is interesting that the author of the query would use the word 'short' so prominently. It is the appearance of 'short' in the sentence that makes it so dramatic. A thought provoking notion - nice card!
And a gorgeous hand made envelope that carried the conundrum. Very nice mail art from "?". Thank you very much!
The Affair is happy to announce the arrival of Diane and this fabulous postcard. This is really a beauty and has the feel and appeal of an odd, yet meaningful historic document. It's smooth leathery texture and finely layered chaos is wonderful as an important relic!
Diane has addressed this card to myself and "CP". That would be the Cotton Picker she is referring to - my ever present cat that she saw me with on my IUOMA page. He is one smart and tough hombre. Diane says "What's a cat without a little scrap in 'em"? I like her thinking on that. I also have "Kitten Pickin" a younger cat, that looks identical to him (no relation though) and they are both trouble! Thank you very much for this splendid card and you shall be seeing me in the mail.
Hello William and welcome back to the Affair my old friend. Looks like the cards may be stacked against you after a lunch such as the one shown above. Evidently, she is wearing it well though. And that looks like the old 'Bread in a Can' - A round and solid dark brown affair with raisins - top left. I must confess to loving that stuff - although haven't seen it in many years.
Check that majestic Romanian Zephyr postage stamp - wow - especially on the vast stark white expanse of the envelope. 
Here, William displays some more lovely vintage US postage. The stamp on the far left, I remember quite well. In 1962 the US Post Office honored the Mercury-Atlas 6 flight with this marvelous commemorative. It went on sale the same day the first US astronaut was put into orbit from Cape Canaveral! Thank you very much William - It is always a fine day for the Affair when you are here! Addressee and Marconi News. By the way, I sent you something today - prepare yourself!
Fleur joins the Affair with this colorful postage artistamp switcheroo. She swapped out the 'official' Hawaiian postage and substituted her own. I like your cheerful display - a lot of fun! Great stamps!
Fleur is from Oakland and I was born there and spent most of my life in the Bay Area - so I am always a little 'extra-charmed' by getting mail art from that city - why? - not sure, dunno, but I am. Thank you very much Fleur - nice to see you here again.
Cauli returns to the Affair with this winter cleansing ritual postcard. Every winter, the children that couldn't figure out what they wanted to be, were swept out and away by the tough ladies of the village.
Sometimes they returned, years later, just to see if anyone might still recognize them. Ironically, many of the 'lost' youngsters from those days remain in the surrounding country. Thank you Cauli for this lovely card. Visit him at his popular Mail Art/ Torma Cauli. The Affair is a big fan of Cauli's work.
Welcome back to the Affair my dear CZ. I see by your new return address that you have moved from Cali to Mass - and retired as well! I hope you are enjoying yourself - should be very nice there - as soon as the snow lets up a little. I love the way these Fluxus items just seemed to float into assembly as soon as I opened the envelope. A Lovecraft Fluxus Kit!
CZ writes that he is very interested in answering Mail Calls these days. Since he has just moved, his old California address is on the backs of the cards shown above - His new Address is: CZ Lovecraft 26 Orlando Dr. Westport, MA 02790.
I am always delighted by the colorful envelopes Lovecraft uses in his mail art. They are invariably beautiful, as is this lovely specimen from him. Thank you very much and will send you something interesting quite soon!
Em steps into the Affair with this colorful and nicely fashioned little Artistbook that is both a current update on her fabulous and long running ""Goddess Mail Art Call" and a renewed invitation for submissions for her Spring public showing - See details below.
Nice to find you here once again Emily. I will send you a set of 6ea. Fluxus Affair ATC's for your project tomorrow.
The envelope the little booklet arrived in is a beauty! Thank you very much. Em is a busy artist and as you will be able to see for yourself, here: Em's Art and Design and here Goddessy Art. Happy Mail my friend.
Peter visits the Affair with this 'X-Ray' Johnson Bunny-curtain declaration. You can find his trademark 'Flip-Flops' near the bottom right. Nice to see this savvy mail artist here again after a long spell - I imagine he could say the same of me. Come on everybody - let's have more fun in 2011 with Mail Art! Great card! 
The sage like 'Swami' Dowker further attempts to harness the mysterious secrets of the 'Ageless Fluxus'. The Affair loves Peter's work and grand sense of humor. He runs the popular mail art site Flip-Flop Mail Art. Thank you very much my friend.
Glad to see that Jon has returned to the Affair with this vibrant surreal landscape of life and it's unsetlledness. It has a rather classic appeal to it and is a pleasure to behold it's writhing message - like a Transforming visual toy.
Thank you very much Jon. Now that the holidays have transpired, I can get back to various projects that I have been putting off - Like swapping collections of unusual songs on CD's with Jon. He has recently introduced me to the old Brazilian psychedelic Tropicalia band - 'Os Mutantes'. A very, very interesting and avant garde sound from bygone days that the Affair is currently in love with. Thanks very much for that Jon - Your CD is coming soon - with some mail art!
Janet's work always takes the eyeballs for a curious and interesting stroll. Could the "Little Active Pills" sign in the upper left mean an encore performance? - or as the Affair likes to spin: "Springtime for Santa"! Beautifully crafted and adorned!
Nice to have you here again Janet - this card is a beauty! There is a 'mysterious document' aura to it and the museum like term 'relic' returns to my mind. Thank you very much - great job!
This wonderful new year continues with this gorgeous and sensual 'Jungle-a-Love' card from Marni. This actually is the envelope, which is of an odd waxy, glassine and handmade variety - a great unusual 'feel' to it.
I wish I could have been a bit more successful with the scan of this card. The delicate brush strokes of the rain could not be captured, but I assure you, gentle reader, it is quite lovely in person.
Always a grand Affair when Marni visits with her romantic 'visions'. She really conveys an exotic ticket to Malaysia with these two works! Thank you very much my friend. Marni in Januari.
A nice start to a new year is having the illustrious Montalvetti back on the Affair. I really am enjoying this first card (above) and demonstrates just what a hipster Samuel really is. Girls and Vinyl LP records - an award winning combo every time. And, I have to confess, reminds me of this song "Put your records on"!
There were many items included in the sizeable Mothership envelope. Above is a few assembled together for display. The center piece, seen folded as a flag, is also shown below, unfolded.
The handsome A4 size Add & Pass seen above is an excellent specimen of it's genre. It seemed almost like a surrealistic 'Wanted Poster' hanging in the splintered saloon of an old lonesome ghost town - so I added the 'wanted'. Sweet!
Information for the mail call: "El Bajo" grafismosdelbajo.blogspot.com. See you in the mail Sam and Sol.
This gorgeous envelope was stuffed to the point of bursting when I received it. Shown above is just part 1 of 2 or 3 subsequent posts because of the quantity. Nevertheless, it is of a quality that deserves a good look. Thank you very much Samuel. Find more of his work here: Mail Art and Visual Poetry . The Affair thanks you for this great stuff and we shall be seeing 'part 2' very soon. And keep an eye on your Mail box!
