The International Union of Mail-Artists (
IUOMA) is an artistic community that consists of over 3000 members world-side. IUOMA was founded in 1988, but the populist artistic movement centered around sending small scale works through the postal service, originally developing around the 1950s... It probably goes back much further. In the 1960's artist Ray Johnson established the New York Correspondence School, using the postal system to send out his art. Although not considered a mainstream form of art, mail-art has been featured in museums and galleries. Mail-art takes on various forms, whatever the artist chooses to post in the mail
Mail art from David Solomon - Kickstarter reward
I'm sending you this piece of mail as part of your contributions to the Making Mail Kickstarter project. I know Mike and I and everyone involved in the film greatly appreciate the support. My involvement was both unexpected and exciting. I never thought I'd be interviewed about a passion of mine.
I've been making mail for almost 4 years. I feel I've come a long way...slowly improving and discovering my personal style/voice. My latest kick is to make these collages on cardboard while enclosing the letter with paperclips and rubber bands or clear plastic. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks again. - ireallyfet.tumblr.com
March 2013, Michael Polk started a Kickstarter campaign "Making Mail: A Documentary", with the goal of making a documentary film about artists who embrace the antiquated postal service and use it to send beautiful pieces of art across the globe. Of course with the incentive of receiving an original hand-crafted piece of art made by one of the artists in the film, I jumped in...
During the second world war many soldiers and sailors decorated their letters home with hand drawn beautiful scenery or comedic touches (printed patriotic envelopes were also readily available)...
Reminisce site features several envelopes drawn by a soldier to his wife waiting back home...
Fans of the Grateful Dead decorated their requests for tickets in hopes their efforts would be rewarded with a miracle (a sample is posted on the reference page) and a book showing many examples ...
James Gurney, creator of Dinotopia, has held
envelope art contests for his Gurney Journey blog page. The theme is dinosaurs...
Wizard magazine used to featured a hand drawn envelope on it's letters page in every issue...
Mr Cachet at Old Paper Art takes a different approach. He draws on old stationery
