Artistamps and Mailart

Artistamps are part of a larger art form called mailart. It’s been popular in different eras, most recently in the 1970s, then in the 1990s, and now – in the 21st century – it’s growing in popularity again.

WHAT IS MAILART?

Mailart (also called “mail art”) is art sent through the mail, and it’s visible on the outside of the postcard, envelope, or (less often) the package. That is, the visible part of what goes through the mail IS the art. There may or may not be art – or anything – inside.

The visible art – seen by those who handle the art (from sender to post office staff to recipient)-  may be decorated with many things, including…

• Artistamps
• Artwork (hand-drawn or painted)
• Collage art elements
• Rubber stamps (hand-carved or commercial, used creatively)

Sometimes, the art is mass-produced, albeit on a small scale. That is, it’s printed in limited numbers and applied (or turned into) the postcard, envelope, or package.

In some cases, each piece of mailart is signed and numbered. (For example, “5/25” would mean the individual piece is #5 of a total of 25 created and mailed.)

Here are six of my mailart postcards, sent in 2023. Each recipient received a handcrafted postcard decorated with a one-of-a-kind torn paper collage on it.

 

WHAT ARE ARTISTAMPS?

Artistamps are art, in the form of a postage-type stamp. They’re also called faux postage, among other names that mean “fake postal stamps with art on them.”  (Other terms for these faux stamps include postoids and cinderellas.)

Here’s one of my favorite artistamps. I created it using a photo from one of my visits to Avebury, England, where – unlike Stonehenge – you can actually touch the standing stones.

Some of us create our own fantasy countries, or perhaps mailing authorities, or both. Mine is Ballynafae, an imaginary island country just west of Ireland.

Some artists create a complete history, geography, and set of personalities related to their fantasy countries. They consider it part of the art.

And some mix fact and whimsy, as I did in my Kilmallock series, issued under my Ballynafae mailing authority.

This group of six stamps celebrates a real location – Kilmallock, Co. Limerick – using vintage photos from the mid-1990s… but I pretended that these were official stamps from Ballynafae.

Here are some of my Disney-themed artistamps.  (NOTE: The original stamps’ images were crisper. These are slightly enlarged from my 2001 website post. I’ll replace the images when I find the original artistamp files.)

The “Tapestry” stamps are from photos I took in 2001 at the final performance of Walt Disney World’s “Tapestry” parade at EPCOT. (See video link at the foot of this post. Also, the lower “Walt Disney World 2001” stamp features family friend Jeremy Pace, when he was part of the parade’s finale.)

Here’s what a single set of artistamps can look like:

A little more info about artistamps…

Starting in the late 1990s, I was a member of the Electronic Collaboration Project (ECP), creating several artistamp series. And, in the Artists’ Mailing List (AML) group my issuing authority was AML-23.

John Held, Jr. has compiled a book, Small Scale Subversion: Mail Art & Artistamps. (I have no idea if my own artstamps, etc., are in it, but that book has earned good reviews.)