Some long-term mailart firends know things about me that real-time friends do not. Because I communicate some things thru my art that I might never verbalize.

I have grown very close to a few mailartsts while corresponding over the years. Together, we've been thru sickness and health... marriages and divorce... etc. When I had serious heakth problems a few years back, several mailartist/friends lifted my spirits thru some very rough recoveries.

Yes, email and electronic message boards have made it easier to correspond long-distance.

Like SciSam, I have KNOWN Merlin and several other mailartists that still post here for more than 5 years. Merlin's messageboard had a previous incarnation. It is a shame when trolls and spammers try to over-take a board.

This is just a quick response to Dawn Amato's question. I think it deserves thoughtful exploration. Unfortunately, I do not have the time right now to expound on this topic.

Talk amongst your-selves.

dawn that is an interesting question.

my limited time in mailart (6 years or so) have led me to believe that correspondance-art can let you know some things about a person, maybe not as many things total as if you lived in the same town, but then again...maybe you just learn different things.

what's interesting to me is correspondance-art's possibility for one subconcious mind to have a conversation with another subconcious mind. Lots of people put obvious symbols into their work to put a point across, or mix a symbol up a little to have multiple meanings, but the reason I'm into this stuff is for the conversations that happen without symbology. Where you know what someone meant without any pre established patterns like language or symbolic imagery.

some people think that any feeling they have can be described by an already existing word, or for that matter by a combination of pre existing words. Maybe they're right, but to me, language is one of the least descriptive ways to put something across.

thinking and acting outside of defined symbols and language can lead a person to 'know' all kinds of things about their correspondants that may never get exposed when the above are the default means for communication.

aside from all that, i hold klaus as my friend because he taught me html a number of years ago, and was very patient with my thick skull as I learned. We had some difficulty not only because of my inexperience with computers at the time, but also because of a distinct language barrier. Now I gain great enjoyment from employment in the web field, and have gone far past html, but this venture began with 'merlin'.

--sam

I have aquaintances and confidants in both mail art and in real-time, as you call it, friends.
I choose to take my time in either method to become a confidant to either.
I have met mail artists who I think of as ture friends and hope that they feel the same way about me. JC Synthetics is one of the finest peope I have ever met, and also Guido Vermeulen, Julia Tant, Peternail, di di diParis, and on and on it goes. All support me in my work and I in theirs.
I have been in the network since 1986.

I think - while mailart detecting without electronics - letters only -
I learnd a lot from others souls , some I met years after art and letters
contacts.

We visited eachothers - also some love had grown...

Electronic Contacts are faster and more distance - ?cause -
snailmailpictures and letters handmade are showing more of the
x-changers souls eachothers.

But this fast platforms today are giving a lot of good tools of
x-changing informations fast, sometimes too fast, but
I think - it?s the person and the surrounding where and what
about x-changing with.

It is one tool. Sam was one of my Guests of my first messageboards just stumbeling into Mailart.

I was fascinated about his spontaneous created projects he started and realized very well - so I wantet to teach him how to post the pictures of his documentations online.

So I tried to teach him first steps of hypertextmarkuplanguage I learned this time by myself when www. came up to become really communication.

Mailart is still Hardware not software.
Mailartists I`m calling friend I touched somehow and they touched me.

And I met a lot of Mailartists in real live , working together, eating together, sleeping together , sharing home, friends and family .

It often was a very good party, sometimes some deep love.

And always touching each others souls.

Merlin

(sorry `bout my bad English but I hope it?s readable)

When I receive a letter or card in the mail I know that many people have touched it. I wish it could tell me a story about it's travels.
I know that the sender has given thought to what the mail is about. Even the envelopes are enhanced. I am delighted when I can actually meet the sender.

Interesting topic....

over the last few years, most of my friends have been online and/or in the mail. Some I just chat with, others are confidants. When it comes to art, though, I agree that it can give you insights into people you might not get in just conversation.

Mail art has its own quirks. I've been known to say "You know you're a mail artist when you don't know any of your friends' real names!"

Another thing about mail art is sometimes you can have a very intense, frequent exchange and then the person just disappears. I suppose, though, that can happen in real time, too.

Sometimes meeting correspondents is good...but most of the time I'd rather keep it to the mailbox.

One of the biggest draws for me in terms of both online and in the mail is that I can respond at my own pace. Am I the only one whose phone is most likely to ring at a time when I least feel like talking to another human being?

Cynthia

I was reading over at peter netmail site and he talks about how mail art changed his life. I feel something inside me is opening up as I participate in calls and discussion and do my art which I have just got back into after many years away from. I hadn't realized how much I missed creating for the pure sake of doing it. But being able to send it off to calls or individuals is also great and getting pieces back from people is really special. I am always waiting for the mailman with hope in my heart for what new, wonderful, exotic, tangible piece of something he might have for me.

Dawn Amato

It is indeed addictive. But even beyond the way it feeds my obsessive-compulsive nature, several people that I would have never even met have profoundly touched my life. I would have to agree with peter that mailart changed my life.

Being a member of the Mail Art Network is a central piece of my identity. Before I was a mail artist I was addicted to mail exchanges through a pen pal organization, the letter exchange - [www.letter-exchange.com] - and with a world-traveling poet who sent me poems and to whom I sent paintings. I discovered mail art through a contact in the letter exchange who said I should send some art to Ryosuke Cohen. My first piece of mail art was a <i>Brain Cell</i> from Japan. When I read the <i>Brain Cell</i> list of mail artists from other countries I knew that I'd found my people. I still almost can't believe that the mail art network is real. It is a perfect environment to express art and thinking freely across cultures. When I attend a mail art congress I am at home whether in the states or other countries -- a congress is a home and the congress artists form my community. I feel that the fake Picabia brothers, John Held & Picasso Gaglione are part of my family. The strongest embodiment of that feeling is that Santini del Prete (Franco Santini & Raymondo del Prete) are true brothers to Miss Ruby and Honoria, the fake picabia sisters. I hope that my doctoral degree in mail art will somehow lead me to meet more mail artists around the world and work to preserve the distributed archives.

Hi gang, I've been really busy in my life...mail art has slided... I did not yet read Dawn's original post but thought I'd respond anyway. Mail art definatly changed my life. years ago I did the pen pay thing too, when I was a kid. Then in my teens I decorated every envelope, later in my 20's I discovered rubberstamping and mail art. I was not yet active in the true mail art network until 1994 though.... I have been lucky enough to meet quite a few mail artists and I do consider them friends. And I have a few who I have never met but still consider a friend. I love mail art. In fact, I think I'm going to go do some tonight!

Yes, Dragonfly Dream fell out of my mailart ife for awhile and I knew that her life was changing. Now she is back and we are fortunate to have her as she is truly a dragonfly. She has a definite destination in site and a strong determination to get there. Keep on flying high.

wow, LaVona, you are so sweet....thank you
Many smiles your way....wonder if you will see this as it is such an old post and I have been away so long....dear woman I thank you for your support!
Hugs,
~Dragonfly Dream

Cataract surgeries are making me see the light in more ways than one.
I I am seventy years old and love every minute of each day and night.
I make art, read the notes such as Dragonfly"s, and think, "This is the life." Dishes, laundry, cooking and mailart, What could be better?