BIG SKY Greetings PFF #29

The stamp issue was called Greetings from America, and each state had a ceremony in their capital city on April 4th, 2002. Each stamp was actually meant to look like what were called 'Large Letter' postcards. I have seen a number of different types of these cards, most of them linen and very colorful. Scenes from the city or state which were the subject of the cards were portrayed in each of the large letters across the card.

I took the theme of the background from the stamp and although Montana is seven letters, it was already on the stamp, so I chose to use the nickname for Montana.

Be sure to check out The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendly Friday hosted by Beth Niquette for more Mail Art Images!

Studioscapes!

I was asked by Seth Apter to participate in an online 'gathering' of artists called 'The Pulse' less than a year ago. As part of the experience, we were asked to supply a vignette of our studio space for a the third portion of The Pulse which he called Studioscapes. This past Sunday, my little creative corner was included along with four or five other artists.

So as not to give the impression that my studio looks like my desk, I've decided to let you look at one of the walls! Three of the framed pieces hanging on this wall have found new homes since I took the photograph.

Recent Sales Mail Art PFF#28

Two pieces left us this past weekend at an Antique show where I set up a booth, complete with flower arrangements by my beautiful wife of forty years. I wear a tie and I leave the hat in the car.

Buster Brown and Tige which I posted last year as Five Feet in the Air, and the Tru Blu Biscuit Company van (We Deliver!) both found new homes. As I promise each of the folks that purchase one of my pieces of old paper, I sent them a piece of mail art as a thank you. As I do with each of the pieces of mail art, I've left the removable labels off of the image I post. Removable labels are the greatest invention since Post-It notes.

Make sure you stop by The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for Postcard Friendly Friday hosted by Beth Niquette for a stein full of other great mail art images!

Breakfast Brownies Doughboy

Pillsbury has their doughboy, so I think Breakfast Brownies Cereal can have theirs too!

There is little known about the Breakfast Brownies Company, and not a whole lot more about the Brownie Baking Company, except that they were not one and the same. The Breakfast Brownies Company was incorporated in 1919 in Montana, and although the officers were not all in or from Helena, the cereal was milled in Minneapolis and packaged here in Helena. Just exactly where in Helena I cannot determine, although I do know where their office was located.

I have seen a cardboard case for the cereal, a stock certificate, as well as one sample box and a dozen metal plates for print advertising. One of the plate images is the source for my Brownie Doughboy.

I acquired several pieces of letterhead for the Brownie Baking Company, whose bakery was in Spokane, Washington. I do know that the Brownie Baking Company was once the Tru-Blu Biscuit Company, because I have seen five real photo postcards of the factory, and the message side of the card has the Tru Blu logo printed on it. Research on the web reveals very little about the company, other than the fact the factory bakery building is still in use – not as a bakery, but it's now artist studio space.

I decided to put the Breakfast Brownies Doughboy on this piece of Brownie Baking Company letterhead because they had one thing in common – they both used the images of Brownies to sell their products. Note the Brownie in the lower left corner of their letterhead. I've never done this sort of thing before, but my chances of ever finding a piece of Breakfast Brownies paper are slim and next to none.

Well? Do you think this piece of advertising art would fly up against the Cocoa Puffs of the cereal world?

Mail Me Art! PFF#27

This was my only entry for a mail art contest that ended shortly after the first of this year. Which leads me to the reason I'm posting this today: I tried to tell a little story with this one, but I really don't think that was the main impetus for doing it. After more than fifty years of putting my art on envelopes. via the amazing resource of the web, I discovered there were others like myself who truly enjoy making art that goes through the mail.

Seth Apter at The Altered Page has been sponsoring an ongoing series of posts called The Book Guild, the most recent being Chapter 21 this past Sunday. One of the books which was suggested by a couple of the more than 150 artists that he had asked to participate in the fourth edition of The Pulse(an online survey of nearly 150 artists) was a book entitled Good Mail Day, authored by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler. Not only that, but he sweetened the pot by offering to give away two copies of this book via a drawing of all those who left comments on the post itself.

Shortly after he made the offer one of the authors, Jennie Hinchcliff, offered to create a piece of original mail art to 'go-with' the book. Now, my chances are pretty slim of winning one of these books, so I'm pinching pennies and not making my usual purchases of old paper on eBay so that just in case I'm not a winner, I'll be able to afford to add this one to my very slim library of art books.

I'm a big fan of mail art and have been since I was a little five-year-old kid standing in front of a glass case looking at the mail art of C. M. Russell. When I heard from a fellow blogger about a mail art contest called Mail Me Art, I decided to create an envelope and send it in. Unfortunately, I didn't hear about the contest until it was too late to enter more than once, but I'm ready the next time it opens up for entries.

In the meantime, I'm anxious to see (1) if I win one of these books, and (2) actually purchase one of them if I don't!

Be sure to stop by Beth Niquette's The Best Hearts Are Crunchy for more Back-to-School mail art images!