Jimmy Connors (9)

Rabbit, Lion, Human being, Birds.
Thank you very much, Jimmy COnnors!

Keith S. Chambers (6,7)

'Ceci n'est pas un aquarium', 'This is not an aquarium'




From Keith S. Chambers two nice envelope arrives. One almost two months ago, containing pretty stamps and Mail Pigeons in front:





The print inside shows a rather, er, dead person, however the dandelion represents new life:



The print came along with great artistamps:



And more artistamps:

.

And the other - orange - envelope, which arrived two days ago, contained great fish stamps:


'Hippurus hoc non est', 'this is not a goldfish'


And the Fish, shown on top (in not an aquarium), with an autumn poem on the back:




Banana swords:



And two peculiar official USPS stamps on the envelope:



Thank you very much, Keith!

Stripygoose (13)

I think I've written more than once before that I am behind in posting my received (and outgoing) mail art (and replying to it). This way I sometimes post newly received items first, and many times I go back and forth, to post mail art received longer time ago.

So these great birds by Stripygoose I already received in March, almost half a year before receiving the previously posted birds.
The landscape makes me long for vacation, and the close-up bird makes me almost hear this bird sing!



Thank you very much, Stripygoose!

FinnBadger (9)

Great colourful envelope and matching stamps arrived from FinnBadger from the USA.

Inside there were these Bird Blot artistamps:



(for the one horizontal stamp, hereby the same stamps from an other point of view: )



And a pretty postcard showing the Scarlet Tanager, a songbird I never had heard of until now. The funny thing, I learned from Wikipedia, is that this cousin of the Cardinal bird in Dutch isn't named (literally translated) 'Scarlet Tanager', but 'Black-winged Tanager' instead.
Food for thought: the question 'Is the bird red or black?' reminds me of an other issue: ' Is the glass half empty or half full?' :-)



Thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Karalie

Such a nice piece of surprise mail, this "Hello!" by friendly chicken, created by Karalie Vest and sent from the USA.



On the back side matchin Bird stamps, showing a Penguin and two Songbirds: the Redbird or Northern Cardinal and two Golden-crowned Kinglets (the latter's name I learned from the USPS site).

Thank you very much, Karelie!

Margit

The Sloth is an amazing animal. Fortunately I am not the only one who is fascinated by this slowly moving animal. Margit created a great rubberstamp, and she was so kind to send me a print of it. Alas the card never arrived, and seems to have been lost in the mail. But she printed an other one, and I was so happy to receive it!

Update: this card appears to be the first and only one! Amazing how the Sloth has traveled as slow as no human is able to do.
Margit told me yesterday that the card has been sent on 29th of February. The Sloth must have thought it a big journey, as he first rested in the Post Office or Briefzentrum before he finally had the energy to cross the border to the neighbouring country (mine). After getting not a 29 February postmark but a 21st of October one!

Thank you very much, herzlichen Dank, Margit!

Cuan Miles

Awesome Bird drawings/collages by Cuan Miles from South Africa.
Both the Hadeda Ibis and the Trumpeter Hornbill are quite big, noisy birds.
The Ibis lives in the big wild fig and coral trees and loves to eat bugs and worms.
The Trumpeter Hornbill eats berries, geckos, frogs, bird eggs, and makes a sound comparable to someone learning to play the trumpet.



On the back sides Cuan added beautiful stamp prints and labels:





And another Bird on the great envelope, the Tristan Albatross:



and don't forget to check Cuan's Curious Collage website!



Thank you very much, Cuan!

Katerina Nikoltsou (20)

A nice envelope arrived from Katerina's place. Greek Post has interesting Bird stamps: Origami Birds!



This wonderful Mail Owl is part of the back side of the envelope:



Inside a great piece of mixed media mail art.

The front side I already posted in the IUOMA 'Onions' group.
On the back side these tiny Elephants. And note the artistamp by Keith Chambers:



And of course the famous goddess Pallas Athena.

Thank you very much, Katerina!

Kate Klyuenkova

These wonderful rubberstamps have been carved by Kate Klyuenkova.



Along with the stamp prints came a very kind letter and more, all traveling in this beautiful envelope, with matching Bird stamps. You can notice calligraphy in the stamps!



So kind of yours, thank you very much, Kate!

Richard Baudet (4,5,6,7,8,9)

Richard Baudet added a lot of great findings to my 'add and return' project named "What or whom is she staring at?".
In some of the returned mail art Animals play an important role. Those of course belong here, although I'll post them on the IUOMA site, too.

I've showed one here before. Meanwhile Richard has caused more than once more smiles on my face,by, among them, the added-to-and-returns you can see here.











Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Richard!

Alan Brignull

I think it clear why Alan Brignull is one of my biggest Artistamp Heroes. The stamp sheet shown above does not need further comments (besides the fact that there's an animal shown: the Hedgehog), to my opinion it simply is perfect.



The stamp sheet was accompanied by this Dove.



And arrived in an envelope with signs of the famous Adanaland.



Thank you very much, Alan!

FinnBadger (2)

Wonderful envelope created and sent by FinnBadger. He added great matching bird stamps, too.

The envelope was based on a calendar with pictures by the great artist Charley Harper.
See the variation of birds! I consider my own drawing style sometimes far too realistic, so I feel I can learn from Harper's minimal and so well depicting style.

Love it, thank you very much, FinnBadger!

Stripygoose (8)

The Islas Canarias (Canary Islands) I used to know rather well. As a child we went there for summer holidays several times, and presently there is a mail art exhibition themed 'the Camel' on the island Tenerife (which you can see on one of my contributions).

So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw - see above - that Stripygoose has found the birds in the islands! And in the strelitzia, a flower which thrives in the Canaries.

On the front side the Big Bird is watching us waiting patiently.



Thank you very much for this great mail art, Stripygoose!