Ruud Janssen (9)

Sent by Ruud Janssen from the Netherlands, this awesome artistamp. The artistamp is showing Ruud himself and has been designed by Domenico Ferrara Foria, in honour of the 35th anniversary of the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA), which takes place this year! Ruud is the founder of this great network.

The artistamp arrived in this envelope, which is an alibi to post the mail art here: there are animals on it!



Funny detail might be the fact that the snail mail snail and Year of the Dog stamp have been designed by me :-) Always nice to see them travel.
I've sent the original stamps to Ruud Janssen, because he also is curating the TAM rubberstamp archive.


Also in this envelope this bright work of art arrived:



Created by Ruud Janssen. I guess it is named bits and bytes, or some other name?!?

Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Ruud!

Katerina Nikoltsou (34)

February is a month full of reasons to send mail. And Katerina did send mail for these!



~ 14 February: Valentine's Day ~



~ 16 February 2018: start of the Lunar new year, the Year of the Dog ~



~ 21 February: Banana Day! ~



Featuring artistamps by Anna Banana, accompanied by the 'What or whom is she staring at?' lady.



Thank you very much, Katerina!

Antonia Mayol (7)

Dog stamp, for a happy 2018 and a happy Year of the Dog!

Created and sent from Spain by Antonia Mayol.



Thank you very much, muchas gracias, Antonia!

Katerina Nikoltsou (33)

The New Year 2018 just has started. And in one and half month an other New Year will begin: the Year of the Dog.

The mail art Katerina has sent to me a few weeks ago, matches with both years, as you can see!



The front side of the Dog card shows blue:



And inside the envelope there is an other envelope, a red felt one meant for Santa, so to see. But first we park the Squirrels here!





On the back side of the outer envelope there are Katerina's famous stamp prints:



Thank you very much, Katerina, and happy New Years!

Jimmy Connors (5, 6)

This colourful Dog/Fox, and much more animals, has been sent by Jimmy Connors from Berlin to the Netherlands.
Sending mail in return seems to be a little harder, but we'll re-try!




A portable postcard!



Note the Birds on the stamp: the Toucan's name in German is a funny one: Pfefferfresser (literally: pepper eater).


And I learned that Frogs can be mammals, too.



Thank you very much, vielen Dank, Jimmy!

Caitríona Russell

Beautiful Elephant and Lion lino prints by Caitríona Russell from England.



On the envelope a Bee accompanied the mail art,



and - see/read this enlarged picture - Royal Mail added a remarkable postmark:





Inside the envelope three more stamp prints:



Thank you very much, Caitríona!

Sonia Egorova (2)

Oh, how I love this drawing by young artist Sonia Egorova!
Eduard Egorov, who provided the mail art with beautiful animal postage stamps and a wonderful Tree stamp, told that Sonia's mail art had been sent in October 2016 already.
However, after four months Sonia and Eduard received it in return.
First I was wondering why. But now I realize that it has to do with the season.
Russian and Dutch Post wanted to prevent these little creatures from freezing. головастики, also known as kikkervisjes, also known as tadpoles, don't florish in autumn or winter, they grow best in Spring!



So this time they used an envelope, and it arrived well (some weeks ago already).



Eduard enclosed this call for mail art: Irises. An interesting theme I'd like to join (is it the flower? the colourful part of the eye? the arco-iris, rainbow in Spanish?)
See for more information the Irises Art website.



Большое спасибо, Соня и Эдуард!

Pepijn de Jonge (3)

From Pepijn de Jonge I already received pretty mail.
And this time he answered to my 'add-and-return' by this great drawing.

I think his illustrations always very pleasant and atmospheric, showing relaxed folks, and music, and animals. Among the animals chickens, cats and horses. And for this 'What or whom is she staring at?' he added Humans and a Dog.

See more artwork by Pepijn on his website and instagram.
And, after a long period of patience, you can see it in real as finally his book has been published, 'A Concert for the Moon'.



Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Pepijn!

Ruth Giles

Ruth Giles created a variety of animals in a variety of ways. The Comb Jelly she drew on black paper, which has an effect as amazing as the real illuminating animal must have (this scanned picture shows less than half of the bright light her drawing has).

Meanwhile this Right Whale has been drawn in a different way, and he or she swims in an interesting environment.



And look at this rubberstamp printed Crow!



And the wonderful Cavias (Guinea Pigs), of which I'm wondering how she stamped these.



The envelope shows more interesting and well-known animals, on both rubberstamps and postage stamps.



Thank you very much, Ruth!

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!

Willemien Visser

This great collage, including a scary looking but in fact tiny cute animal was send to me by Willemien Visser from Germany. If you look close, you can see more animals on the front side.

On the back side a pretty Peacock and a rubberstamp showing Fishes. Even German Post has helped to complete this Animal mail art, by adding a postmark showing the Town Musicians of Bremen: a donkey, a dog, a cat and a rooster.



Check Willemien's website, she has a call for mail art, themed 'Fishes'.

Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Willemien!

Katerina Nikoltsou (19)

I love the way Katerina Nikoltsou re-uses envelopes: by simply using the reverse side!



Several animals are to be seen: a Dog, an Elephant, Greek Owls, Human Beings on the stamps, and on the inside Butterflies.



I am not sure if the content was meant for me or for Erni. Anyway, the message is clear (I must confess I hadn't take the time to do so in the past year): we should send mail art - dada or whatever kind of art - to Erni.



Good idea, and thank you very much, Katerina!