Jimmy Connors (9)

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

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!

Alan Brignull (2)

Alan Brignull is a great print maker. I am happy to have received this print of the Hedgehog.

It came in this envelope, bottom right you can see a referral to the Adanaland Hedge Fund:



Alan added interesting postage stamps of Royals, along with some other animals: Lions (why do Lions on coats of arms always pull out their tongues?!?), a Griffin, Deer and Horses.

Inside the envelope also this interesting experiment with printing coins:



Thank you very much, Alan!

Caroline

On instagram there are many mail lovers who share postcards, stamps and do enjoyable 'chaincard' projects.
Via instagram I met Caroline from Hong Kong. She not only shares nice stamps and postcards by her instagram account, but she also appears to be a wonderful stamp carver.
Caroline was so kind to send me some of her stamp prints, and I love to share these here with you. They are amazing!

Part of the 'making of' of the Gryffindor Lion you can see here, and you can see also the Owl, and the young woman.



Thank you very much, Caroline!

Tonipoet (2)

This great big-Bear envelope created and sent by Tonipoet!



Inside Toni added some more animals to my add-and-pass: a smaller and a bigger Cat.



Thank you very much, Toni!

Pepijn de Jonge (2)

Few months ago I received wonderful artwork by Pepijn de Jonge.

And now I am surprised by another piece of mailed art, including a very original drawing of an extraordinary - and musical - animal. Who is wishing all of us a happy 2016!



Thank you very much, dankjewel, Pepijn!

Nico van Hoorn (4) & Jaap-Aap (2)

Jaap-Aap (also known as Jaap-Aapje, Jaap-little-Monkey), here pictured together with Scrat, the famous Saber-toothed Squirrel, and an unknown fellow, is a nice guy from the city of Nijmegen. I think he lives at Nico van Hoorn's place, because Nico, who is a great Nimwegian photographer, is the one who takes pictures of Jaap-Aap, and is the one who has sent me pictures of Jaap-Aap in the past, and now.



Jaap-Aap is a Mammal, similar to the Lion (you see behind Jaap on the picture above, taken at the Kronenburgerpark), and similar to the Human Beings you see below. Nico sent this picture of urban art Humans some months before, and I thought the colour of the crocuses above suit well to the colours of the shielded-men-in-uniform below.



This urban art shows a black page in the history of Nijmegen.



Thank you very much, Nico, hartelijk dank!

Eva (10)

I received two letters from Eva, which had something in common. A Lion, a Cow with four horns... Does there ring a bell already?
Not with me, although I recognized the cow from Eva's Vache Qui Rit postal project. And the Lion, the shy way he looked, reminded me of a book I've seen years ago. But what would be the match between them?



The words Eva had written outside and inside, made it all clear: both weird animals are characters from the famous story 'Wizard of Oz'. Because the book I had read in the past only was a shortened version, I had missed this uncommon cow. I thought. But from the internet I learned that Imogene the (sometimes two-, sometimes four-horned) cow originated from a later moment, the stage adaptation in 1902, and not from the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which had been written in 1900.
So I am educated thanks to mail art! And we will learn even more, by watching Eva's new mail art project which is about the Wizard of Oz!

Hereby everyone is invited to join one of her - or both! - postal projects: the VQR Postal Project, and the Oz Postcard Project.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (9)

A variety of animals, wonderfully drawn by Eva, who also choose a suitable postcard from the Puffin series.



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eva (8)

Yay, the Platypus! Holding a letter, so a post-platypus, even!
Drawn and sent by Eva.

Inside this beautiful envelope two lovely hedgehogs, who resemble of course the Platypus' cousin: the Echidna.



And inside the letter, this interesting text about monotremes.



And while I always get a big smile when seeing a platypus, I guess Eva is smiling when she sees a laughing cow. Check her website, and whenever you find laughing cow, send it to her!



Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Eraser Heed

The most amazing Lion I've ever seen, is the Abstract Lion! Issued as artistamps, created and sent from Sweden by Eraser Heed.

Below the well-known Bunny in his/her neonatal period and a little extended.



Great envelope, too. See the beautiful postage stamps, among them a serie of the celebration of 350 years Swedish Post (in 1986).

Thank you very much, E.H.!

Ruud Janssen

In order to fill out the 'Labels' section below, I always try to find out which animals the senders have been creating.
In case of the beautifully painted envelope by Ruud Janssen it remained mysterious...
Those big eyes make me think of the Balinese Dragon-Lion figure Barong.
However, it won't be the first time that I misinterpreted Ruud's abstract art work.

Thank you very much, hartelijk dank, Ruud, for this wonderful painted envelope and matching stamps!

Colin Scholl

Although we, many humans, think we are 'more' than animals, fact is that humans still belong to the large family of world fauna.
And this is not the first 'real weird animals' mail art with 'human beings' as a main subject. Dewi and Snappy and many more mail artists already contributed to this Odd Existing Animals project, intentional or not intending, by sending beautiful mail art.

This collage has been created by Colin Scholl from the USA. It reminds me of the fact that humans really follow weird instincts. Which raises very intriguing questions. High heels once were invented for good reasons: to not stuck in mud in former times when the streets weren't paved yet. And even men were wearing high heels in those days (for the Dutch-speaking, here's some explanation).
But why do high heels still exist? Why do (some, many, most?) men like to watch women's legs wearing this type of footwear, by which the wearer cannot flee in case of danger (maybe that's the reason!?! - however some ladies succeed!). Why do women pay a lot to wear footwear that not only causes hurt ankles but even hallux valgus?
So this beautiful collage indeed belongs to this mail art project.

On the backside of this beautiful collage Colin surprised with another work of art: a fine pencil drawing. Which raises other questions: who's this man pictured? What is he doing, is he dreaming of women's feet or is he philosophizing on the meaning of life? Is he suffering a head ache, rembering a nice day or simply sleeping?
We'll never know, unless Colin draws a sequel to this nice drawing.



Thank you very much, Colin!

Eva (5)

Great do-it-yourself build a giraffe mail!
Thank you very much, moltes gràcies, Eva!

Zoë

What a big surprise to find this wonderful Lion - very properly titled 'The Wonderful Lion' - in my mailbox!
Zoë from Louisiana, USA, created this unique coloured (or colored, I never know the difference) pencil drawing and I am happy to receive it!

Lions indeed are weird animals: why only male lions do have manes, and their male cousins, for instance tigers, lynxes and domestic cats, haven't?!

Thank you very much, Zoë!

Heinz Lotz

This intriguing animal was sent from Germany and has been made by Heinz Lotz. I think it must be a Looster or Rion (lion-rooster)!?
And oh, pity: Seems like the tail doesn't agree with the direction this animal is walking into...

Talking about directions: note the address below. A recycled address!



Herzlichen Dank, Heinz!