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!

Katerina Nikoltsou (28)

Katerina always knows how to cheer one up by her mail art. This time happy Cows from Paris entered my mailbox, via Greece.



On the back the Greek Owl, and some Squirrels. The Squirrels had escaped the inside of an envelope of a Dutch sustainable bank, and thus had traveld from the Netherlands to Greece and back again.



The animals were accompanied by a blue Greek moon. And more artistamps:



Also enclosed this egg head stamp, made and sent to Katerina by Ed Giecek:



Since Katerina run out of air mail envelopes, some new things happen to her present blank envelopes. This one got lines instead of air mail red-and-blue. And pretty stamps showing the ancient Greek god Poseidon:



Thank you very much, Katerina!

Diane Keys

A poor Fish, a serie of pretty girlie artistamps, a Human Being on an antique vase and an add-to-and-return mandala from Diane Keys! All arrived after having been traveling from the USA to the Netherlands in a tiny envelope.



Thank you very much, Diane!

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!

C. Mehrl Bennett

An iconic Mail Art Bull, this time in a c(l)ow(n)ed way.
Created and sent by C. Mehrl Bennett from the USA.



In the same week I received an envelope, containing great artistamps (by which I feel honoured!),



including a call for (fe)mail art:



Thank you very much, C.!

Katerina Nikoltsou (22)

Always a pleasure to receive Katerina Nikoltsou's original works of art and to add it to this 'real weird animals' mail art collectiom. The Snail Mail Snail I recognized immediately, but for my records I'm happy that she wrote the names of the unidentified animals: 'Strange Critters'.

On the back artistamps, among them the Fish dada artistamp by Keith S. Chambers, and Katerina's selfie by "E":



The postage stamp on the envelope is issued in honour of the 'Greece in Russia' year:



And on the back Katerina's (and Athena's) famous wise Owl on a stamp print:



Thank you very much, ευχαριστώ, Katerina!

Katerina Nikoltsou (18)

This entry for the 'What or whom is she staring at?' project came from Katerina Nikoltsou from Greece. Katerina's creation suddenly made me wonder if the animals' name, Dolphin, has to do something with the famous ancient Greek oracle place Delphi. I looked it up, and yes, there is a connection (or not?)!



On the back side nice mail art things, among them artistamps from other mail artists, and matching Greek stamp prints.
And inside the envelope some other materials, among them a colouring plate, showing the wise Owls and - probably - the wise goddess Athena:



Katerina also added a ruler, showing nice Owls, too. A big surprise, an excellent gift which I can use to draw straight lines in my own mail art.



Thank you very much, Katerina!

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!

Keith S. Chambers (3)

An armed Rabbit and an air mail Pigeon.

Personally I prefer mail to arms, and I wouldn't be surprised if many mail artists do so, too. At least the great artistamps - which were part of the content of this envelope - are hopeful: sunflowers will be growing larger and are reaching higher than tanks do.



Created and sent by Keith S. Chambers.



The front side of the card shows food for thought, a true quote:



Thank you very much, Keith!

Otto Sherman (4)

New great mail art from Otto Sherman from the USA.
Originally sent to - and posted at - Our Solitudes, these great Rats and Humans are welcomed to join the Real Weird Animals here, too.

Paloma Paprika

Great mail art envelope...



... containing a kind message, at the backside of this interesting human / ape hand collage:



... and goodies and three great mini zines, among them this one:



... of which this is the inside:



... and this one:



... created and sent from Australia by Paloma Paprika. Thank you very much!