Ti Ar Raden (4)

A Deer, a Reindeer and - in addition to 'Prettige Feestdagen' = 'Happy Holidays' - a Happy New Year!
Created by Ti Ar Raden for my 'What or whom is she staring at?' mail art project.



Thank you very much, trugarez vras, Ti Ar!

Dean, Artist in Seine (5)

Received from Dean, Artist in Seine, this great collage. I first thought the animal to be a Donkey, because of the tail and maybe long ears, but then I thought it a Zebra who was losing his or her stripes, thus becoming a Horse. Is my theory correct? I will never know, unless Dean gives a clue :-)

On the back side a Lizard or Varanus, and a ticket-giving-Human, along with some more Human beings.



Thank you very much, Dean!

"E" (2)

A contribution to my 'What or whom is she staring at?' mail art project, also showing some animals: the Human and the Bunny on the envelope, and three Monkeys inside. Received from "E", ambassadeur d'Utopia.



Check E's website for his present mail art project, "The migrants - Isolated Minors - Europe, Promised Land?".

Merci beaucoup, "E"!

Faiz Kermani

I was surprised by pretty and Frog-friendly mail, containing this bookmark and funny stickers. The message is clear:



Sent by Faiz Kermani from France. He is an author of various books in which the Frog is the main character. Among them Frijibold the Frog in 'The Frog in the Skyscraper', and Bobbul, the Frog who loves mathematics. The illustrations for these two books have been made by Korey Scott (who also has a nice blog).





Faiz also added this important message. You can find more information on the website 'Save the Frogs'.


Thank you very much, Faiz!

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!

Richard Baudet (3)

As you can see, Richard Baudet is famous for his wonderful calligraphy.

I was very happy to receive two returns to my 'what or whom is she staring at?' card, which both had this word 'Postcard' in awesome callighraphy on the back side. He is a great collage maker and designer, too!

On one of the front sides Richard had added this animal.
I don't know if you know the 2007 story of Bokito? Somehow this picture reminds me of that. However I think this lady a bit more wise: always keep your mouth closed when the Silverback is nearby, as the monkey might interprete showing your teeth as a sign of agression.



This and the other returns I hope to post on the what or whom is she staring at?' blog soon.

Merci beaucoup, Richard!

Ti Ar Raden (3)

This wonderful Goldfish, designed by Ti Ar Raden, was sent on a special day: 29th of February, also known as Leap Day ('Schrikkeldag' in Dutch). You can see this special date on the postmark, thanks to Ti Ar who went to the post office especially for this!

I am posting this Goldfish on an other special day. Today is the very first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere: the sun crosses the celestial equator and equalizes night and day. This astronomical vernal or northward equinox marks the beginning of spring in our northern hemisphere.
For the ones who wonder what a Goldfish has to do with this: in exact the same time (this year on 20th of March, 4.30 am UTC or 5.30 am European time) Now Ruz starts, the Persian New Year!
Part of the celebrations is keeping or buying a goldfish (see for instance the Iranian movie 'The White Balloon'). The bowl of water with goldfish (Pisces) represents life within life.

Both in front and on the back Ti Ar added great clock stamps. Which makes the circle round: clocks also were exchanged by Ti Ar, me and a few more mail art colleagues: to celebrate New Year's Eve on 31th of December, so for the European New Year!



Thank you very much, trugarez bras, Ti Ar!

Snail Mail Snails - 2015

Today is 21-12, which means the last '21st' of this year. Time flies...
Also 21-12 usually means the shortest day and longest night of any year.

About one year ago I sent Mail Snails to several mail art friends to wish them a Happy 2015.
I've sent these on postcards, to keep it that way or to colour, and to keep or to send it to whoever they wanted to send it to.

To my surprise I received some of them in return, via snail mail or email, and I love the way all artists added their 'handwriting' to the Snail Mail Snails!
Also a few mail artists, who hadn't received an original card, printed the snail and coloured and sent them.
Thank you very much, all of you!

The one above not only was coloured by FinnBadger, but also has been turned into an envelope. Which I think so suitable: FinnBadger has a mail art blog on Envelopes!

Here some other great contributions:


From Bruno Chiarlone


From Suus in Mokum


From Ana Marta Austin


From Dean (here in process)


From Katerina Nikoltsou


From Richard C.

Thank you very much!

P.S. I've received a few more coloured Mail Snails, but in the past year some of them crawled away to some hidden place. I'll post them as soon as I'll have found them back...

Ti Ar Raden (2)

My favourite colours: turquoise and bright yellow/green!
The Snail, of course, doesn't need an introduction. But who is the other fellow? So to see this lovely yellow creature is a Leafy Seadragon, a family member of the Sea horse.

This great work of art has been created by Ti Ar Raden.

On the address side a beautifully written 'Thank you' (Mersi bras in Breton) with the famous Ermine, watched by the stamp Cat.



Mersi, trugarez bras, Ti Ar!

Alain Cotten

Some time ago I created an Ostrich (hiding a Rubik's cube under his wings) for one of Alain Cotten's mail art projects. Not long after that, Alain pleasantly surprised me by this wonderful bird collage.
It looks like someone from the Swallow family, but which one? For his/her grey black colour this one reminds me of the Swift, and then it would be even more wonderful, miraculous! Because Swifts almost never are sitting, but they live, sleep, eat and do anything while flying high in the sky. While this one obviously has landed!

You can see more works of collage mail art by Alain Cotten on his website.
And if you are interested to join one or more of his ongoing mail art projects (the one on ostriches, or 'black and red', or 'rebel people', or 'angels vomit devils'), please check his call for entries.

Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Alain!

Ti Ar Raden

Last week, 19th of February, the (lunar) Year of the Sheep / Ram / Goat has started. Exactly a month before I received this wonderful Ram, together with a Bull, Fish, a Cow and a bunch of other Farm Animals on the Cow's back. Created and sent by Ti Ar Raden.
The doodled/tangled Bull is a Pie Noir, the Ram is a Ouessant Ram.

On the other side some great stamps, among them a speedy Turtle and the Ermine (Stoat), the poor latter looses his/her tail to various coats of arms (among them coats from Brittany and the Netherlands) and royal cloaks (among them the Dutch one)... Fortunately the Ermine is alive and kicking in this beautiful artistamp.



Thank you very much, trugarez vras, Ti Ar!

Dean, Artist in Seine (3)

If you look close, you can see two small parts of them: chips!
Together with the Fish it would be a well-known English dish, but of course I prefer to see them swimming, these Fish!
Created and sent from a place close to the Seine, by Dean.
With also some interesting information about sharks:



Thank you very much, Dean!

Dean, Artist in Seine (2)

This delicate collage mailed art was created and sent by Dean from France.
Posted here of course because of the little Bird in the right corner, and the Mammal name written on the vinyl. Well, research reveiled that this Mink is not a blue animal but a collection of singing humans.

The French post was so kind to wrap it, but I'm sure Dean's mail art would have arrived well without a cover also. Anyway, I like postal additions like this.



Thank you very much, Dean!

Richard Baudet (2)

Richard Baudet sent this mail art for the IUOMA group 'Orange Lovers'. However, the beautiful butterfly is an amazing creature and deserves room in this blog, of course, too.

On the back Richard wrote colourful words in his great handwriting, words which we, mail artists and post lovers, fully agree with: thank you, postmen/postwomen!
And thank you, merci beaucoup, Richard!

Dean / Artist in Seine

A dangerous and prehistoric looking reptile, but I'm sure she's a creative creature. Mail art created and sent by Artist in Seine.



Along this animal, a lot of cyclists also were sent by Dean. This time from the United Kingdom, which of course makes us wonder why the Tour de France is called the Tour of France, and not the Tour de Royaume-Uni-et-France this year?





Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Dean!

Richard Baudet

This picture makes me wonder if this Hippy Fly will fly into the Hippo's mouth. Great collage created by Richard Baudet from France, merci beaucoup, Richard!

I love the postage stamp, too, because it shows where (whom) cow's milk in fact has been made for. And of course Richard's beautiful handwriting (I received this calligrapic collage before).

On the back side kind words for the Postmen.
I showed it to the man who looks after the p.o.boxes, and he was pleasantly surprised. Thank you, merci beaucoup, Richard!

Galerie Le Lab

For the people who visit this Real Weird Animals website at a regular base it will be clear: I consider Humans animals, and Fish clearly are animals.
So the amazing combination of the two, Mermaids, must be animals who fit in this blog, too.

This jolly Mermaid has been created by Jean Claude Sarpi of Galerie Le Lab, as a reply to the Mermaid envelope I had sent to Marseille for the mail art project 'Mermaid in the port, queens of the sea...'.

And some land animals you can see on the postage stamp: a poor deer, attacked by a hunting feline and a man...



Nice detail (I think), added by the Post: the Marseille Post Office apparently considered this beautiful artistamp as a regular stamp.

Thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Jean Claude!

Valentine Mark Herman (2)

An other weird interesting Austalian animal is the Monitor Lizard (Varanus), a large reptile.
Here pictured by Valentine Mark Herman, who makes a lot of great dot-art, and sent me this from France.



And see the postage stamp, a new French stamp, about which you can find some more information on Hawwa's weblog. By the augmented picture on her website I learned to take a closer look to this stamp and learned that there's not only this La Poste woman, but also two playing children on the picture.

Thank you very much, Valentine, for your wonderful mail art!
Concerning the self portrait on the back, er, I'll reply to you by mail art :-)