José Manuel Figueiredo

A Zen Dog! This collage has been made and sent by José Manuel Figueiredo from Portugal. His work is recognizable by the tiny boat rubber stamp.

Both pictured dogs (Rafeiro do Alentejo - Portuguese Watchdogs) are in good company. Or, the other way round: both pictured Humans must be lucky people to have such a loyal four-footer around.



Thank you, obrigado, José Manuel!

Ryosuke Cohen

This richly coloured Mail Art work Ryosuke Cohen sent from Japan.
On this A3 sized Brain Cell Life Form number 776 various mail artists have contributed. And among the faux postage stamps, rubberstamps and other kinds of art you can find several weird animals: many Mammals (most of them human beings), some Fish and one Bird (click on the picture to enlarge).

More about Ryosuke Cohen you can find on his website, RyuosukeCohen.com.

The contributing artists to this Mail Art work are the following:



Arigato, thank you very much, Ryosuke! And thanks to all who contributed to this marvellous Mail Art 'Teamwork'!

Wilma Duguay

When I think of Wilma Duguay, I think of the Sea!
Wilma Duguay sent this beautiful drawing from Canada. When I saw the pencil drawn animal, the first thing that came into my mind was: 'that must be a Sea urchin skeleton!'
Fortunately Wilma wrote the name of this animal next to it. Fortunately, because I never had heard of this animal before: the Sand dollar.

And indeed, this Sand dollar (in Spanish speaking countries also called 'Galleta de mar' - 'Sea cookie') is a curious animal. Read more about this echinoderm (stinged-skin) on wikipedia.

This makes me also wonder about the number '5'. Why, like also Starfish and Sea urchins have, Sand dollars always have a fivefold radial symmetry? (And why do we mammals have five fingers/toes each hand, each foot?)



On Wilma's mail artwork there are more weird Sea animals to see and to enjoy!

Thank you very much, Wilma!


Update November 10th, 2010:

Wilma surprised me with a new letter, and put forward to make this apposite Sea magnet part of the Existing Odd Animals. So here you are!
(I added the back side next to the wonderful Sand dollar, Starfish and Shell.)



This fine work of art (only 5 x 4.5 cms) has been made by Linda Kobera, a painting artist who's pasisonate about miniature art.
More about Linda Kobera you can see on her website.

Again thanks a lot, Wilma!

Annalise Lundeen

A wonderful mixed-media work of mail art Annalise Lundeen sent to me from the USA.

Until now I always thought a 'Turkey' is just a 'Turkey' ('Kalkoen' in Dutch), but by this drawing/painting I learnt there's a difference between the Wild Turkey and the Domestic Turkey.

Annalise's favorrite animal indeed is a weird animal! Note the bald head, the strange red wattles and enjoy the typical sounds (hear the gobbling, for instance at 0:03 and 6:47 on this video).



Thank you very much, Annalise! Also thanks a lot for the nice picture of you and your Turkey in the 90s. Which proofs the - rightly - love for this extraordinary animal is deep.

Serse Luigetti

A Horse! Such a common animal, loved by many. 'Common', but when looking close, it becomes clear that Horses are a kind of weird, too!
There are only a few animals who allow people to sit on their back for hours and still keep on smiling (in the Horse's case, keep on their ears up).

Serse Luigetti from Italy created this beautiful Paper Horse, and of course - I think - Serse's Mail Art wouldn't be complete without some visual poetry.



On the envelope some more animals.
Below a detail of this very inconvenient truth:



Serse added a few postcards, of which in this one I see a wellknown animal, too (already visualised by many artists): the Human Being.



Here more of Serse Luigetti's visual poetry. I cannot read it, so if anyone can decode the text, please let me know. Or am I so weird not to see - and just enjoy, nothing more - the visual image?!





(I love the envelop between the rounds!).
Thanks a lot, grazie mille, Serse!

Snappy

As I did before, also now I hesitated to open Snappy's beautifully packed entry, because the glimmering plastic of the envelope, the postage stamp, the par avion sticker and the Snappy Service Stamp are too contributing to the Mail Art work to be removed...

But the instruction sticker told me to do so, so here is the unveiled work:



Lots of weird animals are shown. The Penguin, a funny favourite friend. The Leaf-tailed gecko and, on the Canadian postage stamp, the Golden-eyed lacewing. On the drawing a Wolf teaching Geese (? I think) to read.



And of course Humans.
One of the weirdest (and imho one of the most foolish) things Humans can do is wearing guns and using them. So I prefer the man with the magnifying glass, of course.

Note the - for any animal useful - message (white letters on blue background) on top!

See more work by Snappy on the Snappy Service website.

Thanks a lot, Snappy!

Josh Ronsen

I am not sure if Josh Ronsen meant this postcard for the Real Weird Animals project, but I found it in my Postbox and it is an Animal, even a weird animal, and it is Art. So I felt free to show his amazing a-n-t ant here.

Ants... What to say more about these busy useful creatures... They are small, meanwhile they are great. Selfish (when it comes to protect their nest) both unselfish (offering themselves in favour of the whole Ant people). Small enough to be tramped, but also strong (ever seen an ant carrying a piece of a leaf more than twice as big as the ant?).

Multi-artist Josh Ronsen had and has various Art projects, among them the recent Mail Art project Tiny Art Exchange. Learn more about his projects on his website.
And.. Enjoy many more Mail Ants on Josh Ronsen's astonishing Mail Ant Project page!

Thanks a lot, Josh, for this visual-poetry-calligraphics-mail-art animal!