Mail art swap

I think one of the things contained in my lost post was that I listed a call for mail art at mail-art.de

So far I have received two submissions! The first one came the day after I listed the call, so the artist must have had them on hand. It's just a basket-weave photo postcard pretentiously called "Tan Lattice Klick-Klack" (sorry, Doug Galloway).

The new one which came today is absolutely fascinating. It's from Pedro Berricat in Spain. It is laminated. Would our post office accept that? The stamp is under the laminate, and the postmark is so rubbed off that it can hardly be seen.

Next, it is smaller than our postcard requirements. I guess if it gets here under the laws of its own country, our post office will deliver it.

Finally, it's a collage with several different stamps and addresses. I have no idea how the post office decided to send it to me, except that one address in the UK has the word "Digress" and there is a hand pointing to my address.

Anyway, it's quite marvelous and I love it.

As is traditional with mail art, documentation to everyone, no returns. The documentation is being published on my Flickr group "Gridded Squares" at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1620233@N25/

For some reason the small photos in the group all say "By Made Maka" and I don't kmow how to edit that to get rid of it. But when you click on the photos they are properly attributed. The only one that's actualy mine is the "ABC-123" collage.

This chiropractor...

So, Marla is taking me to a chiropractor, whom she assures me does no bone cracking or manipulation, just massage, on Thursday. Today she said some things that made me wonder, though. Like if I have a pelvic tilt, I may not be able to get certain muscles to fire (and not be able to lift a leg, for instance). She also did an awful lot of work around my neck and sacrum, which is where this woman thinks pain comes from. She also referred again to "not so enthusiastic about Western medicine" which is always a danger signal for me.

On the other hand, Western medicine hasn't done anything for me. So why not at least see this woman.

I talked to Andrew Hughey, and of course he denied that he ever said I could hurt myself further (lie) and said that he never intended to hurt me and had only good intentions. Well, that sure helps. He did have one good suggestion, which was to tell me that I might try the pool at Memorial Hospital with a prescription. They don't do deep-water exercise, as they did in the St. Paul YWCA, so I wouldn't have to worry about my bottom floating up and extending my back. On the other hand, aerobics isn't what I need. I don't know what I need, of course. Maybe they will have some idea.

I got my altered matchbox from Melody Strahan today, and it's so cute. A little artist, with a tiny tag reading "ART", and inside are his brushes and stencil pounce with paint on them. I love miniatures and am really enjoying this one. People who aren't like this don't understand what a thrill it is to get mail... which is why I try to make things. To get stuff back!

When I read the book Good Mail Day, the authors wrote that you can just Google "mail art" and find all kinds of options for trading it -- but there aren't any, and even their links weren't exactly on point. Some out of date and some wanting very, very specific items. I just want to make stuff and send it and get things back. I would like to have a whole body of mail art work, like Lenore Tawney, but of course that's not going to happen. I just wish I could feel good enough to do ANY work regularly.