Part 4

Without many leads, I went back to IUOMA and to the mailing address provided for George Brett posted there. The inactivity on his profile didn’t give me any confidence that I’d be able to get in touch with him. No matter, I sent a letter asking about the show.

Less than a week later I get a response, from someone named Megan Brett, George’s daughter. Unfortunately George “died in February” wrote Megan. She wanted me to let other mail-artists know about this. Although she didn’t have any direct information about the show, she was interested in the project, asking if the “stuff went to Greensboro?” Almost immediately I sent her an email giving her all I knew about the show and providing her a link to the blog I’d set up.

I hope she found comfort in people realizing and appreciating the work that her dad had done. His fingerprints, not only in the artwork he create for the show, but in the effort he put into organizing everything were present.

Two weeks later.

I figured that I would catch back up with the story in a couple weeks once folks responded to some emails and what not. None of that happened. No one could remember anything about the show or give me any context in which it was created. I was annoyed at this for a day or two.

While flipping through the notebook I keep all of my mail-art addresses in, I flipped past a lis of shows I’ve submitted things to. In no way had I represented every single show over the past six years…it wouldn’t be possible. Sometimes I just mail a thing based on a random all-call that someone posted on one of the many mail-art groups on Facebook. My responses have been so numerous that I stopped adding to the list of shows that I’d sent things to.

And there was the story; there isn’t much of a story. I imagine someone had an idea for a mail-art show; they secured a space, and then sent word through the purely analog channels off the mail-art network in 1979. That’s it, there’s nothing else to tell. People sent in things from all over the world. I imagine many people came to look at the artwork (I’d love to find pictures) when it was posted at SECCA. That artwork was then put in a couple of boxes for decades, my friend found the box, held onto it, and then that wonderful box of goodies came into my possession.

Now I have to start scanning it all.

Continuing The Search

I had to figure out a context for the work. I needed to learn more. All of the cards had 1979 postmarks, which gave me some basis for a simple google search. Nothing really came back. I also knew that the show was called SECCA at SECCA. The box came with a wonderful hand-carved stamp reading as much. The only information I found online was from the abovementioned Lomholt Mail Art Archive. The post was the “all call” for the show.

Quickly I went through my mail art book to see if I had corresponded to someone by this name but nothing. I went to IUOMA and found an entry and address for someone by that name. The last activity on the page was from September 2013. My direct message didn’t turn up a response so I decided to go in another direction.

I got in touch with a friend Eddie Garcia, that works for NPR and I thought would have connections to SECCA. He sent an email on my behalf, but as of now, that hasn’t returned anything either. The website was useless, simple searches were useless, and my most promising leads didn’t give me much either. I called on the big guns.

I got in touch with Richard Canard who I thought would know something about the show. I honestly thought he was the guy behind it, but he told me George Brett was probably the point person, even though his return address wasn’t anywhere near Winston-Salem. Much to my surprise he said he didn’t even know about the show even though he’d worked at SECCA in the 1980’s and 90’s. He did see the image of the box sitting in my car and provide me with a nice little bit of information, “That is my handwriting on the box.” So although Richard Canard was directly involved his infamous handwriting was. I love this little tidbit.

I would be lying if I didn’t use this searching process as a way to find out more about mail-art. In a way I see this as a homework assignment, an excuse to ask people that know a lot more about something than I do. It doesn’t help that the history of mail-art is intentionally clouded by half-truths and leg-pulling bullshit, which is partly the reason I enjoy it so much. Since they’re really aren’t gatekeepers to this whole endeavor there isn’t a clear path to know what’s really going on. Thankfully I like a blind adventure.

The Crackerjack Kid remembers that he and George Brett collaborated on something in the mid-1990’s and that George even did a hand stamped portrait of Crackerjack in the early 80’s. As for any other information, he didn’t have any. People enter the mail-art network somehow, and then leave in a similar way.

I decided to write John Held Jr. about the project and he did not disappoint, directing me to a book of his own. John wrote, “I did a book, "Mail Art shows, 1970-1985", which has a listing for "SECCA at SECCA" curated by Richard C. I notice that your materials were given to you by someone else, who I am unfamiliar with. Not sure I can provide you with context for the organization of this particular show, but according to my book there were 75 shows held in 18 countries in 1979. Includes shows curated by Jurgen Olbrich (Germany), Western Front (Canada), Ulises Carrion (Holland), Monty Cantsin (Canada), Julian Blaine (France), Graciela Marx (Argentina), Charlton Burch (USA), Henryk Gakewsly (Poland), Michael Scott (England), and Vittore Baroni (Italy). Maybe this will provide larger context for the SECCA show.”

When I mentioned George Brett, John responded with, “Yes, George Brett was an interesting person. He was very tuned into the network during that time period. Good luck with your research!” The search continues.

The Participants

It wasn’t easy getting a list of names. Of course there was the task of just doing it, and then there was the task of dealing with random bits of paper. 35 years does a number to glues, so much of my time was spent trying to figure out what bit of paper (address, silly picture, name) went with what piece of artwork. And then there were the doubles that I had to organize. One mail-artist sent the same photocopied (was that a thing, I’m not sure) image more than ten times. He did nothing different to the image. I gathered all of those together for easy organization when I get around to scanning everything.

What struck me most about the list was the amount of people working under a mail-art name. Sure there are folks that do that these days, or those that are still doing that, but it seems many more did it then. When you create a new identity it gives the whole project a different air, a slight shroud of mystery.

Ackerman Clinic – Portland OR, USA Thomas Adair – Richmond VA, USA Barbara Aubin – Chicago IL, USA Baron – Cleveland OH, USA John M. Bennett – Columbus OH, USA Carolyn Berry – Monterey CA, USA J. Boccino – W. Caldwell NJ, USA Betty Bressi – Staten Island NY, USA Barton Benes – New York NY, USA Blue Moon Toys – Salt Lake City UT, USA Paulo Bruscky – Recife PE, Brazil Patrick J. Canavan – Baltimore MD, USA Mary Carol Combs – Kalamazoo MI, USA Ulises Carrion – Amsterdam, Netherlands Collageworks – San Francisco CA, USA Marie Combs – Kalamazoo MI, USA Contant Art / Changing System – Hillsborough NC, USA Cook – San Francisco CA, USA Cris – Ventura CA, USA Robin Crozier – Sunderland, England R. Deagle – Norfolk VA, USA Walter Drearing – Indianapolis IN, USA Charlotte Duval – Staten Island NY, USA Dated Material – Oakland CA, USA Demaree – Raleigh NC , USA Ko de Jonge – Middleberg, Netherlands Mike Dyar – San Francisco CA, USA Jerry Dreva – Milwaukee WI, USA Bernard K. Fischer – Chatsworth CA, USA Gasowski Productions – Tempe AZ, USA Geek City – Greenville NC, USA geORge – Greenville NC, USA Richard Graham – Mt. Pleasant MI, USA D. Klaus Groh – Friedrischsf., Germany Lin Fife – Colorado Springs CO, USA Aaron Flores – Mexico S (?) Gardells – Gibson NC, USA Geisha Among Barbarians – Chicago IL – USA Claudio Goulart – Amsterdam, Netherlands Ken Friedman – New York NY, USA Paul Hartal – Montreal QC, Canada John Held Jr. – Utica NY, USA E.F. Higgins III – New York NY, USA Tohei Horiike – San Francisco CA, USA Hot and Into Rubber Cosmic Stamp Co. – East Cleveland OH, USA International Network – Denver CO, USA Bonnie Jean Malcolm – Paramount CA, USA Lomholt Formular Press – Odder, Denmark Jerry King Mussler – Harrisburg PA, USA Miroslav Klivar – Belohorska, Czechoslovakia Edith Kodmur – La Jolla CA, USA Carol Kohler – Amherst MA, USA Michaele LeCompte – Sacramento CA, USA Byron W. Lacy – Nacogdoches TX, USA Katalin Ladik – Yugoslavia Cynthia Larson – Santa Barbara CA, USA Larry Lean – Greenville NC, USA Edward LeShock – Radford VA, USA Elizabeth Lide – Atlanta GA, USA Lana Lust – Colorado Springs CO, USA Tracy Magen – Dresher PA, USA C. Mehrl – Columbus OH, USA Don P. Miller – River Falls WI, USA Johnnie Mizell – Nags Head NC, USA Tom Morrissey – Coral Gables FL, USA Brian Muldoon – Detroit MI, USA Michele Musser – Harrisburg PA, USA Opal L. Nations – Toronto ONT, Canada OK Post – Weare NH, USA Orworks – Sunderland MA, USA Paul Owens – Wedford OR, USA Sharron Parker – Raleigh NC, USA B. Phillips – Col MD, USA Pawel Petosz – Elblag, Poland Pitts Pie – Eureka CA, USA Professor Plum – Long Beach CA, USA Emanuel Ravelli – Reno NV, USA David S. – Salt Lake City UT, USA Salt Lick Press – Quincy IL, USA Sarapta – Chicago IL, USA Soft Art Press – Lausanne, Switzerland Al Souza – Amherst MA, USA Lon Spiegelman – Los Angeles CA, USA John Stephan Fawcett – Storrs CT, USA P.A.Z Stogre – Willowdale ONT, Canada Marta Tornero – Greensboro NC, USA A. Vandenburgh – Portland OR, USA G.E. Marx Vigo – Buenos Aires, Argentina Eva Vlasakova – Zelezny, Czechoslovakia Jordan Wagner – San Francisco CA, USA Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt – Berlin, Germany Mario Zecca – Norman OK, USA

I Was Given a Box of Mail-Art From 1979

Needless to say I have a strong online mail-art presence. I post images of the mail-art I receive all over the place. I post to IUOMA, I post to my own blogs, and most importantly, I post to Facebook. Sometimes I post on my own profile, other times to specific online groups, but mostly to people interested in mail-art. Because of this voluminous amount of posting, people seem to know that I make mail-art, especially people that aren’t interested in it at all. Once every four of five months a friend might ask if I’m “still sending.”

There’s not too many people in my backyard that have any interest in mail-art, or at least not people that would call themselves “makers,” or worse, “artists.” It’s much easier to engage with mail-artists on the other side of the world than artists less than a mile from me. So I was surprised when someone outside of the network came to me with information.

A couple years ago a friend / artist / teacher / gnarly dude / named Andrew Fansler said that he knew about mail-art and even had a box of it stuck somewhere. It was an intriguing statement about something that few have interest in. It rarely appears somewhere, in a pile, just waiting to be digitized and shared with the world. Oh yeah, I was interested.

He said that he would try and locate it, but he thought a friend may have ended up with the box. Andrew was given the box when he was working with SECCA (Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art) in Winston Salem North Carolina. He said the museum was just going to throw it out, so he took the box home. The details about the box were slim, but he said he knew it came from a show the gallery had there years ago.

The two of us go back and forth about the box for a little while, but nothing comes of it. I figured the box had been tossed out for good, or that it was lost in a move. So I dropped it, and didn’t think of this rouge box of mail-art anymore for the next couple of years.

I’m not sure how the box popped up, but during my fall break from teaching, I was talking with Andrew about the box once again. It seems that the box was in his possession and resting at his studio space in downtown Winston-Salem. Andrew told me he’d be at the studio until 5:30. Since I was enjoying my day driving around the triad going to thrift stores, I had to hurry. Some small voice in the back of my head was thinking this would be my only chance. I showed up at the studio right before he was about to leave. In any other situation I would have been more than thrilled to have a grand tour of the space since a few of my friends had found artistic homes there, but this wasn’t that sort of visit, I wanted to see that damn box.

Sitting on a table upstairs was a cardboard box, not significant in anyway. The top of the box read “Mail Art Do Not Open.” Underneath those ominous words was “1 of 2.” Looking at the box sitting on the table I wondered to myself, “How the hell am I going to get box 2?” For a few minutes I looked through the items like a child given a birthday present. “So…” I asked, “What do you want to do with these? Do you want to sell them, let me borrow them, or…” Thankfully Andrew told me to take them, they were mine, oh so mine. Of course they came with a responsibility, I had to share the contents.

I put them in the passenger seat of my car and stared at the box for a little while, wondering what names I would discover inside.

At home I spread them out on my kitchen table, looking for names I recognized. Right off the bat I saw both Bennett’s John and Meryl, I saw John Held Jr., I saw Al Ackerman, and I saw The Lomholt Mail Art Archive, which has an amazing site I check daily. I was struck by the large amount of mail-artists from North Carolina. I liked seeing postcards from non-existent countries. My next step was to compile a list of all the mail-artists.