Mailart 365 has moved

I guess I should jump in with an introduction. I just discovered mailart365 through two of you (Erin Fae and Lindsaykillin) and immediately wanted to play too.

Hi my name is Robyn, I go by robayre online and this is me. A little bit of background on me- I'm 33, a graphic designer for a living and went to school for art (BA in Art, and pretty much dabbled in every area of art). I'm pretty sure this piece here is my first ever mailart, circa 2001. I had never heard of mailart before, and just thought it would be fun, cool and risky to create something and try and send it through the mail to a friend. After that, I took to drawing on my rent check envelopes to my landlord of the time, but sadly, I don't think I really documented any of those. Somewhere between 2001 and 2005 I saw the movie How To Draw A Bunny and was INSPIRED. In 2005 I discovered postcrossing and decided that it would be way cooler to create postcards myself, rather than buy generic touristy type cards. I have a flickr photo set here, that shows most of my mailart from that period on.

I have no problem letting go of my original pieces, as long as I document them, so I can still see them later, AND as long as they reach their final destination. That's probably the reason why I stopped sending cards through postcrossing, people would not register them, so I was afraid they either got lost, went unappreciated, or they just didn't care enough to register them. One of my biggest inspirations for sending mailart (back before I even knew what mailart was) was an editors article in a magazine (perhaps Real Simple) where the editor complained to her mail carrier about only receiving bills and junk mail, and the carrier replied "How do you think I feel, always having to deliver bills and junk mail." I thought, sending REAL mail, and REAL art, especially on postcards where REAL words can be seen could hopefully brighten so many peoples' days, between the artist and it's final destination.

It's been a while since I've used blogger, so I'm doing a little re-learning here. Right now I'm struggling more with writing, taking pictures, documenting and posting, than I am creating the mailart itself. I was glad to see this post by Kierra, which listed all the things to keep straight to make the year go by smoother. I already knew I'd need to start documenting and organizing things, but her post definitely will help me keep it in action, because thinking and saying are different than doing, and I know I'd probably find myself a month in, throwing my arms up in the air at the chaos I'd created. "who did I send cards to already?" and "What card am I on again?" etc.

I imagine I'll be doing more dump type posts, where I can post a bunch once a week. So, I'm glad to have found this community and can't wait to get into routine. Once again, hi everyone! I have a blog here, and will probably be sharing my mailart there as well, along with anything else I'm creating. I've recently been on a handcarved stamp bender :)