As a rampant mail artist, I hear this question often: “What on Earth is mail art?”. Don’t over-think it; mail art describes a variety of art forms that are meant to be sent or exchanged through the mail. Generally, this includes art forms such as artistamps, envelope art, postcards, copy art, and increasingly, artist trading cards.

Mail art can be exchanged between artists, sent to random strangers, or created for a mail art call which requests all items be sent to a single location for display in exchange for documentation. Documentation can be as simple as a list of participating artists and the location where the exhibit was held, or can consist of copies of works contributed.

A few of the rules of the mail art culture:

• No money is to exchange hands.

• Mail art is freely given, with no expectation of anything in return.
• No judgements are made about the artwork. It just is what it is.
• Once the envelope is dropped into the mail, forget about it.

There are several places online where mail art is being practiced in various forms:

Nervousness.org is perhaps the most prolific place to engage in various types of mail art exchanges. Often, little is known about the people with whom you are exchanging beyond their names and addresses. Projects initiated at Nervousness range from themed ATC swaps to random envelope mailings. If you can mail it, it’s probably being exchanged at Nervousness.

PostcardX! is a good place to practice random mail art. Simply click on the main page of the site, and a random name and address will appear. Mail something to that person. Enter your own name and address, and eventually, someone will mail something to you.

For international mail art calls, try Ail-mart, Mailart Calls and Crosses.net, all of which list dozens of current calls for art.