This is another great piece of art that I wish you could reach out and feel the texture of. It's really a lovely painting and stands on it own very well. Thanks to Carlos Botana!

And it's from Spain! Here's the rub: roughly 50% of my customers speak English as a second language and we are making great efforts to make these folks feel welcomed. Even something with a simple greeting in Spanish is a great thing to help get them engaged in what we're doing.

The postal systems of the world are really a bridging system for people who do not have the same technology access as others. My people don't pay bills on line. They buy a money order and a stamp, and we do our best to impart some dignity into even simple transactions like those.

So Carlos! You rock. When I attempt to explain the project to my folks are struggling with English, this will go a long way brother.

Thanks SO much to Richard Canard for putting the whole thing in crystal clear perspective. I definitely need more perspective. This weekend I wrote about our trip to the Neon Museum in Las Vegas, and it was read by quite possibly my oldest friend in the world. After what I felt was a very artful description of something we had seen, he called me out for using the word "patina" and reminded me that "out here, we just call it rust". Point taken.

Watch out "stick wittlers". We're gaining on you!

I just finished watching a movie where the hero and heroine stay up all night. At this moment, nothing appeals more than a cup of coffee. This wonderful postcard postmarked Memphis Tennessee arrived last week and was the first one I picked up tonight as I sat down to write. It's fate. No... It's a looming disaster I can easily avoid by simply going to bed.

As I get older I can sense that the number of those times when I will be up all night voluntarily is shrinking, and the times when I'm up all night because I simply can't sleep will increase. Sigh. If you're a Hemingway fan ( I can understand if you're not) you will remember the short story "A Clean and Well Lighted Place". I sometimes feel as if I'm staring down the barrel of that story.

Thanks so much to the author of this wonderful image. I think the person's name is Wren. I'll think of this as I fall asleep and dream of being painfully awake.

http://cranberrydays.blogspot.com/

Back home after 5 days in sunny Las Vegas. Five days of walking, talking, gambling, drinking, smoking, eating, and generally having the time of my life. Home to some serious messes at the Post Office, unpacking and sorting out, and on top of it all, some wonderful works of art. This arrived just as I was leaving on Friday, and I really enjoyed it. You can't see it in the scan, but one of the really great things about it is the texture.

So much of a postcard is tactile. You feel the dust, the ink, the oil from the skin of the person who handled it. On this one you really feel the hand work and the soul of the person who touched it. It's organic and feels very close to art from the core.

The address side is, as always one of my real attractions. If all mail arrived looking like this, wouldn't everyone want to wait by the mail box?

Forgotten Landmarks of Cornelius No. 67 - The Great Maze

When James Garcia returned to Cornelius in 1948 after his service to his country in WWII, he brought with him a single cutting, taken from the great maze at England's Hampton Court palace. Having fallen in love with the elaborate gardens of England during the war, he set out to create a maze in his home town, carefully planning an elaborate labyrinth in a vacant lot off North Davis street.

From the single cutting, planted by moonlight, the maze grew quickly. In a year it had grown beyond the original plan and begun to change on it's own so that no one but James could find a way through to the center which was rumored to have a mysterious shrine.

One night, as James walked though the maze, a great swath of vines overtook him, and he vanished While he was never seen again, the local children speak of a green man, swathed in vines who can be seen wandering through the maze on summer evenings. They say he looks out for them when they are lost in the nearby woods, but no one ever approaches the entrance to the maze.

Local developers have attempted to burn the maze down several times, but the hedge always regrows by the full moon.

Dewi from Ontario Canada sent this and it really is lovely. Thanks so much! Enlarge it to see the beautiful details in the window's corner.

If I could ask anything of people, it would be to buy a pack of watercolor postcards and send from from wherever you go around the world. Paintings, collages of train tickets, sketches of drunken revels with notes from a jaded waitress or that kind stranger who gave you a lift.

I didn't reall start to appreciate stencils in art until we visited Argentina. Yes, I've seen some very smart work by people like Banksy, but it's been a slow conversion. Fabio from Bologna sent this piece and we extend our warmest gratitude!

One of the things I enjoy most about mail art is the wonderful attention to detail artists can put into each part of the work. This is a prime example. I spent my lunch time just going over the wonderful details on the address side.

In theory, postal employees should never really look at the non address side of a piece of mail, so this does a wonderful job of showing us a glimpse of the beauty of mail art while we try and keep sporting several trays an hour of mail.