BLOOD FOR ART OR IUOMA!

Hallelujah for the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA)! FACEBOOK plus so much more for ARTISTS! Hallelujah for evolution in the way of BEING and COMMUNICATING that BEINGNESS! As a Georgia visionary artist on a SOUL BLOGGING trajectory, I am fascinated by the process of MAIL ART!

Think of making real tangible ART, putting postal stamps onto it and then submitting it into a BLACK HOLE, a portal, through the US postal service! COSMICALLY--Voila! The ART—now—MAIL ART pops out somewhere in this immense beautiful world into the hands of another ARTIST! This ARTIST—RECIPIENT appreciatively honors the RECEIVED ART by digitizing and posting it on the IUOMA website. TRANSFORMATION! CONNECTION! Possibly—even, dare I say—ADULATION through appreciative comments and observations that are posted along with the digitized ART image. (See these artist's IUOMA pages for great examples: Ruud Janssen, Art Tower, Angie and Snooky)

IOUMA is ART for ART. It is ART for COMMUNICATION of IDEAS and yes, Hallelujah proposes a commingling of SPIRITS—not necessarily like-minded but spirited! An aliveness of BEING exists at the URL of IOUMA!

David Stafford surprised and thrilled me with this story about Jill St. John on the back of his image! Is the story real or imagined? Does it matter?

Mail Art from David Stafford, Santa Fe, New Mexico, April 19, 2011

Money is not exchanging hands between GIVER and RECEIVER. It is ARTIST beneficently giving to ARTIST. How radical! ART is being made by the dictates of the ARTISTS’ HEARTS, INTELLECTS, and SENSIBILITIES! Within IUOMA, ARTISTS can join various groups using various themes: the color blue, rabbits, fiber art, asemic writing, connection to specific countries such as Australia, China, and Japan, and promotion of the word “zalop,”  to name a few.

At IUOMA, ARTISTS are in frivolous and earnest charge! Forget the dictates of gallery owners! BANNED are those SILLY commands to “standardize” the size and subject of an ARTIST’s canvas to make them marketable. Nor do nonartist viewers with pockets full of cash make smug remarks at this site. POOF! No talk of investments or matching interior décor! HALLELUJAH!

On the IUOMA website, there is an online chat room. I asked if anyone wanted a piece of original work I had just completed and David Stafford offered up his address! I mailed it on Saturday and he had posted it by Monday evening! From paper art to digital art!

As an ARTIST, I make ART to celebrate my SOUL! On my JOURNEY, I want to learn from other ART PILGRIMS—IUOMA fulfills this YEARNING. Before I discovered IUOMA, I had whispered then shouted “BLOOD for ART.” Viewers wanted to buy my work for a sum of money that was not an equal exchange of energy. In fact, I have witnessed more money being spent on framing than paying me. My ART is ME. MY BLOOD. MY BEING. Give me a piece of YOURSELF, YOUR BLOOD. YOUR BEING in exchange. ART for ART.

Thank you IUOMA! Hallelujah celebrates the International Union of Mail Artists—SOUL for SOUL. ART for ART. 

EXPLANATION OF BLOOD FOR ART: In stating BLOOD for ART, in no way do I advocate violence. And I’m not saying that I don’t sell my work.  Instead, I am stating boldly that the work I do as an artist cannot be separated from my heart beating in conjunction with my mind and spirit. Peruse my blog Coffee with Hallelujah to see for yourself. If you as a viewer offer me money for a work of mine, make sure you measure up an equal exchange of heart, mind and spirit. That too is BLOOD for ART. 

Jon Foster, Winston Salem, North Carolina

Douglas Galloway

Elizabeth Parsons,  Monroe, New York

Angie and Snooky