More Mail Artistry from Ex Postal Facto

I couldn't fit all the excitement into my first post about Ex Postal Facto 2014, the amazing mail and correspondence art gathering held in San Francisco February 14 to 16. XPF was jam-packed with events and lively happenings, so here's XPF part II. On Sunday, the Special Collections Department of the San Francisco Public Library hosted two fascinating and often hilarious panel discussions. 

"A Brief History of West Coast Mail Art” was moderated by writer and visual artist John Held Jr., and featured visual/conceptual artist Lowell Darling, correspondence artist Leslie Caldera of Los Angeles, artistamp maker Carl Chew of Seattle, and artistamp maker Anna Banana of Canada. XPF organizer Jennie Hinchcliff opened the proceedings and introduced moderator John Held Jr.

Carl Chew generously gave out large posters he created: "An Evolutionary Baobab of Artistamp Correspondents," a dazzling graphic history of artiststampery from the '80s to the present.

Next up, "Artistamps and Their Makers: Seeing the World in Miniature." Jennie moderated the panel, which featured James Felter of Postes Mraur, Harley of Terra Candella, founding Postmaster of the Black Rock City Post Office (at Burning Man) James Cline, and towering above them all via Skype, Ginny Lloyd of Gina Lotta Artistamp Museum.

While my head was still buzzing with all of the fantastic stories, the milestones and personalities of the history of mail and correspondence art, I finally got to meet in person Correspondence Co-op member Sally Wassink, and swooned over her XPF commemorative issue artistamps.

And last but not least, a glimpse at some pages from my XPF passport, designed by Maureen Forys of Happenstance Type-O-Rama, and assembled by the Correspondence Coop team. It's full of stickers and original artistamps and rubber stampings, to remind me of the fabulous mail art extravaganza that was XPF 2014!

Have you had a good mail day lately? Click here to see the original post on my blog.