The M.A.R.S. Project

Mr. Fletcher unleashed in collage mode

Here at last (my fault, not his, for the delay) is the enigmatic and often confrontational art of Mr. Fletcher. These collages where created just previous to the M.A.R.S. bar-b-cue and can now be seen by the world at large!

Mr. Fletcher

Psychic Exotica

Here is the complete collection of Jason Berlin's Psychic Exotica mail art that we've received here at the M.A.R.S. Project including issue #2 of the Sporan zine!

Labels: mail art, postal art, zines

Jason Berlin

The Mark and Mary Counts Collection

Bellow you will find the complete collection of Mark and Mary Counts collage and zine works received at the M.A.R.S. Project headquarters since last September. Enjoy.

Mark and Mary Counts

Pictures from the 4th of July Event

Howdy friends,

The 2nd Annual M.A.R.S. Project Bar-B-Cue and Art Show went great. An estimated head-count put the total number of eyes looking at artwork at somewhere around 200 (considering two eyes per head) give or take a pair or two. The weather was a tad too warm for my tastes, but the atmosphere was great, food was plentiful, and the gathered masses seemed to enjoy the show.

For pictures of the event check out my MySpace account:

http://www.myspace.com/phantomconversation

Keep those cards and letters coming!!!

Thanks,
Rick

Labels: mail art event

A note on the M.A.R.S. Project

Hello Postal-Art types,

I haven't posted any of the materials I've received for several months, but the project is still going. I still get interesting items sent to me every so often and I even send out a few every now and then, but back in January when I tried to post some images of the items I'd received the program that I used to use to upload images stopped being supported by Blogger.com. (I used "Hello" for all of my uploading.) Since then I've been trapped in college land writing papers (grad school is tough) and haven't had time to learn a new uploading software. But, now that summer is here and I don't have classes, I'll try to figure out some way of getting the artwork back onto this site (or find a different site that works better for me.) Actually, today is the first time I've seen this "New Blogger" thing, so maybe I'll check around the new layout and see if I can figure out what's going on. Either way, sorry for the massive dead-air. Hopefully I'll have things rocking again in a week or so.

Rick

Labels: mail art

4th of July Bar-B-Cue, Art Show, and Music Fest

Greetings citizens,

We are only three days away from the 2nd annual M.A.R.S. Bar-B-Cue and Art Show! For those of you who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, on the 4th of July we at the M.A.R.S. Headquarters are going to throw us a big old shin-dig with tons of food, a few drinks (for the old folks), music (chosen by seven or eight different DJ types and guaranteed to be of an eclectic nature), artwork on display by a number of local artists, and, of course, a large chunk of the notorious Mobile Arts Road Show postal-art archive.

The family and I have spent the last several days putting up a new fence in the backyard, building and painting the display racks (what until you see these things, painted in every dayglo color of the New Wave rainbow), testing the sound system, and trying to clean our oh-so-lived-in house.

The festivities start at noon and go until the fireworks start (maybe later... maybe). We're about one block from Lake Sacajawea (in Longview, Washington, USA) so if you're already going to be out hitting the flea-markets anyway you might as well stop by our party as well.

The DJs for the day will include (but not necessarily in this order):
Rick Yates
Dave Yates
Frankie Yates
Ellie Yates (nepotism? why not?)
Hilarie Hughes
Shaun Fletcher
Mike King
Christian Sparks
and Jason Berlin might make an audio collage, he wasn't certain last time I talked to him.

I don't know what any of these people are going to play and dammit, that's the way I like it.

And we even have one of those four-foot-deep swimming pool things set up in the backyard if anyone gets too hot and wants to take a dip. (Just don't drip on any of the artwork!)

So, if anyone is interested in dropping by send me an email and I'll give you the address and directions. (It's a bit like a rave party: "Tell the dude in the green shirt hanging out at the Cap'n Yobi's that all your tires went flat and he'll give you instructions on how to get to the next contact point." Finding the party is half the fun!!!)

Nanoo-Nanoo!
Rick (aka Johnny Sokko! I turned off my normal screen name until the 4th is over.)

Labels: art show

Mark Counts. Gypt 1. Another casualty of my weird scanner, this book is flourescent yellow in "real life," but scanned in black-and-white. Strange.

Mark Counts. Gypt 1, back.

Heidi Jo Triplett. A fun, handmade postcard. (With a possible hidden political message to boot!)

Heidi Jo Triplett.

News from Mars!!!

Here below is a minor update to the site. Since scanning these items, I have already received another pile of materials, but I don't have the energy to scan and post them all, yet... I'll try to get them up as soon as I feel like it... (Not very commital, I know.)

In other news, I had a private showing of the M.A.R.S. Porject archive in the form of a massive bar-b-que at my house on September 3rd. We had a sound system pumping out tunes, a HUGE amount of food, the artwork displayed "laundry-line" style, clothes-pinned to this great fluffy yarn in two long rows. I thought this would be the best way to display the materials because so many of the works have interesting images on both sides. Dozens of people, family, friends, neighbors, and local artists (writers, collagists, zinesters, a metal sculpter, and a filmmaker) all hung out, chatted, listened to music, and looked at the artwork. It was a really good time, and everybody said how exciting and inspirational the entire thing turned out to be. (It was a ball, but it will be MANY MOONS before I have another party with that many people again...

Interestingly enough, the filmmaker (who is also the editor of Vision? Nary! Magazine based in Olympia, Washington USA) made a mini-documentary about the event which he has made available online. (Well, I guess it's not THAT "mini;" the download is 25 megabites...) If you're interested check out his site:

http://davidraffin.com/Home.html

And, in other other news, I've finally decided to put up a site based on the mail-art that I've sent out. It's not ready yet, but when it's primed for public scrutiny I'll post a note letting everyone know the address.

Thanks for playing!!

Scott Thomas. This, if you can't tell, is a flashlight. I found it one day sticking out of my mail-slot. Scott sure likes to make those mail-carriers work for their money! (By the way, do you know how odd it is to try and scan a flashlight!? I'm not complaining by any means, just stating a fact of mail-art-life...)