ex postal facto lectures at the SFPL are live!

Fantastic news, everybody: the Ex Postal Facto lectures hosted by the SF Public Library are live and direct!

The first lecture of the day was titled “A Brief History of West Coast Mail Art”. John Held Jr. led the panel discussion featuring Anna Banana, Leslie “Creative Thing” Caldera, Carl Chew, and performance artist Lowell Darling. It was both a great introduction to the west coast “scene”, as well as wonderful storytelling by each panelist.

 

“Artistamps and Their Makers: Seeing the World in Miniature” was the afternoon’s second lecture. Perforations, postmasters, and the particulars of stamp design were covered — moderator Jennie Hinchcliff spoke with Black Rock City Postmaster James Cline, artistamp makers Ginny Lloyd, James Felter and Harley of Terra Candella in a lively discussion.

 

The Ex Postal Facto organizers would like to extend their enormous thanks to the SF Public Library for hosting these lectures, as well as the A/V department at SFPL for editing (and making available) these wonderful videos. Both lectures were sponsored by the Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center.

You can learn more online at :http://sfpl.org/index.php?pg=1013402901

–JH

2014 has arrived — Ex Postal Facto can’t be far behind!

new year’s greetings from Leslie C/Creative Thing…

Happy New Year to all mail artists, artistamp makers, visual poets, collagists — in short: this always expanding Network that we happily work within and with. As 2013 turned into the “fresh start” of 2014, I couldn’t help but be excited by all of the possibility and promise offered: new correspondents to meet, new projects to embark upon, new address books to fill.

Leslie C/Creative Thing’s XPF artistamps, close up

Part of this excitement stems from my anticipation of mail artists and postal enthusiasts arriving in SF for next month’s Ex Postal Facto event. Every day my email inbox seems to hold another piece of I-can’t-hardly-believe-it news: another luminary, attending XPF; an idea for an additional event; someone working on a wonderful design or artwork for the weekend (ed: see Leslie Caldera’s artistamps for the event, above).

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing all of this exciting news with XPF readers. Places to stay, special announcements about “in-the-works” outings, names of other attendees, write ups in the press — these are all topics that will be addressed over the next few weeks. Be sure to stay tuned! And it goes without saying: I can hardly wait for 2014 to GET STARTED!

–JH