Richard Baudet, Marseille, France

 

What a lovely vintage bicycle and it cost 780 francs! I wonder how much that would be today?
Richard sets the route for touring between France and Switzerland it looks like.

Richard is a member of the International Union of Mail Artists and send out beautiful calligraphy mail art.

Thank you for your entry to this upcoming exhibit.

Lucky Pierre, Charleston, SC, USA

Lucky Pierre sent us this photo taken at a bike race in Seattle - circa 1984.

He, also, writes "looks like I was shooting infra-red film on this day."

Well, all I can say is that this is a very exciting photo and I'm glad he shared it with us for this exhibit.

And he used a postage stamp with a bicycle rider on it! How perfect is that. Good find, LP.

Scroll down to the first entry on this blog to find out how you, too, can enter this Mail Art exhibit.

Kelly Gorman, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Kelly gave this a title: "Unusual connection"  I'm very fond of other people's snapshots. The narrative is left open for us to fill in, and with this title, it's so cryptic.

Thanks, Kelly, for submitting Mail Art to this call.

Do YOU want to participate? Scroll down to the bottom for information on how and what!

Judy Boyd, Tampa-St.Pete, Florida, USA

Judy calls this "wheels" and what a nice repetition of wheel pattern, circles, which I am very fond of.

Also, a lot of action shown in this piece of Mail Art, don't you think?

Thanks, Judy.

Emily Posedel, El Cajon, CA, USA

 

 

Emily's card is on silver metallic stock, which unfortunately didn't scan to show off how nice it is. There is a row of Washi tape along the bottom and the other images are stamp embossed. It's quite nice with the ink so black and raised up.

Thanks, Emily, for sending to this Mail Art call.

Jaromir Svozilik, Oslo, Norway

It's always nice to see mail arrive from Jaromir, whom I think of as an old friend, though we've never met. He has generously sent his lovely work to many Mail Art exhibits.

He has a distinctive style that is whimsical and interesting.

This is a pencil drawing and is entitled "Love Acrobats."

You can see more of Jaromir HERE.

Thanks for this delightful drawing, Jaromir.

Uli Grohmann, Münster, Germany

What a surprise in the mail a few days ago. A booklet with all of the Mail Art that Uli received for his exhibit in his hometown of Münster, Germany.  He invited artists, one per country, from all over the world. The exhibit was held in a gallery from Oct. 2013 to Jan. 2014.

He says that his hometown is the capital of bikeriders. It sounds so interesting, with bike parks, like car parks, where one can leave their bicycle safely, and lots more bikes than residents.
How wonderful.

I enjoyed this catalog. I wish I had funding to do the same but, alas, only this blog to share the terrific entries.

Thanks, Uli.

Katerina Nikoltsou, Thessaloniki, Greece

 Katerina is a very active, engaged Mail Artist. She sent two entries, including an accordian fold piece that will be fun to display.

It's so fun and playful.

Her 2nd entry has little butterflies punched out, rather than collaged on, though you can't tell because my ground is white.

Thanks, Katerina, for playing!

Feel free to send more entries! The more there are, the more joy we'll spread.

Sheri Rice, San Anselmo, CA, USA

Sheri sent us some "action!"
Her entry is preparation for what we'll be seeing here in Richmond, VA, USA next September during the races.

Thanks for the entry, Sheri.

Monika Mori aka MOO, Austria

Monika Mori, also known as MOO, sent this delightful cat on a bicycle.

I'm very fond of cats and like to image my cat having adventures but never thought of him taking off on a bicycle. Now I will.

Thanks Monika.

See more about her HERE.

Pietro Romano Matarrese, Bari, Italy

  
You can't appreciate how lovely this entry is as it's under plexiglass and didn't scan optimally.

It's a collage of the four hand cut circular shapes and colored with lemon juice.

It arrived with a CD of Mr. Matarrese's original guitar compositions. The album is entitled UPHO unidentified playing high object. I'm hoping that one of the venue's will be able to play it at some point during the exhibit.

Thank you so much for your entry and your music.

Horst Tress, Köln, Germany

This entry arrived with special documentation. I like the official-ness of it very much.

Horst Tress of Köln, Germany submitted a two part entry. Both parts will be displayed, as I'm sure people will enjoy seeing them.

If you read German, you can find out a lot about Horst HERE.

Danke for you entry.

Amy Tabler-Yingling, Pennsylvania, USA

Amy, known as MailArt Lass, is the first Mail Art we've received to this call.

Congratulations, Amy! It's a lovely entry.

Thanks, we are happily amused.

My Friend Greig Leach: Official Artist for the UCI World Road Racing championships

 My friend, Greig Leach is a bicycle artist exemplar! An original!

I decided to ask Greig some questions.

He agreed to an interview.

Mim: What got you interested in bicycle racing?

 Greig:  Many things got me into bike racing.  I learned the joy of riding as a young kid and the freedom that came with it.  About the same time I started studying French in school I discovered the Tour de France (back then it was only covered in French magazines).  I was hooked right away.  At roughly the same time I began to race on the amateur level in the Washington, DC area.  While I don't race anymore, I have continued to ride and train at near that level of speed and distances.  I love the power, skill, color and speed of the professional peloton.


Mim: Do you attend the races you paint?


Greig: While I have seen a number of races live and have been in many large amateur races, I paint all of the races from either TV broadcasts on from online feeds.  The primary advantage as that I can avail myself of the multiple mobile cameras, helicopters and stationary camera positions to get a feel for the complete story of the day's racing.  If I were trying to paint the races on site, I would need to be sitting backwards on a motorcycle in the middle of the races.  While that sounds exciting (albeit rather dangerous) I would be limited by where I could be at any given moment.  Often there is one story in one group on the road and completely different equally important story being played out several kilometers ahead or behind.  I do paint all of the work in as close to real time as possible without knowing the results of the day, so that I can bring that immediacy to the painting.  Telling the story as it unfolds.

Mim: Will you be doing any images from the UCI races?

Greig: I will be the Official Artist for the UCI World Road Racing Championships in Richmond.  The plan is for me to use the same methodology I have been employing to capture the racing with pen and brush, but to do it live near the finishing line for each stage.  We will be doing video capture from the race video feeds and viewers will be able to watch a close circuit video of me painting the pieces (think of a typical cooking show over head camera).  As I complete each painting, we will scan the originals and print a limited edition Giclee print of each image.  So fans will be able to watch the race go by, watch me paint what they just saw on the street and then buy a print of the painting all in the span of a half hour.  All of the works that I create will then be collected into my second book on bike racing along with my annotations about the action in the paintings and why it is important.  The new book, "The World Rolls into Richmond - Art of the 2015 UCI World Road Racing Championships" will be similar in concept to my recently published, "Book de Tour - Art of the 101st Tour de France"


Greig's book is available on his website HERE.