Two of My Favorite Words -- MAIL and ART

Just as I was getting used to loading my photos in reverse order so they would appear in the correct order, Blogger ups and fixes it in the new interface. 'Bout time. This post concerns my love of and never-ending search for two words: MAIL and ART. I prefer to cut them out of junk mail and magazines, but sometimes they are difficult to find. Then I have to resort to alternative measures. This first photo shows hand-drawn letters I clipped out of an ad for a man's shirt in the L.L.Bean catalog. I like to glue these words onto my letters, just in case there's any doubt. Sometimes my ART is brought into question.

One thing I know for sure is that it's a heck of a lot harder to find the word "MAIL" than it is to find the word "ART". That is, if one discounts the word on all those Business Reply Mail cards and envelopes. I use them sometimes and you can see a few in the photo above, but they are not a good size. All the rest I had to piece together ransom note style.

The word "ART" is much easier to spot. It hides in words like Kmart Smart, in magazine titles such as Smart Money. Even Martha Stewart helps the cause with art hiding in both her first and last names. And we all know how ubiquitous Martha is.

Then, check out all these instances of the word. I found all of them in a single school supply catalog.

Finally, with all this talk about mail art, I thought it only fitting to include a piece. This one adds to my MailArt 365 count. I'm woefully behind.