Editing Mail art (section)

==Characteristics==

Media commonly used in mail art include postcards, paper, a collage of found or recycled images and objects, rubber stamps, artist-created stamps (called [[artistamps]]), and paint, but can also include music, sound art, poetry, or anything that can be put in an envelope and sent via post. Mail art is considered art once it is dispatched. Mail artists regularly call for thematic or topical mail art for use in (often [[unjuried]]) exhibition.<ref name=MOCA /><ref name=UB>{{cite web|title=Mail Art|url=http://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/LIB-PC001|work=Digital Collections, [[University at Buffalo]] Libraries|access-date=11 April 2013}}</ref>

Mail artists appreciate interconnection with other artists. The art form promotes an egalitarian way of creating that frequently circumvents official art distribution and approval systems such as the art market, museums, and galleries. Mail artists rely on their alternative "outsider" network as the primary way of sharing their work, rather than being dependent on the ability to locate and secure exhibition space.<ref name=Oberlin>{{cite web|title=Mail Art @ Oberlin|url=http://www.oberlin.edu/library/art/mailart/|publisher=[[Oberlin College Library|Oberlin College Art Library]]|access-date=11 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403130316/http://www.oberlin.edu/library/art/mailart/|archive-date=3 April 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=[[Richard Kostelanetz]]|author2=H. R. Brittain|title=A Dictionary of the Avant-gardes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZX85xdr6boC|year=2001|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-93764-1|page=388}}</ref>

Mail art can be seen as anticipating the cyber communities founded on the Internet.<ref name=Spark /><ref name=MarkBloch>{{cite journal|last=Bloch|first=Mark|author-link=Mark Bloch (artist)|journal=New Observations, No. 126, the Art is in the Mail(ing)|date=Summer 2000|url=http://www.panmodern.com/newobservations.html|title=Communities Collaged: Mail Art and The Internet|access-date=15 January 2022}}</ref>