ARCHIVES - MAILBOX ART PROJECT
By Jack Archibald
KIDS!! It’s that time of year to start sprucing up the joint. You know, put another tire on the mobile home’s roof and nail down some scrap metal over the rotted hole in the porch, all those projects simmering on the back burner. We know you’re all busy, what with the banner program starting up and the mother’s day studio shindig, the Camano Center Pole Building facelift, the bank art preview, the public art stuff, the new gallery opening, the Tazer concert series with the featured artists, but what’s one more chore to put on your list as long as you’re putting the others off?
I’m talkin, of course, about jazzing up that butt ugly mailbox you got stuck out by the road for everybody and their uncle to see. Wouldn’t it be something nice if we all started, in an ad hoc sort of way, (no, don’t run to the pawn shop yet) putting out interesting and strange and beautiful and conversational mailboxes? Sculptural or painted or plastered or funny or pretty. What’s more in-your-face art than miles and miles of adulterated postal receptacles??
Now, the South End Arts Association and Tourism Bureau was going to sponsor this thing. Set up a gazillion meetings and fundraise and apply for grants and sponsorships, put out four color brochures and press packets, the whole nine backyards. But we finally decided the best way to handle this kind of grassroots art bizness - and avoid the Homeland Security Mailbox Tampering Division --was to just go ahead and do it, one mailbox at a time. Actually, we put out two, but unless you really need extra phonebooks, one’s plenty.
The neighbors, a lot of them, painted theirs and one put a tractor on a pole and called it art. Debbi Rhodes has a great welded post-industrial one in the Country Club. It’s a start. So jump in. The water’s wet. And with any luck, maybe this thing will grow gills and evolve on its own three legs. Imagine a street that’s sprouting art. Imagine a cul-de-sac, an avenue, a two lane blacktop, the whole State Highway. Doesn’t hurt to try. Keep Camano Beautiful. Do something with that ugly box. And you might twist the neighbors’ arm too. Or pass the message to another person. Not affiliated with the Tampering Division. Thanks for letting us spam you.
- (Jack Archibald) South End Alliance for Postal Purification
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