User:LacelleH/sandbox/GOOPMAILART

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GOOPMAILART ... Long before the internet or knowing about the MAIL ART phenomenon, Peter Evanchuck and Helene Lacelle were sharing with friends hundreds or original one of a kind improvised location art pieces from their many 'on the road' international travels. Back then the post office would accept and forward almost all sorts and shapes of mail art. So a recipient might get a menu from an obsolete diner in Mesquite, Nevada or a scrap of paper found in a deserted house in Winnipeg, Manitoba - sometimes it would include a story or a quote or the 'object d'art' would arrive in it's original form, shape and content; since the object was designated as a unique art piece.

'Everywhere we went, the Arctic, North or South America, Europe, I'd often take out my markers and stickers and begin altering existing postcards or local ephemera and create 'mail art' says Helene Lacelle. " It was all good, creative fun, shared and enjoyed by all. We knew that most artists were generous souls who never made much money and usually made art because they had the need to create."

Then in 2007 they met a CBC video editor /illustrator, Dave Horemann, who displayed on a clothesline from wall to wall in his kitchen, using clothespins to hang his own pencil drawings and his newly received international mailart. He called his Gallery 'MOOP' ((Gallery Of Ornamental Post'). It was a very unique, free and shared exchange of creative works and thoughts. His mini gallery inspired them to create their own version which they called GOOP ( Gallery Of Ornamental Post ).

Dave gave Peter and Helene a list of participating artists from around the world and from there they mailed out to these participants original ART cards and in return received posted art back - it was a free and fun world art exchange.

From then on they became GOOP curators holding workshops at schools, universities and community centres from Ontario to the Maritimes promoting the idea of ART participation for all ages and levels of creative abilities.

It was customary for the curators to bring mail-art on all their trips, they would hold up a piece of original mail-art in the foreground of various backgrounds from places they found interesting around the world - in Niagara's Falls or Ottawa's Rideau Canal or the Fair in Milwaukee. This enhanced the visual appeal for the viewer and placed it in the moving, creative world  around them.

With thousands of pieces of original mailart received since 2007, some of their massive collection can be viewed on their their site goopmailart.blogspot.com or hanging on a clothesline in some venue somewhere in the world.

Awards
GOLDEN WHEAT AWARDS Best Short Doc

Cast

 * Augustus Larrow
 * Robert Payne