Mail art or "correspondence art" are terms coined in the 1960's which refer to the exchange of artwork through the postal system. Ray Johnson, perhaps the first mail artist stated that,.... Correspondence is "a way to convey a message or a kind of idea to someone which is not verbal; it is not a confrontation of two people. It's an object which is opened in privacy, probably, and the message is looked at...You look at the object and, depending on your degree of interest, it very directly gets across to you what is there..." The images in this gallery show a variety of techniques; watercolor, gouache, oil on gessoed paper and collage. Some are studio pieces while others were executed on the spot, "en plein aire" and, self-adressed, were mailed back to the artist's home in Mexico. In addition to the drawings or paintings on these cards and envelopes, Miller has occasionally affixed his own pseudo-stamps, usually employing his own paintings as artwork. Some of his more recent mail art pieces sent to friends also include letters illustrated with drawings.
"The purpose of mail art, an activity shared by many artists throughout the world, is to establish an aesthetical communication between artists and common people in every corner of the globe, to divulge their work outside the structures of the art market and outside the traditional venues and institutions: a free communication in which words and signs, texts and colours act like instruments for a direct and immediate interaction." - Loredana Parmesani.