ARTS

Marvelous
Mail

Oak Park artist
Marie "Maxie" Snell
has organized an exhibit of
mail art called "Peace in Our Time."

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM

Assistant Editor

lthough Ma-
rie Snell
hasn't re-
ceived any-
one's ashes
in the mail
yet, her friend
Cracker Jack has.

Cracker Jack, also known
as Chuck Welch of Hanover,
N.H., opened a letter from a
fellow mail artist. Out came
what looked like black dust.
Attached was a tag, "the last
mortal remains of my aunt."
Snell, a mail artist who
lives in Oak Park, laughs
when she remembers that
story. But she doesn't think
it's particularly unusual.
She's used to seeing bizarre
things in the mail. All mail
artists are. They love it.
Mail art is none of that
highbrow stuff — no pain-

76 FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1990

tings that sell in the mill-
ions, no artists ready to ex-
pound on the psychological
references in and profound
implications of their
squiggles. Mail art is dec-
orating an envelope or a
scrap of paper and, voila, a
new work of art is born.
A word of advice: mail art
is not for the would-be
Donald Trumps of the world.
Mail art is "art you give
away," Snell explains. Start
selling it, and you've entered
that chilling world that mail
artists call "establishment
art."
Snell, who holds a degree
in design from the Univer-
sity of Michigan, has spent
much of her time these past
months collecting submis-
sions from mail artists for
the exhibit, "Peace in Our
Time," at the Oak Park
Library. The exhibit runs
through March 10.
As she finishes prepara-

tions for the show, Snell re-
views pieces of mail art in
large paper bags at a studio
upstairs in her home. The
room is decorated with
plants sitting on a bay
window, a white bust of
Brahms, a standing woodcut
of her beloved Betty Boop,
Snell's painting of the
Detroit Pistons and huge
chunks of multicolored glass
for her stained-glass works.
In addition to her mail art
talents, Snell has been mak-
ing stained-glass portraits
for many years.
She keeps a picture of her
father and a stained-glass
portrait of a biker she calls
"my alter ego" in her studio.
She has numerous photos of
her late husband, John,
whom she met when the two
were in the Marine Corps.
"I saw that recruitment
poster of Uncle Sam, and I
thought he was pointing
right at me," she says of her

11--
c

cD

Marie Snell with exhibits for
"Peace in Our Time."

decision to join the service.
Snell sought contributions
for the Oak Park show by
sending fliers around the
world. Included are collages,
poems and prints by mail ar-
tists in Italy, Uruguay,
Belgium, England, Canada,
Guatemala and the United
States. Among the items on
display are a work by a Boy
Scout troop in Nebraska, a
set of pink-and-white metal
hands holding origami birds,
and two clear bells drawn by
Bern Porter, third in com-
mand on the Manhattan Pro-
ject to build the atom bomb.
Just down the hall from
her studio is the room where
Snell keeps her rubber
stamps. She has more than
2,000 of them, many of
which she designed herself
and, like many other mail
artists, uses on her own mail
art.
They're all packed away
neatly and tightly in a 30-

