Your Guide to EMMA: Crackerjack Kid

Chuck Welch, otherwise known in the mail art network as the Crackerjack Kid, has been an active participant in the international mail art network since 1978. Welch is a Fulbright recipient (1976) and an NEA Hilda Maehling Fellow (1981) who has written extensively about mail art. Networking Currents was self-published by Welch in 1985 and the book remains a pioneering text about mail art subjects, issues, and the evolution of mail artists as networkers. The University of Calgary Press published Welch's edition Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology in January 1995. Readers interested in acquiring this book can write to Eternal Network, PO Box 370, Etna, New Hampshire, 03750-0370.

An active visual artist, Welch continues with special mail art interests in emailart, artiststamps, mail art zines, and the role of mail artists as networkers. His M.F.A. in Studio Art at Boston Museum School (1987) was centered on the creation of handmade paper sculptures, assemblages, and intaglio prints. Welch has a papermaking studio which he has used since 1983 to create unusual conceptual handmade paper stamps that link paper fiber to commemorative subject matter. An example is Welch's Vietnam Commemorative Stampsheet , a presentation of dogtags commemorating four of his Vietnam buddies. Plaster molds were created with the actual dogtags, handmade paper was formed in the molds and later were mounted on perforated paper handmade from Welch's pulverized jungle fatigues.

Recent mail art projects include the Networker Telenetlink 1995. Welch's Telenetlink originated in 1991 when it emerged as the first effort to link the mail art and emailart communities on internet. Welch generated and distributed the first emailart lists over internet at the 1991 Sao Paulo Biennial and is continuing this list with his Emailart Directory. Readers interested in learning about the role of online emailart networkers can reach Chuck Welch's by email at Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu. or by snailmail at 19 Indian Hills Dr. Circle Pines, MN 55014, phone 612-419-2942

Return to EMMA Entrance

Tour the Emailart Gallery

Locate Emailartists in EMMA's Emailart Directory

Browse Through EMMA's Library

Emailart Exhibition, "Cyberstamps"