Michael Bidner, Artistamp Creator (1944-1989)

Fifteen years ago, when the notion of a Cascadia Artpost was still an idea germinating in the head of its creator, the face-on black image on an orange postoid simply labeled "Artistamp" with an underlined Greek gamma caught my eye as I discovered what Chuck Welch aka The Crackerjack Kid called The Eternal Network. Creating and exchanging faux postage stamps and mail art soon became an important activity in my life. By that time, a decade had passed since the sad passing of Michael Bidner, the originator of the term "artistamp." But Bidner remained one of those personages, like the late Ray Johnson, that I made note of as I learned more and more about the origins of artistamps and what Michael Crane termed "correspondence art."

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Bidner's birth. Cascadia Artpost honors the memory of Michael Bidner with the issue of fifteen artistamps that reproduce designs from a sheet of sixteen that Bidner titled his "Mail Art Masterpiece." Bidner created the sheet to publicize his 1984 Artistampex, the first international exposition focused on artistamps and curated by Bidner. Artistampex was also significant for the opportunity it presented for mail artists to meet face to face. Long time networkers Harley and The Crackerjack Kid have shared with us some of their memories about this event and their relationships with Bidner.

Bidner had begun to compile a worldwide catalog of artistamps at the time of his death. His collection of 10,000 artistamps was bequeathed to the art research center Artpool in Budapest, Hungary.

Mail art correspondent Reg Côté has kindly sent Cascadia Artpost an original cover sent out by Bidner to publicize Artistampex, also illustrated with the Cascadia Artpost commemoratives.