From: Joey Patrickt (Oakland, CA)

The Lyons' Den has been corresponding with a certain Mr. Joey Patrickt since July 2018. At the time I was five months into mail art - a mere cub trying to understand all the ins and outs of the Eternal Network. ​

Envelope from Joey Patrickt, addressed to UPROAR (my mail art zine).

Up until recently my mail art exchange with Joey P. had consisted of add & pass sheets. I will admit that this naive mail art cub approached (for the most part) outgoing mail like this:
​

• get a piece of original art, mail a piece of original art
• get a post card, mail a post card
• get add & passes, mail add & passes

​
You get the idea. Probably not the best way to handle outgoing mail, but I'd like to think that I've evolved over these months.

I am pleased to have friended Joey Patrickt on Facebook. This connection has afforded me the opportunity to know more about Joey's art, and to learn about his lengthy involvement with mail art. This knowledge prompted me to exchange more than add & pass sheets with Joey. 

So in late May 2019 I sent a copy of my mail art zine, UPROAR, to Joey Patrickt. In return, Joey wrote a nice post about UPROAR on his Facebook page, Eat IT UP Magazine of Art and Culture. About a week later I received two issues of  the former Eat IT UP zine in the mail, "for inspiration" according to Joey's note.

Two issues of Eat IT UP, Magazine of Art and Culture: (L) Issue 38 Mid-November 1983, (R) Issue 28, Late May 1983.

What a thrill to receive a sampling of Eat IT UP. Joey sent me Issue 28 (Late May 1983) and Issue 38 (Mid-November 1983). The publication was photocopied - printed on both sides of an 8 1/2" x 11" page, and folded into quarters. Upon my review I noticed that each issue was loaded with lots of content, including awesome artwork and regular features.

I wanted to find out more about Eat IT UP, so I decided to message Joey with some questions. His email response provided me with details about the publication.

Eat IT UP Magazine of Art and Culture was published from 1981 to 1986, with a total of 46 issues.  Joey mentioned that the magazine "started during the San Francisco Bay punk era - a free DIY publication." Initially it was a free local zine - handed out at "hip shops." Eventually the zine became a popular tool for mail art activities, and was sent to people around the globe. To offset the cost of photocopying and mailing, some subscriptions were sold. 

There was a consistency with the publication, as it had regular features in each issue. The regular features included:

• WHAT IS ART TO A POSTURBAN ARTIST? - this philosophical question was the first regular feature and main topic. It was Joey's "take on the modern artist activities in the urban setting."
• EDITORIAL - Joey wrote about what was on his mind. 
• MAIL ART INFO - a detailed list of M-A Calls.
• MAILBOX - names and addresses of M-A correspondents.
• REVIEWS - done for art shows, performances, radio and live music shows that Joey attended (in later issues other people contributed reviews, too).
• GRAFFITI-OF-THE-WEEK - a report on "thought provoking graffiti seen in the area."
• BACK PAGE - always featured artwork from contributing artists.

A huge thanks to Joey Patrickt for sharing this wonderful zine with me. Please know, I am truly inspired!