Posted 11:17 AM by brad
Postal clerk rejects nude
Art show invites too blue for mail

By Maureen Nandini Mitra
Times Herald-Record
mmitra@th-record.com

Washingtonville. Return to sender. too much T&A.
The post office said a postcard invitation to Bodyscapes,an exhibit of nude paintings in Washingtonville, pushed the envelope.
The postcard featured a delicately curved nude woman sitting in profile. But a local postal clerk deemed it inappropriate for public mailing.
Bodyscapes opened on Super Bowl Sunday.
That day, the painting's artist, Bridget Herbst of Walden, viewed a crotch-grabbing halftime show, tasteless commercials and a little more of Janet Jackson than she cared to see.
"All that could be on TV and my simple little lady didn't go through the mail," Herbst said. "The fodder of wet dreams ... is foisted on the populace on every turn, while the quiet glory of the delicately posed naked human form is judged as offensive to the masses."
In response to the post office's decision, the nude, "Moody Blue," was yanked from the invitation. Instead, a text-only invite was sent by the organizers, the Washingtonville Art Society.
This isn't the first time the post office has acted a censor.
Postcard invites for Bodyscapes were returned last year to the society president, Dani McIntosh.
The mailings had a charcoal drawing of a female figure. McIntosh said her mail carrier told her the mailings were probably returned because the drawing showed too much buttocks.
She ended up reprinting the invites and folding and sealing them to hide the drawing.
This year, she decided to check with the post office before printing out the latest invites.
No go, said the clerk across the counter at the Washingtonville post office after taking one look at Herbst's nude.
"It seems like a very harsh judgment for something that is very benign," said Richard Schwartz, chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts, after looking at Herbst's painting.
Added McIntosh: "I guess there's a code about nudity in the mail."
Not quite.
The U.S. Postal Service's domestic mail manual says postal officials are not permitted to decide what's inappropriate for mailing, USPS spokesman Tony Musso said yesterday.
A post office can only take action when a customer complains about receiving unsolicited mail containing graphic material, Musso said.
In that case, postal officials send a warning to the sender. If the mailings continue, the post office can refuse to deliver any further mailings by the sender.
Musso said no one at the Washingtonville post office recalls having advised McIntosh about the invites. But McIntosh insists she consulted a male clerk at the post office.
The argument about nudity in art isn't new to our region.
Two years ago, a painting of a woman breast-feeding her infant by Montgomery artist Shawn Dell Joyce was banished from a Stewart International Airport exhibit.
The rationale? It made some travelers uncomfortable. The move created an uproar and had breast-feeding advocates picketing the airport.
"There's such a dichotomy in our culture," Herbst said. "The figure as a piece of art has trouble being displayed whereas a woman as a sex symbol is okey-dokey."