Delta Kings and Queens Club, Bayou Lounge and Bubba’s Ole South Club – these are names of bars and nightclubs in the ArkLaMiss region of the South that sprang from Kuimeaux’s imagination and became subjects of three of the finest examples of his envelope art. They are among 22 pieces of envelope art included in the virtual exhibition of Kuimeaux’s art on KuimeauxArt.com. He created and used most of the illustrated envelopes to mail correspondence to friends and family, including the three shown in the video.
Kuimeaux (KEE-mo) enjoyed not only creating art on envelopes, but also selecting the postage stamps for mailing them. Once affixed to the envelope, the stamp becomes a collage element of the artwork. We see this in the three envelopes he talks about in this video. The nightclubs, located respectively in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, are on envelopes to which Kuimeaux affixed stamps from the Flags of Our Nation stamp series. In addition to state flag art, each stamp design also includes artwork that provides a “snapshot view” of the state. For Arkansas it is a drake wood duck; for Louisiana, a pelican; and for Mississippi, black bears. This small but interesting touch with the state stamps makes these three envelopes even more special.
Note: Kuimeaux mailed the three envelopes shown in the video in 2010, 10 years before the state of Mississippi responded to the George Floyd protests in 2020 and adopted a replacement flag that excluded the Confederate battle flag that had been part of the state’s flag since 1894.
This video was produced in 2023 from footage shot in 2015 in Kuimeaux’s apartment in Sherwood, Arkansas. It is presented in loving memory of Kuimeaux.