Mail art and Postcard exchange

Mail art is one of those things that I’ve always had an interest in but never had the opportunity to participate. Now I’m not saying that there wasn’t anything available to me - there are many lovely swaps and exchanges you can participate in -  the issue lies in my own reasons for wanting to receive and make mail art.  Something about mail art makes me think of the old and I feel lost art of pen pals. An exchange between people and with each exchange a small bond is formed until a friendship flourishes. So, I was waiting for that moment I knew it would be a great time to get involved. That moment came when Tammy from daisy yellow invited Leslie from comfortable shoes studios and I to a postcard exchanged. The moment she asked I knew I wanted to do it. I not only love both of their websites and personal artwork but more importantly they have similar ways of thinking when it comes to art and where we should focus our energy when it comes to the choppy waters of this online world.  The parameters of the exchange were simple.  We were to do postcards with perhaps a pattern or three color theme and send them out by January 31^st.  

I’m going  to talk about the two that were sent to me and then I’ll discuss a little about the ones I sent to them with links to their blogs so you can see it.

The first postcard I received was from Tammy.  She sent her postcard in an altered envelope. Inside was a beautiful card of various found and made papers that were stitched together and then circled with a gossamer bow. Also included were a lot of cool papers that were made by her and one of her signature mandalas on a paint chip card.

I received Less’ postcard a few days later.  Now Less has already gifted me more than one piece of art.  She is amazingly generous and unbelievably supportive and so I knew whatever she was going to send me I was going to love.  Leslie sent me one of her fantastic automatic drawings on watercolor paper.  I love this as it personifies who Less is right now at this moment. It’s like having a photograph of a moment in time. 

To both ladies I thank you. Let’s do that again!

Now as to my own postcards you’ll have to visit Less’ site (http://comfortableshoesstudio.com) and Tammy’s site (http://daisyellow.squarespace.com)) to see them but  I at least can talk about them a little bit.

I don’t really plan what I’m going to do ahead of time but there are certain themes that pop up in my art consistently and it was no different here.  I didn’t make the connection until I finished Leslie’s postcard. Both postcards have a watery deep theme to them.  Where as Tammy's card boasts a mermaid like portrait, Less' card has a pirate theme.  I wanted the cards to look like they could have been found in a trunk of some large ghostly ship at the bottom of the ocean floor.  Did I accomplish that?  You tell me.

In the end it was a lot of fun and I am sure to do it again.