This article in today’s P-I got me thinking about my own small foray into mail art. It was the early 80’s. I was living in Monterey, while my girlfriend of the time was living in Sacramento. We sent letters to each other all the time – probably three or four a week, if we were feeling especially prolific. Since she was a fine art major, she used to draw stuff on the envelopes. I was very impressed, and felt the need to respond in kind. Since I’m not terribly, um, gifted with a pen in my hand, I took to assembling collages on the exterior of my envelopes. (Actually, I think I may have sent off a couple of doodles in crayon at some point.) In the late 80’s, I carried on a similar correspondence with another girlfriend in another town – this time I was in Sacramento and she was in Palo Alto. She was a better writer than she was an artist, but she made a few collages herself. And while the content of the letters was very important at the time, as I think back on that time I have to admit that at least half the excitement was in seeing what they’d come up with for the envelope. I know I put as much time into creating my mail art as I did in writing the actual letter, and I suspect that it was the same for my correspondents.
It was a lot of fun. I do miss getting letters in the mail. Email is very efficient and speedy, of course, but it does seem to lacking a certain something. Turning on the computer and logging on to my email site, I don’t really get that same sense of anticipation I used to get from going out to the mailbox to see what might be waiting.
As Summer drags out its extended conclusion and Autumn waits in the wings for its cue, I’m finding myself itching to create… something. I don’t really know what just yet. I suppose that one could consider what I do here creative, but only just. When I was dating the Sacramento art student, a friend of hers once told me, “If it takes more than an hour to do it, it’s art”. Well, OK. I’ve never studied art much beyond the Art History course I took way back when, but I’ll accept that theory. I can usually knock out a basic blog post in about 45 minutes, I guess – I’ve never actually timed it, but that sounds about right. So, if we go by the one hour rule, this ain’t art.
Now Science Girl, she paints. Not very often, but she does do it from time to time. I wish she would paint more often, because she’s really quite good. Both her parents were talented, so she comes by it honestly. Her father made some outstanding ceramic pieces, which we have on display throughout Science Manor. Science Mom works in the textile arts. Here’s a link to a gallery of some of her tapestries. Those thumbnails really don’t do her work justice; for one thing, her pieces tend to be on the large side. She also employs a lot of very intricate beadwork that doesn’t really photograph well. On my side of the family… well, let’s be kind and say that we’re appreciators rather than artists. Hey, somebody’s gotta be in the audience, right?
So I can’t draw or paint. I mean, I could, of course, but I’m not proficient enough to get whatever ideas I might have into a recognizable shape. I can sorta write, a little, and I’m not a terrible cook. Those seem to be my creative outlets at the moment. We’ll see if I actually get off my ass and do something about any of this, but the urge is there. I just need to act on it now.