I’ve had a love of Art & Letters for quite some time now.

When I was in high school I used to write letters and decorate them and send them to one of my best friends. As an artist, I think it is a powerful way to express one’s self, the mix of words with one’s art.

I grew up in North Seattle and she on Mercer Island. We mostly saw each other at church on Sundays, if that. She came to our church because she was a friend of one of the other girls at church. She didn’t come every Sunday. But Marianne and I connected. She was a writer and I was an artist. We became kindred spirits. And there is something about art and writing that goes hand in hand. So we would write letters to each other during the week. We weren’t much into talking on the phone but letters were a different sort.

Our letters were filled with every day things. Marianne would write poetry and I would illustrate it. We would share with each other poems, sayings or lyrics from songs that inspired us. We probably wrote over a hundred letters during those high school years. I still have mine from her, stored in a big, yellow manila envelope. I’m not sure why I hang on to them except it is fun to read them and let them tug the memories back in mind. Oh, the memories from those teen years! We sure had fun and much to learn!

My letter writing led to being interested in books on artists and their letters. I began to collect books on the topic. You might have read a few of them yourself or if not, I recommend the following.

There is the book about Van Gogh titled “The  Letters of Vincent van Gogh” . I really enjoyed it because I came to understand more about the artist and what he was going through while he was creating his paintings. Or another book I love is “Georgia O’Keeffe: Art and Letters“. It really inspired me! One comes to understand the life she chose to live and why she made those choices. Her art is beautifully displayed. I always eat it up when I’m looking at O’Keefe’s work and then paired with her words, it’s really a treat!

Really, even the mundane things one writes about becomes a tribute to the artist, a diary of sorts and one can piece the events together to get a good idea of what life might have been like for them. When I read their letters, it makes me want to write and document my own life.

Another favorite book is Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. In reading this book of letters, you will come to understand what it means to be an artist and a person living an authentic life. You can read the 10 letters here>

Then there is Letters to a Young Artist. This book contains about two dozen letters by established artists to a fictitious “young artist,” a recent art-school graduate who is weighing the practical implications of being an artist in New York. This is a great book. I like this excerpt written by Xu Bing to the young artist:

“…My viewpoint is that wherever you live, you will face that place’s problems. If you have problems then you have art. Your plight and your problems are actually the source of your artistic creation. The majority of young artists who come to New York to develop their careers are eager to enter the mainstream. But a majority of people like you have to spend time working other jobs to support their costs of living here. It may seem like you are wasting time that could be used for creating art, but you needn’t actually worry about this too much. On the one hand, as long as you are a true artist every field that you are engaged in outside of art circles—living and working—will produce treasure, which sooner or later will be used in the creation of your art….” I like that our experiences are the treasure that is the subject matter of our art. So true.

I’ve also had an interest in “Mail Art” which is taking postcard size paper, decorating it with art and then putting a stamp on it and mailing it. I love this concept of original Art through the Mail. Often you can find Call for Artist submissions for Mail Art Exhibitions if you do a search on Google.

And if you want to send a postcard to someone just for the fun of it, check out postcrossing.com Their website says, “send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!” I’ve sent a few postcards on Postcrossing and it’s pretty fun to receive them back.

And this leads me to my new Art Greeting Cards. I’ve always loved Greeting Cards and have purchased certain inspiring cards to put up in my studio just so I can look at the image. Currently I’m working on a new set of Raven note cards and Peace Tree Greeting Cards. They will be for sale soon in my Etsy Shop. Here’s a sneak peek.

Raven Notecards – 4.5″ x 6.25″

Peace Tree Greeting Cards – 5″ x 7″

If you were to write someone, who would it be?

Write a letter today on a great art card and bring a little joy into someone’s life.

Peace to you!