Help me launch my LOST ART Project!!

I love to write notes and letters and send them in the mail.  To me that snail mail sortof thing has become a "Lost Art"  

When I interviewed at The Bureau to present my collage work, Sara offered me three opportunities. 1. to vend  2. to teach 3. to be an artist of the month with a display in the window!!

What a gal that Sara is...

I asked if I could have all three!

She enthusiastically agreed!

It never occurred to me to sell my journal pages. What a great idea!! Plus I completely adore teaching.  Thinking about the window opportunity had me ponder the idea about a collective of envelopes and collage.

So ...I did some random test sendings.

I did tests because I wanted to find the best method of assembly and return.

My envelope collage skills are a tad rusty.

It took three sendings before I found what I felt worked best. 

The first envelope was clunky, heavy and lacked cohesiveness.

It took way too long to make.

By the third sending I had simplified it all, and I was delighted.

What I feared most was that the turn over or return would be slow.

and it has been. and some...have not made it back to me yet.   

However the results or visual that I am hoping for is coming together.

SO....

I am ready to officially launch the project.

I am penciled in for a JUNE window presence as featured artist of the month.

Wheeeee!!

This is where YOU can be of HELP.

TWO very simple ways to participate: 

1. collage an envelope and send it to me.  use a mailing label or the like that can be torn off ( i want to remove actual addresses to protect folks/ my privacy ) 

Not sure how to collage an envelope? I will post a tutorial soon. 

OR

2. let me send a collaged envelope to you - and all you have to do is return that to me. I will provide an envelope!

One of my goals with the project is to have the envelope collages look like they have been on a posted journey. 

In my head I have an idea of what the display will look like.  

I have to execute it on a dime of a budget.

VERY excited to see how it turns out. 

My very first envelope collage was created in 2009.  I called it a collage-e-lope, and I sent it to my friend Margaret. I was inspired by the image of these bowls. The vessels reminded me of a journal she had given me and her admirable non-profit work in Haiti. She had been a recipient of another collage I did for her when her husband died. As I was stumbling with making the first test envelope a card arrived in the mail from her. Her smiling face nudged me. She was who I sent my first envelope to. That first envelope collage was not my best. Just too thick, and bubbly and globby.  Gotta love the return note she tucked in!

as I experimented I got much better at laying down the torn images and not having the envelope be so chunky. I thought by painting the entire thing with mod podge that it would make the envelope heartier during a mailing.  I wasn't clear that I liked the way they looked though. Plus it made making an envelope a several day process, which had me feel impatient and took away the immediate moment for me.

This last batch I sent was a breeze to make. I had three ready to go in just one day and some were vessels that held thank you gifts for my most recent trip. Really felt good to notch up my gratitude with an art collage. 

What a fun way to correspond.   

ugh, my camera strap is in this shot. 

Over the years I collaged randomly like this when the gesture called for something more but nothing significant or on purpose!

Pretty stoked to see how this all becomes.