This is What Happens When Your Son is an Artist
“I’m always picking stuff up to use in my journals, scraps of garbage that other people don’t even notice.” ~ My son, Josh.
When my husband, Joe, and I were in Asheville this past April, visiting my potter son, Josh, Joe scribbled some phone numbers on a piece of mail that he found in my car and then left it by mistake in Josh’s studio. It was a Red Cross CPR card, reflecting my most recent training, something I need for respite foster care work I do, and something I wouldn’t look too kindly on doing over. I asked Josh to look for it and to please mail it back.
Getting mail from Josh can be memorable event. The last time he sent me something in the mail I wanted to savor his handmade envelope art and was hesitant to rip it open. “It’s like getting a greeting card that you don’t even have to open. You could just send out envelopes like that with nothing inside them,” I told him.
Not only does it appear that Josh’s collage art is spilling over into postcards, by the looks of his most recent mailing to me, he has taken my advice to keep making envelope art to heart.
Inside the decorated envelope, fashioned from a page of art history notes, was a photo of an egg in a frying pan. Next to it a notebook was opened to a message that read: Hey Josh, I was in your class this fall and I was wondering if you have any (pottery) seconds for sale. On the back of the collaged photo, in Josh’s handwriting, the note to me said: Just letting you know that breakfast is still my favorite meal.
The CPR card was also enclosed, but it seemed dwarfed and insignificant amongst the rest.
Is art a luxury or a necessity? The mother of invention?
“I don’t even have any regular envelopes,” Josh later told me.
June 7th, 2006 9:42 am
I have a couple of friends that do this, on the rare occasions that we exchange real cards or gifts. Always a delight to see, but these days of electronic communication are making the occasions more infrequent.
June 7th, 2006 9:49 am
I bet all those who receive his bill payments wonder what he will come up with next.
June 7th, 2006 9:52 am
I used to create stamp art all over my envelopes. Now I barely write a letter! That’s why getting one of Josh’s envelopes is such an event and because it’s rare to get anthing of interest via the mail these days.
June 7th, 2006 10:14 am
Hi – Michele sent me today. Your son’s creativity is wonderful!
June 7th, 2006 11:07 am
I love to get letters. We have lost the art of letter writing. He is so creative, I can’t stand it!
June 7th, 2006 1:07 pm
I don’t have any regular envelopes. 🙂 He, he.
Seems to me I’d be looking for things for him to mail to me all the time.
June 7th, 2006 2:26 pm
He Certainly Makes It Exciting doesnt he!
June 7th, 2006 5:07 pm
When I was in college, I got mail regularly from a guy I had dated briefly while in high school. His envelopes were works of art and I am so sorry that I didn’t save any of them. Please keep Josh’s stuff (although I think you do)!
June 7th, 2006 5:31 pm
A guy after my own heart!
June 7th, 2006 6:22 pm
It’s easy to see he comes by his artistic nature honestly. How long do you suppose it takes him to put these mailable works of art together? They’re gorgeous.
June 7th, 2006 9:26 pm
Can’t remember the last time I received a personal letter.
June 7th, 2006 10:23 pm
Josh’s envelopes are awesome. He can’t miss a chance for creative expression can he?
It reminded me of when Amy and I were dating. We sent a lot of letters in those days and I spent enormous amounts of time drawing on her envelopes. Usually much more time was spent on the envelope than on the letter itself. Some were ridiculously elaborate. I always wondered what the postal carriers thought about them. We found them recently when bringing things home from her mother’s house. We did the same thing with boxes when sending video tapes to her mother after Jackson was born. She didn’t throw any of them away and we found those too.
June 7th, 2006 10:46 pm
I have some pretty nicely decorated love letters from when Joe and I were first together and he was in St. Croix for 3 months doing construction after Hurricane Hugo. With email now I wonder, will anyone have those boxes full of love letters to re-read when they get older anymore?
June 9th, 2006 6:59 pm
Love this! “Is art a luxury or a necessity?” I have on my wall a quote from Marilyn vos Savant, whose column appears in Parade magazine. She answered a question from reader Nick Hanson (Woodbury, MN), who wrote, “Do you think we would be as advanced today if the famous philosophers, mathematicians, etc., had never lived?” Her answer: “Probably. The ones who become famous aren’t the ones who are doing the day-to-day work that makes a civilization advance. Besides, if those particular people hadn’t lived, others would have made the same discoveries anyway. Creative people such as artists are a major exception. They are irreplaceable.”
June 14th, 2006 10:21 am
His creativity is impressive. Have a feeling that was a gene that got passed on from you.
How neat to receive these great surprises from him via snail mail.
December 11th, 2006 5:48 pm
I am sure that you have more treasures to count from your son. It was wonderful to spend time on your blog tonight. I have two young sons and your words about him pull at my heartstrings. Thanks for that.