We've received so many fabulous comments from letterboxing friends on our
handcut stamp art that I wax poetical. Thanks to everyone for your
encouragement!

Most of my stamps are semi-original art. I haven't had any luck with the
acetone-transfer method: it always seems too runny or too smudgy or
not-detailed-enough. So I just draw the images directly onto the erasers with
marker before cutting.

I like working with the ink and the vinyl, that shift into right brain mode
where time slows down and spatial relationships clarify. My day to day
concerns and problems recede to hum along in the background, unnoticed, and
sometimes even self-solve. It's like hypnosis or meditation, quietly
restorative, invigorating. Then, on awakening from the reverie, the fun in
seeing my own work there on paper!

I've been studying drawing at the local art academy for a few years and have
become very good technically at copying art work and at drawing the usual
studio stuff (chairs, vases, shoes, my own hand until it cramps). I enjoy it
very much but haven't yet made the leap to true creativity that makes one an
"artist." So most of our stuff is copied and modified a bit to suit.

I like to carve in-situ, on the site in the woods or shore where the
letterbox is going. Sitting on a rock in the spring green at Hartman or on a
bench with osprey fluttering in Hadlyme...heaven! My son is usually along,
throwing rocks or playing with the binoculars or gps. He's in his own world
so doesn't often notice me disappearing into mine. I wish I was good enough
to draw his face, now, in this last bit of time before he steps out of
childhood and leaves this person in memory.

As people who have collected our stamp images know, I have the hardest time
with the lettering. There's something a bit too linear and structured about
print, and my handwriting isn't very good, and flipping the letters backwards
seems much harder than the flow of a good picture. I'm signed up this session
for a calligraphy course, hoping that'll improve my stamps a bit more. I just
wonder what the instructor will think when I do everything in mirror-image...

So a big part of letterboxing for me is making art. Instead of exhibiting at
MoMA, I sneak out deep into the woods, listen to the snow falling, and leave
my work under a rock to wait for you and, hopefully, a happy dance.

xoxox,
Jay in CT
P337X303F123

Recommended:
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0874774241/qid=1041961622/sr=2-1/ref=sr

_2_1/104-2559139-5239100

MasterCarve carving medium:
http://www.dickblick.com/zz404/00/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=5195

Mirkwood's Carving Lessons:
http://mirkwooddesigns.com/index.htm

Carving Consortium:
http://www.negia.net/~unity/