Writing, Art, Creativity… and Postcards from Scotland

June 9, 2009 · by Joanna Paterson · in

Big words, aren’t they?  Writing.  Art.  Creativity.

We can tie ourselves in knots trying to work out what they mean.  What the relationship is between them.  If writing is art, or something ‘else’. Whether ‘art’ can ever be something we do, or only ever something other greater mortals can aspire to…

But this isn’t a post about abstract thoughts and big questions.  No, I just wanted to let you in on a project I’m involved in and an experiment I’ve signed up for.

I follow, avidly, a blog by the painter Janice Cartier.  She told us the other week about a mail art project she’s involved in.  It’s about creating works of original art on a postcard, and mailing them, with a stamp, by snail mail, to the other participants.

So far so good, and I’ll enjoy following where she goes with this as I do all the projects and experiments she shares with us on her blog.

To make it even more interesting though, Janice has extended the project to invite in some of the ‘non-artists’ who follow her blog.

I’m in.  It seemed like an offer too good to refuse: it was the chance to get a piece of original artwork from her.

Then she tempted me in by wondering whether she might get a postcard from Scotland from me as part of the project.

postcard from Scotland

But it was also the chance for me to push and extend the boundaries of what I understand by ‘art’.

Janice she got me thinking, in response to another writer, about how we could, should, think of words and writing as art:

words are art…as a writer your art would look like words….scribbled…typed.. that’s kind of the point of opening this to “Non artists” too to broaden the perception of what is art… there’s a huge narrative impulse in the art world at the moment…bet you can draw a word on a card…;-)

I haven’t the faintest idea what I’m going to create, and not too much of an idea what to do next, but I’m not worrying about it at all.  I’ve declared in advance I’m ‘not an artist’ so already peeled off the label of expectations :-)   Plus Janice is coaching us, gently, to experiment and see what happens.  To do the preparation: look for blank postcards, buy the stamps, show up.

That’s what creativity can look like sometimes. Just one thing, then the next, then another

And my mind is quietly starting to wonder what I can play with from images of Scotland, and the kind of postcards I want to send, and maybe a poem I’ll write, and the words I can then cut, splice, type, write and play with in snail mail, postcard art.

It feels good, creative, fun.  A good way to get out of some bad blogging  habits, and experiment with the pleasure of something new.

I’ll keep you posted on what I end up creating… and what arrives back through my door.

Photo Credit: Postcard from Scotland by Joanna Young

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