Attempts at restarting a snail mail way of saying Hello.
A few recent Send a Letter postcard requests.
I’ve always been someone who has loved receiving mail, particularly lately while we’re in self-isolation. By mail, I mean legitimate letters, cards or postcards, amd not some junkmail from the ever-perseverant weekly mailer called “Retail-me-Not”.
Most of my friends and acquaintances have a good laugh at my single-handed attempts of reviving the glory days of both USPS and the hand-written letter, but I believe this is because most of them haven’t received real mail in a very long time. Or EVER!
I find that for most, sitting down to write a letter is an incredibly daunting experience, which I understand to a point. However, the nice thing about sending snail mail is that by simply taking the effort to send a physical “hello”, you’ve already shown the recipient that you care. Yes, perhaps the adage “It’s the thought that counts” is really about snail mail senders!
Years back, I took part in a project called Snail Mail My Email, which is sadly now defunct. Snail Mail My Email was a community art project where volunteers would transform strangers' emails into handwritten letters, and include a hand-drawn image of the email-writer’s request. I really enjoyed this project, especially because it combined my love of art, and my love of mail.
In the last few weeks of quarantine, I’ve felt increasingly overwhelmed by technological communication. As much as I enjoy receiving messages, emails, Zoom calls inquiring how I am doing, it is a lot. While on a walk, and away from my laptop and phone, I thought about how nice it would be to get mail asking about how I am so i could sit down at my desk and actually think about how I am doing instead of sending a passive, “Good; you?” over DM, IM or text.
Thus came about sending a letter with customized art on it ala Snail Mail my Email. Why not make someone else hand write and mail something to someone you love? Why not continue to combine my love of art and mail for the benefit of those who are going through a hard and potentially overwhelming time right now?
Currently I offer three different service types for Send a Letter: postcard , greeting card, and a full-on letter. Pricing includes postage, materials (such as paper, paint and envelopes) and the rest goes to my time and art.
“Why wouldn’t I just do this myself?” you might be asking yourself. Well, why don’t you! While I always appreciate the support of my art - especially right now being laid-off and all - what I am really trying to promote is sending happiness to someone who is having a rough time. Or someone who is doing ok, but a piece of mail just makes them smile even more. Maybe you don’t have the materials to do so. Maybe you feel as if you don’t have the time and sending mail keeps getting pushed back. That’s why I am doing this.
I also created a short stop-motion animation called Snail Mail for Tiger as a little advertisement for the service. Stop-motion is something I’ve always wanted to try, so shoot - I had the time to do it.
If you have questions about the Send a Letter service, do not hesitate to send me an email via the Contact form.
To order postcards, greeting cards or letters, head to the shop: www.amandamjorgenson.com/shop/send-a-letter!
