Write To Me...

I love it when a plan comes together

I had a kind of traffic jam of ideas recently that initially looked like individual cars all going in different places once the lights had changed, but after reading

Caitlyn

post this morning (thank you

Nicole Costello

) Things You Can Do This Weekend Instead Of Being On Your Phone, it made me realise they were all travelling in the same direction in a rather splendid way.

I’ve been at my mum and dad’s for most of the week while we got my dad out of hospital and (tentatively) back on his feet. Being weirdly busy in a way that involves lots of waiting around gives a person a lot of time to think, and in order not to think about sad and difficult things all the time, I have been thinking about my art practice and how to move forward with some of the nine thousand ideas I have in my head. I was talking about this with my daughter Tilly, who is an artist, and she remarked on how lucky it is that I have so many things I want to make as most people she knows, including herself only have the vaguest idea. It is great, but also overwhelming at times. I find it difficult to decide which project to begin. I get bogged down in procrastination.

When I got back to the boat on Thursday, there was a terrific pile of post waiting for me. Some truly gorgeous flowers from

Katherine May

, a Moomin stuffed parcel from my friends Fern and Maggie and a card from my friend Kaz. The picture at the top of this post is the card. It’s a print of one of Kaz’s paintings. She’s a wonderful artist. One of her pieces got accepted for the RA Summer Exhibition this year and the whole print run sold out before the show even opened to the public. You can find her stuff here.

It was so nice to come home to post that wasn’t in an envelope with a window or with a plastic pen and a heart rending description of something brutal, imploring you for money inside. It made me think about how when I was a student, I would write to my friends and family all the time and how much fun it was. The post by Caitlyn this morning suggested that one of the things you could do instead of going on your phone, was start writing to people using snail mail again. Yes! I thought, with the power of a thousand exclamation marks, but the iron will of a woman determined not to telegraph how old she is by using them all.

Some of the art projects I have on my to do list are quite large and unwieldy. Some of them, as I initially envisaged them, require a lot of space or skills I don’t have, or need the help of others to make happen. These are the things that have been on my list for literally years. I just haven’t known where to start with it all, or so I told myself. This week, perched on one of many uncomfortable hospital chairs I realised that I had been lying to myself a bit with regard to this. I didn’t know how to make a ceramic lion, but I found a way to make one. I didn’t know how to sew a giant Mother Monster, but I figured it out. I never really know how to make the things I make, but that doesn’t usually stop me. What I realised with these old projects was that I was waiting for somebody to give me permission to start. Which is bullshit. So I am giving myself permission and I’m going to start.

I have thought about ways that I can begin to make the things I want in a less ambitious and more achievable way and I will, slowly and erratically be starting to use this space to realise them in over the coming weeks and months.

One of the things that I am really interested in is Mail Art, which became a big thing in the Fifties and Sixties, although the Tate says that Marcel Duchamp did it first. I wonder at that, because Duchamp was a terror for nicking ideas and claiming he thought of them. Anyway, mail art does what it says on the tin. You gather a bunch of people together and send each other bits of art in the mail. We’re not talking about framed oil paintings here. It’s usually small stuff that fits in envelopes. It can be anything: writing, collage, a leaf, a drawing on the back of a take away menu.

Anyway, I thought I’d like to have a crack at it. If you’re interested in mail arting with me, DM me and we can exchange addresses. As the art will only be small and light, I am happy to extend my mail based nonsense to people overseas as well. You do not have to send me anything in return unless you want to, although if you want to, that would also be really lovely.

The idea is that it is supposed to be pleasurable and fun. As such, I am not committing to sending everyone things all the time. I don’t want to turn it into a brutal punishment full of resentment and obligation. It will be more along the lines of a delicious surprise in the post, appearing from time to time, as and when the mood grabs me.

What do you think?