I am not sure what prompted me, but this Summer I started
collecting letters from ordinary people to ordinary people, primarily through
the 1930’s and 1940’s. These letters fascinate me so naturally they are finding
their way into my art.
I passionately speak of them saying “It is within the ordinary lives of ordinary people that history is truly experienced in the making. Leaders and celebrity shows only the slightest part of the story!”
So my collage featuring women’s words and Virginia Woolf and Sarah Bernhardt also features letters to a young woman named Laura Pechlis from 1944. Laura was busily working on creating a decent life for herself and corresponded primarily with other young women from her neighborhood in Brockton, Massachusetts.
It makes me so happy to read these letters. They had to write letters, beg for a response, post them, wait for the slow mail to deliver… and wait for that much hoped for response. Long distance was too expensive and telegrams only for the most urgent needs.
I have found letters that are almost text length. “Meet me here at this shop at this intersection at this hour. Can’t wait to see you!” and that’s it.
A two cent stamp and several days later and the plan is set into motion.
Another plus to this art, it is literary in a different form. It is words, it is word love, it is creativity at its finest: by ordinary people expressing themselves. Everyone wrote letters.
The art of communication from 2012 might be texts, for example, which can not readily be saved for the next or the next or the next generation. Sure, emails may be saved, but they don’t replicate the individual’s handwriting which so often is a part of their personality and style.
If you are at all interested, be watching here on my blog as
I continue to grow my Art Every Day Month projects. I am following my intuitive
nudges and staying fairly close to my themes of Women’s Sphere and Word-Love
with a slight deviation here and there.
Poet Jayne Cortez told me her version of this a little more than a year ago. "Whatever it is you love, follow it in the direction love is pointing. Take hands with love and look for whatever discoveries you may make together. You will both be delightfully surprised every time."
Who is the beneficiary?
The world all around you benefits. Your passion and love ignites others passion and love.
What could be better than that?
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© 2012 by Julie Jordan Scott
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She leads Writing Camp with JJS & next year she will be traveling throughout the US to bring this unique, fun filled creative experience to the people wherever she finds the passion & the interest.
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