Postcards I Love You

For me they're a hallowed sliver of card which capture an experience and a moment in time that you want to share with someone else. They hint at a story and they hint at multiple stories through their combination of words, images and stamps and they create this link between two people and places and provides an indicator of what people find significant.

They are a personal treat and an investment of time. The hunt for the postcard to match the receiver is part of the fun. It matters not if it's a day trip to Bognor Regis or a fortnight in Tasmania; the quest, the ritual of finding what bounty the place has to offer is brimmed with happiness and then trying to find a stamp, engaging with locals and shopkeepers to try and determine the optimum value to ensure the speediest flight back home.

Postcards effortlessly convey distance and are a useful delayer of gratification. You can be mischievous and tell some outrageous lies on the back "killed a moose whilst getting married to Darlene last night, boy can she Howl!"

This is sure to get the postman gossiping with your next door neighbour or you can just give a salute and provide some banal information like "the weather is here, wish you were lovely". The restriction of that A6 canvas is hugely satisfying because you can never convey all that you wish to express, but you have to come to understanding that this space is all you're even going to have.

This is an invitation. An invitation to everybody, no matter where or who you are. If you feel like you don't have enough postcards in your life, send me one with your address to my address and let's strike up a postal relationship.

The postcard - how I love the postcard.

The Wonderful World of Postcrossing

Today has seen postal cards arriving from afar as well as some little beauties I've sent out arriving on international door steps around the world. The beauty of postcrossing.

The goal of postcrossing is to allow people to receive postcards from all over the world! If you send a postcard, you will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser from somewhere in the world. The element of the unknown, of receiving postcards from different people and places around the world turns my mailbox into a box of surprises. You edit a small profile saying whatever you want, what type of cards you like etc.

I've decided I want the worst cards ever. The most boring, the ones that will never get sent and my doormat has had some peaches in the past. I received one today from Eugenie. In a massive act of generosity she offered to send me a 100 "duds" as she called them because she used to send 50 duds every birthday to a friend, but has since lost touch with that person. Her Trash = My Treasure. I can't wait to see what they are!

I decided to send her one back which has her favourite things on them, trains, a very special one I picked up recently which should make her mailbox light up.

Postal exchanges
O&C