Kat Eye Studio

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Postal Art

It’s true confession time! I am addicted to postal art. Not just the postcards I’m seeing as I get things ready for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap or the lovely envelopes that a few participants have decorated. I also love the stamps that come off the envelopes. Each year, I watch for interesting stamps on the swap envelopes and cut them off of the envelopes. It doesn’t matter, international or domestic, I love them all. After the swap, I carefully soak off the backing and dry them flat. And then I pack them away. For what? I have no idea. I just can’t let these beautiful little pieces of postal art go to waste. I’ve been doing this for three years now! At some point, I’m sure I will be inspired to use them.

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As of Wednesday, 185 swap envelopes from artists all over the world have been received. I’ll do a mail pick up after work today, and then check one more time on Saturday for the last few envelopes. This week has been a flurry of activity for the swap! Checking in envelopes and getting things ready with my volunteers for Swap Day. I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to open the envelopes and find an extra card or a little note to me in there. What a bonus! I don’t ask for it, but when it comes I’m always filled with joy and gratitude for that little connection.

Since I was away so much in March, I haven’t had time to do as many posts of the beautiful art that’s coming through on the envelopes. I’ll catch you up on a few today!

This handmade envelope is from Terry, one of the few guys in the swap. I love the gorgeous blue and the matching blue butterfly stamp. Even matching blue in on the cancellation! That can’t have been by accident.

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Here’s a hand-watercolored envelope from watercolor artist Mimi. I love the way the various stamps are spread out over the envelope, creating an interesting and unusual composition.

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This envelope has texture! Katie added paint and hand carved stamps, turning a boring manilla envelope into a work of art with color and texture.

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And finally, the highlight of the year is always receiving Amanda’s envelope. (Sorry, Amanda didn’t provide a link!) She’s a calligrapher, and the work she does is amazing. I love the sentiment too – we ARE saving the post office, one postcard at a time. I’m sure we are helping as I spent >$400 on international postage this week. 🙂

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Two days until Swap Day!! The postcards will be liberated back out into the world next week.

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The Envelope Please…

The envelopes for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap are arriving in spades! I picked up the mail at my box after my Singapore trip and had a bag of mail. Yay for liberated art!

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I’m not organized enough yet to tell you how many envelopes have arrived or anything like that. I’ve just started to “check in” the envelopes. I can share a couple of pretty envelopes with you, as a tantalizing swap tidbit.

Pretty flowers…

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…and swirls are in the bunch.

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I thought I would share what swap “check in” entails for each and every envelope…

1. Record where the envelope came from on my tally sheet for stat tracking
2. Open the envelope and verify it includes all items – 5 printed postcards with message, 6 stamps, 6 labels
3. Remove any extra items (such as postcards for me, notes, etc.)
4. If it’s an international envelope, match it up with swap payment via Paypal and send an email to confirm receipt
5. Rectify any simple problems (ex. missing a stamp? Add one from someone who sent extra) or set envelope aside if there are larger problems I can’t quickly resolve
6. Photograph one postcard for my later use
7. Replace the items for the swap into the envelope and place in the “ready to swap” box

I do all of this in advance to make swap day go more quickly. I’ve learned if I don’t “check in” the envelopes as they arrive, trying to sort through all of them and their various idiosyncrasies when it’s time to swap just adds hours to the swap day proceedings. I need everything to be correct and ready to swap on the big day.

It’s an interesting process to go through. It’s fun to open each envelope see what little surprises might be in store for me: The art on the envelopes, the hand written notes included. And of course, it’s amazing to see the art on the postcards themselves!

As much as I love unwrapping packages, I have discovered that while I love the thought put into the envelopes with the postcards carefully wrapped in tissue paper and tied up with string, I don’t love having to unwrap them times ten… twenty… or more. 🙂 So think about my “check in” process if you haven’t sent your swap envelope in yet, and avoid extra wrapping or packaging inside the envelope if you can. (And don’t feel guilty if you’ve already sent your envelope! Everything you sent was with the purpose of liberating your art in the best way possible – which is perfect.)

The most important thing? The art is arriving and the swap is happening! A few more weeks and all this art will be liberated back into the world. Isn’t that exciting?

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The First Arrival of 2013

It’s always exciting when the first envelope arrives for the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap, and this year’s first arrival is a gorgeous one! Jo from the UK has the honor of being the first arrival AND the first blog feature of the 2013 swap. Isn’t her envelope gorgeous?

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I love the colors and textures, and the jauntily placed stamps. Thanks Jo, for brightening my day!

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I know I will get the question: Do I have to decorate my envelope? And the answer is: Absolutely no, you don’t! It’s just a fun thing that some of the artists do, and I love to feature the gorgeous mail art I receive on the blog. It’s a fun lead up to the big swap event! Have you signed up for the swap yet? If not, there is still LOTS of time before the April 6 receipt deadline.

Surprisingly, I’ve pulled out my dSLR for TWO things in the last week. I’ve been so obsessed with mobile photography lately, this is a momentous event worthy of commemorating. Not only did I want to get a lovely image of Jo’s beautiful envelope, I’ve realized to get a good portrait of our new dog Zoey I need the dSLR too. She just moves too quickly! So the dSLR is not completely replaced by the iPhone, it’s just getting a nice rest as I learn the new medium of mobile photography.

Here’s my favorite photograph of our little portrait session over the weekend. Isn’t Zoey cute? She’s doing well and adjusting nicely to our home. We are lucky to have found her!

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Happy Wednesday!

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Liberate Your Art 2012 Blog Hop

It started with a simple idea: Host a swap to encourage people to create, share and connect through their art. This second year, the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap just kept getting better and better. The addition of the Facebook Group added a fun, virtual element that went beyond the simple enjoyment of getting real-life mail. I loved seeing the excitement as the postcards were mailed and received. So much art liberated, so many connections made. I have to say, this year’s swap not only met my goal, but exceeded my original vision and delightfully surprised me!

So here are the stats of the 2012 swap:


1152 individual pieces of art liberated
193 artists participating
11 countries represented

From the USA, postcards came from 36 states and territories. Beyond the USA, we had artists from United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Norway, New Zealand, Germany, Slovenia, The Philippines, Portugal and The Netherlands. Pretty cool, huh?

As I laid out the art for the swap, I was incredibly inspired by all of your creativity. I was amazed at the individuality of the art. No two were alike. It made me stop and think about how there are more ways to express our creativity than it is possible to imagine. When we try to define what art is, we limit the possibilities.

I was inspired at the last moment to create something special to celebrate. Before I swapped the postcards, I went around and took a photo of one of each participants cards and created this video. Forgive me if the colors are off or if your art is oriented the wrong way, I didn’t have the time on swap day for perfection. There are 193 pieces of art shared in the video, and I think you will be as inspired as I was, seeing all of this art in one place.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for an amazing swap this year. Now, let’s finish it off with a bang. It’s time to hop!



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Labor of Love

This weekend was swap weekend! I spent quite a bit of time over the last few days getting ready and then swapping postcards for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. 192 participants this year! Yay! I met my goal of increasing over last year, thanks to the help of everyone who shared about the swap.

I thought it might be interesting to the swap participants to share about the swap weekend. It all started Friday night, when I sat down to “check in” envelopes. This entailed opening them, making sure there were the right number of postcards, stamps and labels, removing any extra items (like postcards and notes for me – thanks!) and correcting any problems. I only had to write a couple of labels, and for every stamp missing someone had sent an extra, so it all worked out well. I realized when I sat down to do this that I should have been doing this all along as I received the envelopes, but hey, live and learn. I normally don’t like to show my studio as messy but here it is, mess and all, as I was checking envelopes in.

“Checking in” envelopes

After a last run to the mailbox on Saturday afternoon for the latest arrivals, I was ready to swap. Here are the envelopes, all stacked and ready to go!

Sunday morning I laid out the envelopes around the house to prep for swapping. About 25% of the participants were from outside of the US, so I made sure that every fourth envelope was an international participant. Everyone in the swap will receive at least one postcard from a participant in a different country, and at least one of your postcards will be traveling to a country other than your own. Maybe more than one! Isn’t that cool? Other than the mix of US and non-US, the sorting was completely random as I laid out envelopes. I love that part of it… Who knows who you will connect with? Who knows what those connections will bring? It’s all serendipity and delicious uncertainty.

Envelopes laid out and ready to swap

Then it was time to swap! That’s one of the quickest parts of this whole process. (If you want to learn more on the mechanics of swapping, visit this post from last year.) The longest part of the process is sticking on stamps and labels after the swapping is done. I listened to music and watched a couple of movies on Netflix while I worked. I also recruited my husband later in the day, to help me finish up after he got back from a 40 mile bike ride. What a sport, huh? I did note to myself that I should do this swap in the winter, when the weather is bad. Summer is too short in Oregon to be working inside! Watch for 2013’s swap in the rainy months. 🙂

Finally, I ended with 6 stacks of postcards, all ready to go out in different mailings over the next 3 weeks. Here is today’s stack. Which one is going to you? You will find out soon, when it arrives in your letter box!

While it takes some work, this process is truly a labor of love for me. I love seeing the art that comes through my hands. I am so in awe of the diversity of art in a group like this. Each piece is so incredibly unique, just like each of you. I am inspired by all of the beautiful postcards you created and the words you all wrote to each other. There was so much positive energy that came to me as I worked on the swap, it was overwhelming at times.

Today one of your postcards is heading to it’s final destination. Art, liberated.

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Art Has Wings!

Picking up the mail this week was like Christmas! 80+ envelopes for the Liberate Your Art postcard swap had arrived while I was on vacation, bringing the received total to 160. Yay!! My son looked like Santa Claus, carrying the bag into the house.

Want to see some of this week’s wonderful mail art? Of course you do!!

Paula sent this colorful winged collage art on the envelope…

…and Deb proved art has wings with this wonderful piece.

Look, her art is celebrating its liberation!

Deb also sent me a beautiful bracelet handcrafted from Kodiak Island sea glass. A bonus surprise! How awesome is that! Thanks Deb – I love it.

This envelope from Terrie reminded me of the wonderful texture and layers that get added when you send something through the mail.

Kathy sent this beautiful print on her envelope. Isn’t it cool how the envelope acts as the mat! I love it! I might have to frame this one.

In fact, I’m trying to figure out how to display all of this wonderful art I’m receiving. I would love to have this liberated art on display all year long! I can’t wait to open the envelopes this weekend and see what else is hiding inside from some of you. It’s almost time to liberate the art back out into the world! Are you as excited as I am?

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