Melange Challenge - "Love Letters"

The latest Melange Team challenge is for the words "love letters." I created the mixed media collage below to celebrate everyone who has sent a love letter or waited anxiously for the mail to come, bringing a card or note from someone you love. My story for this piece is: they met when he visited her town on a vacation. He works across the country and travels for his work. He writes her love letters, which she treasures, as she dreams of a future marriage and a life together.



I combined pieces of printed paper and acrylic for the first layers. Some envelopes from my collection added postmarks from 1931 and 1941 from San Francisco, CA and Glen Ridge, New Jersey. I copied a vintage Valentine and the two photos of the couple. I stitched the photos to layers of fabric and added an embroidered accent to the lady's photo.

I create what I have named Inchy Art, art on one inch pieces of wood that I add to my art for emphasis and accents. The three inchy art pieces in the right bottom corner add another postmark from Ottumwa, Iowa in 1920 and the post office mark, both from an authentic envelope from my collection. I grew up in Iowa and have been to Ottumwa many times. The inchy art with "love" is a sketch from a sticker.

I covered the entire canvas with pink netting before adding the envelopes, photos and inchy art.