Home Again - Home Again - Jiggidy Jig

So today I drove up to my parents house to spend the weekend... err really one day. Got in about noon and helped my father build a lean-to in the back yard for storing firewood under. Took us a while to realize that even though it was level it had to be unlevel to look correct to the naked eye. Long story short we got it done. I spent the rest of the day in their kitchen working on correspondences and trying to explain postal rates to my mother. She was convinced that I wasn't using enough stamps on a particular set of Valentine correspondences so to make her happy I added another stamp to the envelopes. Barker is correct however... most times we are using too much postage... or at least myself.

I almost completed the first set of five special valentine correspondences for boys. I think the people I'm sending them to will get a real kick out of them. Even had my mother help out out with a few parts of it. She hand-lettered the little interior envelopes in red ink — looked great. Later in the day I started work on the second set of five special valentine correspondences for girls. Each of these is hand painted and is taking a lot of time. My father asked why I just didn't spray paint them so I could get done quicker. I explained to him that sometimes in art the method in which you work is as or more important than the efficiency behind the making of the object. The time you put into your work and the process of making the object is also a part of the work, it becomes ingrained into the work. Whether anyone notices or not the process is very important to how the artist works. I told him about Tom Friedmans work titled '1,000 Hours', which is a piece of blank white paper that Friedman supposedly stared at for 1,000 hours. I explained that he could have just hung a blank sheet of paper on the wall and said he stared at it for 1,000 hours and no one would know the difference... but the artist would. It would annul his working method if he lied about how it was made. Sometimes you just can not cut corners. I think he understood.

These 2 sets of special valentine correspondences are taking a little longer than I expected so I don't believe they will be completed in time to mail on the 14th. However, I'm going to complete them anyways and mail them as soon as I can. I figure it will be wednesday before I can send them. Ohh well, better late than never. Again, can't cheat the process.