Welcome, friend!

Many years ago, I joined an art therapy session. The class was run by a charity that helped homeless and at-risk teens, and a television program wanted to film them and share their story. But to protect the teens, none of them could actually be filmed, so those of us working at the charity who looked young enough (I repeat: this was many years ago) posed as “at risk youth” so the art therapy room wouldn’t look empty on TV. 

While we waited for the cameras to turn up, the therapist took us through an actual class. At first, we talked and giggled and felt weird, posing as teenagers. But over time, as we painted together, the mood in the room began to feel… calm. The conversations became more relaxed and, quite subconsciously, we began to talk - and listen - to one another with more openness and depth. It didn’t really matter what we were painting - the paper around the room was slowly filled with rainbow houses, and trees and grand portraits and stick-figures - what mattered was that we were creating, and that we were creating together. It was a precious and memorable way to spend a morning.

I’ve been thinking about what I could do to contribute in a positive way during these difficult days and I suspect that now, perhaps more than ever, a lot of us could do with a morning like this. An hour of gentle respite together, quietly creating and, as we are creating, resetting. Does this sound like something you would enjoy? 

In case it is, I have created the Mail Art Social Club, and it’s basically me hopping onto Instagram live, and all of us painting together. I’ve made it about mail-art because I get so many emails from so many of you, asking for me to teach you how to paint envelopes. I’ll guide you through choosing some simple items from your home, and using them in a design that you can draw yourself, then paint or colour, and post as mail-art. 

In case you can’t make it to the Instagram lives, I’ll also prepare a step-by-step PDF guide that you can follow to create this mail-art yourself. You’ll just be missing the social side of it.