Mail Art to My Son

My son has just moved into a new apartment in Santa Clara, California. As all mothers do....I feel I must send something "for the new place." So, a box was found in the garage, and I proceeded to fill it. I imagine one of several boxes to come, as he needs a lot of things.

The box I found to send to Scott just happens to be the box that my patio table umbrella stand came in. Clearly plastered all over the box is the name Lowes.....not very pretty when you are sending a box to a special person. So, me...being the weird person I am...decided that the box must be decorated. You know - in the same way we make envelope art. This box is 19 inches square and 4 inches high....sort of like a canvas. With that in mind, I decided to "paint" the top of the box. I am not much of a painter and one thing let to another, so since I had squeezed too much paint out of the bottle, I also painted the sides.

What fun!!! When Scott was here in August, I showed him some of my "napkin art." (Inspired by my friend, Sharon, at allnorahsart.blogspot.com.) He thought it was a hoot and chose a napkin from my stash for his own personal piece of art which I was to create "some time in the future." Little did he know what it would be.

So, Wednesday, I took his napkin of choice, a photo of his car, a rubber stamp of some trees and proceeded to literally cover this big box. I had a blast doing this. On Thursday, I took the box to my Knot meeting to show the group, thinking they would get a big laugh out of it. Actually, they didn't really laugh, but suggested that I post about it on my blog. Some of them had doubts about the box arriving at Scott's new home without being ruined in the mail. One of my friends thought it would be fun to see the faces of those handling the box on it's trip to California. It was a fun discussion. My husband thought I should put the box inside another box so it would arrive in good shape. To me that was defeating the purpose of "mail art" as it seems it ought to be "shared" no matter what condition it's in when arriving at Scott's place.

Last night I emailed Scott and told him that I hope he isn't embarrassed by my mail when it arrives. I received a two word email back from him which said "You're silly!" Today I actually mailed the box to him and wouldn't you know, just as I thought...the postal clerk looked at me like I was an alien being or something and said "Did you do this?" I smiled. So, it's on it's way...too late to worry if I embarrass the Big Guy and hoping to make some others smile along the way.

And, just so you know....the little bear with the flag in my last post.....I decided to send that to him. Sharon would be pleased to know he has it as she was always "partial" to Scott. And, I'm smiling......hope you are too. Pat