Receiving something like this in the mail has always been a thrill for us.  This is how our correspondence and collaborative art began back in 2006.  All our work since: the squared postcard, collaborative book, Vision/ReVision, and Two Artists One Surface project have all stemmed from this enjoyment of a gift in our mailbox and connecting over a long distance through creating art.  It is hard to believe sometimes that we have been collaborating for six years.

In our recent visit together, we sat on the beach and dreamed about where we wanted our work to head in the future.  Our main conversation centered around the Vision/ReVision project.  We have stalled on it the past few months and wanted to identify why, how to move past it, or whether or not to abandon the project for a new one.  What we came up with was that this Vision/ReVision project was always a consistent way for us to check in with one another, see what the other was thinking, give feedback, and start conversations we weren’t having in our other projects.  With a new commitment to the Vision/ReVision project we started with “What do we want to learn about through creating this art together?”.  Being teachers for many years we both share the same philosophy of “teach what you want to learn”.  Why not approach our artmaking together with the same philosophy?

Through many ideas hashed out over the following days we settled on an idea that has us both inspired and refreshed.  We are going to focus this project on the idea of ‘home’.  Home for us is more than a structure we live in.  It is a metaphor for being at ease, loved, comforted, connected to time and place with a touch of nostalgia.  Home can hold memories.  Home shifts and turns with life’s wanderings. Home is a place our true selves are accepted and honored.

What to expect with this project:

• We will post a Vision on Monday in the from of a photograph to start the conversation (along with some written thoughts)
• For the next two weeks we will brainstorm, create, and respond to one another’s Vision on ‘home’ by creating an original piece of art.  This piece of art will be 5″x7″ and sent in the mail to one another (along with a written post on this blog on Friday/Saturday).

This is a slower approach to this project (previously we posted weekly), but we believe the conversation will be much richer.  So essentially you will see two Vision posts a month and two ReVision posts a month.

We are going to see where this leads us and will most likely be exhibiting the envelopes and artwork at our upcoming exhibit in Mystic, Connecticut in March 2013.  We are so inspired to get this started tomorrow!

Inside the envelope posted above was this beautiful collage created by Laura.  Look for more work like this in the coming month!

Laura and Tina