here’s a project that evolved gradually over quite the period of time.

I’m the only person in the history of the world that ever writes a letter… or so it sometimes seems. I get a real message-in-a-bottle, adventurous, pleasurable sensation from hurling an envelope into the post. It is a work on paper that suits my slapdash, informal sense of play. a letter can be a combination of scribble, drawings, clippings and absolutely anything else.

and why stop on the inside? All the effort they put into the stamps… I made an effort to get as many colourful stamps onto the envelope as I could.

way back in 1988, I was impressed by an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Captain Hugh Rose of the Black Watch, who for 6 years in the 1890s illustrated all the envelopes he sent to his friend Mrs Constance King Harman.

at that time I never dreamed I would get anywhere near that level of capacity.

And Time Goes By.

slowly, I was starting to learn to draw…. and gaining the confidence to let my efforts out on the unsuspecting world. if I’m going to take the trouble to send an envelope, I might as well fancy it up a wee bit.

the main recipient of my correspondence has been my very long-term companion, Mister B of Toronto… who, it turns out, was saving up the envelopes over all these years.

so, here they are. in no order, coherence, no subtext, no theme whatsoever.

note: was in the post office not so long ago, and the young long-haired guy that works there came out from the back, spots me holding one of my envelopes:

‘HEY! YOU’RE THAT GUY!’

I am indeed… I am “THAT GUY!!!”… fame in its own modest fashion…

and indeed, at the Toronto end, Bob has shared his amazement that several times, the postman has actually walked up to his apartment door and knocked on it to hand over one of the wonderworks… I guess it makes a break in the routine for him.