2024 Valentine Watercolor Postcard Sampler

This year, I painted and mailed over 50 valentines, and was in advance of an April lumbar spine surgery. That was something different that I might write about soon. In any event, here are a few cards I painted and mailed to family and friends. The postcard mailing was finished in time to ship first to the USPS station at Valentine, Texas, for get 2024 special Valentine postmark. 

The fun of painting these watercolor postcards comes from them being a small-size "canvas" on which to work.

The postcards are produced by Tumuarta, sold on Amazon, and are 4" x 6". They respond well to the paint and water. The collection for Valentine's Day were then mailed in an A5 envelope with a Tamoe River half sheet liner. I decided to place in an envelope to help protect the cards. In the past, we've received mail that were exposed to some rain during the delivery process. Although that happened many years ago, I've also wanted to be careful when mailing, especially sending a large number of letters. 

All postcards for this project were painted with Daniel Smith watercolors. Brushes used were from Rosemary & Co, based in Cowling, North Yorkshire, England. My favorite of her brushes is the Series 772 Sable blend dagger. A small downside is that the brushes are shipped from England, and in these days of 
 

Mail Art: A Valentine Remailing Project

The great news today is that several cards arrived by Wednesday and in good order.

2011 Postmark on a card received
from Austin friend

2017 Postmark received

2016 Postmark from Valentine, Texas

Outing for Sunday: A Valentine Remailing

MJ and I made a quick trip to the main post office on Boeing so we could send off my Valentines package for remailing by the post office in Valentine, Texas. The package holds addressed and stamped Valentines cards. Once there, the Valentine Postmaster will, as a courtesy, hand cancel your stamped envelopes, and then remail your letters/cards to the addressee from their station on or before Valentines Day. This is something that keeps the little station on the map.

Prada Marfa 

In 2012, the USPS threatened to close the office, but too many people shouted it down. Quietly, the idea was dropped. This is but one example of how how speaking up and making a noise about a potential change in public policy can sway or at least awaken elected state and local representatives.

Where is Valentine?

Valentine, Texas, is on the road to Marfa, near the Prada Marfa sculpture. To get there, drive east from El Paso on I-10, and exit East onto US-90 at Van Horn; from there, continue 36.5 miles to the sculpture. Valentine the village is there, too, but you would be hard pressed to see it. From there, you can continue on to Marfa proper and stop for lunch. The Prada Marfa sculpture is 2 hours and 20 minutes from the UTEP campus.Unfortunately, my Valentines went out late Sunday afternoon, and may not make the remailing on time. Here's hoping the Valentines reach people with the special cancellation applied. Shown above is last year's cancellation. The other image is of the Prada Marfa, an example of a “pop architectural land art project."

For both envelopes, the street address
has been covered. Rest assured, they arrived safely.

MAIL ART? 

Protocol for sending any remailing Valentine includes a "thank you" card addressed to the postmaster or postmistress. In the art mail community, you also should add more postage as a thank you to the local and delivery postal workers who will decipher the envelopes. This linked article, by the way, provides a lot of information about sending artistic envelopes and includes many inspirational examples. I grovel at their feet.

As far as these sorts of embellished envelopes go, it has not been decided whether or not postal workers like or hate processing/delivering them. But, from what I've heard, at least one postal worker likes the mail that my friend in Austin receives.