Art Crush Wednesday: Letters and Journals

My local USPS office must love me these days - nearly every Saturday while on my weekly trip to the library, I stop at the post office to mail a letter. The joy of getting letters in return is totally worth the cost of a stamp, and I’ve kept nearly every letter I’ve received over the last 30 years.

A company that is really feeding my addiction to stationery is the website, blog, and soon-to-be printed magazine, Letters and Journals. Created by Minnesotan writer Jackie Flaherty, Letters and Journals frequently hosts giveaways, offers reports from local stores and national stationery shows, and features articles on various writing and journaling tools. It’s very inspiring to me as a traditional letter-writer and art journaler, and it doesn't hurt that their banner was illustrated by yours truly.

You can “like” Letters and Journals on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to the newsletter and RSS feed. Finally, in the spirit of this post, you're welcome to contact me with your address if you'd like me to send you a letter, postcard, stickers and other fun treats in the mail!

Letters and Journals Magazine Cover

Last month I had the pleasure of illustrating the cover for the prototype issue of Letters and Journals magazine. It was fun to step out of the children’s book realm for a little bit to work in another field I’m passionate about: correspondence and journaling. Every artist and writer-friend I know keeps a journal, whether a sketchbook or a written log (sometimes both), so this magazine will surely be of major interest to a lot of creative folks. This assignment has personally inspired me to utilize better journaling methods within my sketchbooks and notebooks.

The cover illustration was done in graphite pencil and colored digitally. Letters and Journals magazine is set to launch near the end of 2010, and you can check for updates from the publisher on the official Letters and Journals blog.

Thanks to Jackie Flaherty and Kathryn Forss for the assignment!