Postcard Swap 2011: Positive Intentions

As I was working on my postcards for this year's postcard swap hosted by iHanna, I was wondering how I would decide which postcard to send to which swap partner. It wasn't like I would know anything about the people who were my swap partners, beyond the fact that they also read iHanna's blog and had some interest in art-making. I decided that I would imbue my postcards with positive intentions.

copyright 2011 moira richardson

What exactly does that mean, though, "imbue with positive intentions." It wasn't like I was going to lick the postcard stamps after a particularly gleeful day, or anything that literal, rather, at the risk of sounding all new-agey, that I would simply imagine the joy that each postcard recipient would feel upon finding my little card in her mailbox. Instead of trying to decide which postcard to send in any sort of conscious manner, I just picked up the postcards at random and addressed them by going in order down the list as sent by Hanna (though, at one point, I missed someone and had to swap order... I suspect that was the universe helping me out.)

copyright 2011 moira richardson

Once I had all the cards addressed and my stamps purchased by the post office, it was time to think about what I was going to write in the message part. I love quotes, so I knew I wanted to add a quote to every card, but I also know that I wanted each card to be unique, both in design and message. When I sat down to write my first card, I wasn't really sure what was going to come out, but I ended up writing a message that said something like, "Here's wishing you many happy hours of art making and joy in all that you do - love, moira".

copyright 2011 moira richardson

Below my little message, I added my email address and then a different quote on each card. I found a list of 25 quotes about creativity and just randomly picked from the list as I worked on each postcard. My idea, that I was thinking as I wrote them, was that somehow I would choose just the right quote and card for each person on my list. Silly, maybe, but I might been on to something.

Here's what one of my postcard recipients wrote:

"Thank you so much for the postcard that arrived today. It's really beautiful, and I love the colours. Strange thing this, I was just doing some research towards Aboriginal art and their symbols and your card shows up containing a lot of dots. (!)"

That was from this morning. A few minutes ago, I got this one:

"I cannot tell you HOW EXCITED I was to receive your card yesterday ... the first
one to arrive!  Everything on it spoke to me ... Change, the quote from Renoir &
 Jack London, the big bottomed goddess (how did you know?)"

I done good! Blessed be!