Hello Stranger

A Mail Art Project

How do we continue to create, nourish, and build community in a time of social isolation? How can we still be inspired by art without access to museums, galleries, and studios?

Inviting artists from throughout California to participate, the project provides an antidote to our newfound virtual communications making use of the US Postal Service to deliver art to recipients. Creating opportunities for connection between artists and “strangers,” the project is a reminder that our personal communities are ever-expanding.   

Recipients signed up by sending their mailing addresses and were randomly paired with a participating artist. We received well over 300 requests. The artists made anywhere from 5-20 art pieces and we were able to send out close to 200 works. Many of the recipients are from the Sacramento region, but artists also mailed works as far away as Quebec City and Boston. 

Recipients were also asked to mail a response to the gallery that will be exhibited alongside the mail art pieces (postcards provided to recipients). The project culminated in an exhibition at the Library Gallery in Spring 2021.

The Artwork

Artists were encouraged to use materials on hand and the only parameter was to keep the work to a letter or postcard size. All works were mailed using the United States Postal Service in support of this important government institution. The USPS keeps us connected.

 The artworks varied widely from Leah Rosenberg’s series Thank You for This Moment which included observation drawings and colors found in her homebound environment to Amy Bessone’s limited edition postcards of still-life images created with her personal postcard collection of artworks arranged in her home/studio. The works created for  Hello Stranger  are a reflection of each artist’s response to our current societal crises and isolation in these unprecedented times.

Artist Bios