Postcard Post 2023 is over, but was it ever fun. Subscribers received a postcard every month for a year, with a piece of my art on the front, and an essay or poem or some funny words on the back. Thanks to those who participated! Together we supported the artists of Youth Arts Collective. Read the original invitation below, and stay tuned for future projects!

Do you love snail mail like I love snail mail?

If checking your mailbox has become ho hum, I’d like to invite you to join Postcard Post 2023, a one year postcard subscription, art and writing from my studio to your mailbox.

I got my first postcard when I was three and have been collecting ever since: travel postcards, postcards found in antique shops, museum shop postcards.

My favorites are art postcards. In addition to this dog painting from my parents, my great-aunt Anna sent me art postcards from the time I was three until she died when I was five. They were my introduction to art and artists like Paul Klee and Mary Cassatt. Now I cover the wall in the Little House - my studio - with a rotating postcard gallery.

I’ve been steadily making art of my own over the past few years, including for a solo show called Surprised by Delight in 2019, and as I’ve accumulated sketches, drawings, and paintings, I realized that while I get great satisfaction from practicing art, what’s missing at the moment is a sense of connection. That’s what books do for my writing. It’s what letters, both email and snail mail, give me. And so the idea for Postcard Post was born.

What is Postcard Post? Twelve months of snail mail, one art postcard each month, mailed from the Little House to you. 

What will the postcards look like? Art on one side and on the other, a poem, a note about current projects or a book I’m reading (or writing), or simply something I’m pondering. Here’s a link to a gallery of some recent art. 

Here’s how it works:

Subscriptions are open between now and December 21. Get one for yourself and order as gifts for anyone who may like a surprise in their mailbox every month.

Cost: $60 ($5/month payable in one lump sum) for twelve 5x7 postcards, delivered at a random time each month of 2023. 

All proceeds after production and postage will be donated to Youth Arts Collective, an after school art studio and mentorship program whose motto is Do art. Be kind.

Do you want to sign up? 

1. Email me at ylvisaker@mac.com with the subject line Postcard Post Subscription (Someone had a problem getting through with that email - if you have any trouble, try me at: annereads@gmail.com.)

2. Include the name, mailing address, and email of each subscriber, and note which payment type (step 3) you’ll be using.

3. Make payment of $60 for each subscription via Venmo (@Anne-Ylvisaker), Zelle (ylvisaker@mac.com), or PayPal (Paypal.Me/Ylvisaker) Or for the true snail mail experience, send me a check! (request my address in your subscription email).

4. Start checking your mailbox in January!

Please feel free to share this invitation with anyone you think might also enjoy a little mailbox love.