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From: The Pen and the Inkwell
Date: 26 May 2004
Time: 11:55:33 -0500
Remote Name: 69.106.201.39
Danielle, I travelled to your website and saw your collages. Instead of giving you my opinion on your passion(is that really of any value to you?),I will tell you what drew me to Nick's work. I am passionate about correspondence and have written letters since childhood. I began writing to my cousins in Italy, which is where I first laid eyes on a set of felt-tipped markers at age 6. The same trip, a family friend who was in his early 20's took me up some stairs that dropped down from the ceiling to his studio(converted attic)where he let me squeeze paint onto crisp white paper (there was no recycling then)out of small metal tubes and then he showed me how to fold the paper in half and squish the colors out towards the edges to make butterflies, and symetrical blobs - which I preferred. We also began a correspondence, and I felt it proper, if not just plain necessary, to decorate each and every letter to everyone I wrote to from then on. When I stumbled onto Griffin and Sabine, I was in the middle of yet another correspondence, this time in my mid-twenties and in love. I was fortunate enough to receive decorated letters in the mail from a passionate young artist some hundred miles away. Even my postal carrier would get excited for me and wave the letters as I went to meet him in his patriotic truck. Someone "out there" (and I use this term loosely) knew what I felt, what I was going through. I didn't have to spill all the details of my romantic letters to the women at work. I didn't need to gush and go on and on about the anticipation and how I got to read them over and over whenever I wanted. I didn't have to appear to be bragging that someone loved me and make everyone sick with jealousy - or just plain sick. Nick knew. I felt a camaraderie with him and his amazing (to me) works. He may not have personally been involved in a correspondence like mine before Griffin and Sabine, but because of Griffin and Sabine, I was sure he knew a very cherished piece of my heart. That's what drew me to his art. I think the hint of a story can sometimes go further than telling the whole story. I want to encourage you to invite your viewers in. If there were no letters, I would have probably went, "ahh - this is nice eye candy" and put the book down. Because of the intrigue, I became drawn to the saga, and now, about 15 years later, am somewhat infatuated with Nick's art, even though I do not like all of it (no offense, N)I am still inspired by all of it. I try not to hang anything on my walls unless there is a personal connection with the art, either actual or implied. I appreciate the fact that you title everything. I would like more to see a small bio on each piece. That is just me, though, and Like I said before, my anonymous opinion should not be a consideration when you are passionate about something. So let me just encourage you and wish you the best in your new endeavor. God has blessed you with the means to create, and may He continue to do so.