#nameYOURSeason 2021
what is a season outside of the way(s) seasons have been prescribed to us and the ways we’ve been socialized to senseexperienceorganize them? how can we hold space for these prescriptions and still inscribe our own seasons into our lives?
after one session in a series about bookbinding (I first typed bookminding) with Yuchen Chang for the Center for Book Arts earlier this year, I realized how limited (and myopic) my knowledge of seasons is and has been. this year’s postcard project is an attempt to contemplate other ways of seasoning across the globe while offering postcard correspondents space to contemplate their own seasons, welcome new ones, honor those that have never quite been named but have remained constant.
unaware I was contemplating seasons, a friend emailed me about Thoreau in February:
Thoreau writes in his journal on this day in 1860: “…ice is a solid sky on which we walk. It is the inverted year…The shadows are blue, as the sky is forever blue. In winter we are purified and translated. The earth does not absorb our thoughts.
translated. this is what I hope to immerse myself in: a (trans)re/lation of season(s).
I timed through poems. I whiled through books. I asked friends and family to share about their seasons:
“mud season”
“melt season”
“jacaranda season in L.A.”
“my own season”
“in Japan there are 24 seasons”
“fire season”
“in China there is insects waking up season”
this year’s project is comprised of 18 postcards. each one includes two cards glued together: one solid soft rose color as the front, a dark blue but not quite navy card with a paper sculpture (cut by my hand) as the back. each postcard includes a miniature sketchbook with the traditional U.S. seasons listed at the top: winter, spring, summer, fall, as well as page asking for renaming from “& anything in between.” each postcard correspondent has space to include their name and anything else on the front of the sketchbook. the page for each season offers an open window for the recipient’s personal documentation through the seasons. each sketchbook was sewed with thread from my grandmother’s unused collection and a bookmark was made with a couple of sequins. all postcards were sealed with washi tape to secure the pages of the sketchbook and offer a minimal touch of color and design on the front of the card. correspondents are not required to share anything about their personal sketchbooks unless they would like to do so via email or social media using the hashtag #nameYOURSeason.
things I learned this postcard season:
I love making things for people who look forward to receiving snail mail
I should always triple my expected timelines
I should look into a new scanner (doesn’t really pick up reds)
I should not work on postcards while eating a meal
glue sticks are not acid-free or wrinkle-free no matter what the labels indicate
it’s ok that things do not look perfect
you will look for notes you made about season brainstorming sessions and not find them
as my dear friend É shared on a sign she created earlier this spring: we are (still) here. and while we are, let’s season together.
