“No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still just be stationery”

This project was huge for me. Not only was it a big job, but I really pushed conceptual meaning in this one. It turned out to be very personal, and ended up having a great deal of meaning for me. I found myself questioning what it means to be an artist, how the world views artists, and the struggle we face when presenting something that we've poured our creativity into.

Art is a very competitive world, and as artists we're always trying to "push the envelope." In this piece, we have the hand of creativity pushing a stack of envelopes, which are leaning at quite an angle but will never fall over. The hand of creativity, splattered with paint and filled out on the inside so it has dimension, obviously hasn't given up. It keeps pushing, even though it's getting no where. There is an optimism there; even though it isn't accomplishing what it wants to, it keeps going and trying. I've been there, and I think we all have. We don't give up, even when things look hopeless.

The other glove is flat and colorless. It is literally deflated. The hands belong to the same person, but this glove represents that side that isn't so sure.

The letter that this hand wrote reads:

Dear World,

An envelope is an envelope is an envelope. You can call it whatever you'd like, whether that be mail or art, but from an objective standpoint it is what it is. I will look at it through my eyes, and you through yours; we'll be looking at the same thing but seeing it differently. It will be a never-ending struggle to understand one another. I can't make something out of nothing. Will you see an envelope when I place it before you, or something more? No matter how much I push and shove, this tower will never topple. I will keep building up, higher and higher until I kiss the sky, but can I ever escape the confinements of this stationery?

Nothing is new; everything is recycled from something else. Does that make my ideas less valuable than those before me? Can you find value in an envelope that is not an envelope? I hope that my ideas can extend outside of this paper and touch your mind. Then this stationery will not just be stationary, but alive and breathing. You will see beyond paper and into something more.

Sincerely,
An Artist

I'm so proud of how this piece turned out. I was able to experiment with a lot of different things, like how to keep the envelopes up and how to make the stack appear bigger. When I look at it, I just feel happy. It was very cathartic, and I couldn't be more proud of the end result.