Nevada P.S. I Love You
Artwork/Bobbie Ann Howell.
By Bobbie Ann Howell
What now seems like a thousand years ago I flew up to Reno from Las Vegas to meet two friends, artists Candace Garlock, Fine Arts Professor, Truckee Meadows Community College, Reno, and Cindy Whitaker, Cinderella Studio Photography, Winnemucca. We were meeting to talk about an idea we had for a cultural exchange project to connect people from urban communities to people in rural communities. We had been part of a Nevada Arts Council retreat with cultural leaders from across the state to discuss ideas about the ways this might happen through the arts. My work with Nevada Humanities focuses on finding ways to connect Nevadans, sharing the Nevada experience, and learning about all the people that make up our state.
How could we connect people and get them thinking about, talking to, or exploring other Nevada communities? To think about who lives in Owyhee or Wells or Las Vegas? What do they do, what is the landscape like, or where is it on the map? Nevada is still “unknown territory” to many, even those who live here. We hoped that people no matter where they live would agree that we all love Nevada. Together we created the Nevada, P.S. I Love You Postcard Project to encourage people to create, write, and send a Nevada love note to a stranger or friend in another Nevada community. Nevada Humanities and Truckee Meadows Community College adopted this project as a special initiative to connect people at a time when we thought we might need connection more than ever.
Candace, Cindy, and I are all long time art teachers, and we enjoy sharing art and the joy of making art with others. Postcard projects are not new and happen in many ways all the time. One thing we wanted to do for this project was on a given day would it be possible for everyone in a community, a fire station, or a school to get a hand made art postcard with a simple note about what the maker loves about Nevada. Maybe get them talking to each other and showing their card to others.
Between the three of us we planned workshops, met with others to make postcards, and sent postcards flying across our state via the U.S. Postal Service. With the goal of making the recipients smile while thinking about the beauty of Nevada. Knowing as well that someone out there loves them too.
Making art is good for you, writing a love note is good for you, getting a hand made card is also good for you. Finding things we have in common is good for all of us. We knew that getting love notes would be needed in the election year and hoped to give a little relief in mailboxes from campaign fliers. We had not planned on the pandemic to halt our in person workshops and affect all our work and travel. We could not have imagined how much we would need love notes, or how much we still have to do to bring people together and to care for each other.
Thankfully this is an ongoing project; we have learned to do virtual workshops and postcards are still flying across the state. I have been very lucky to meet and work with wonderful people via the mail who have made piles of postcards for communities. People like Kat Galli from the Town of Tonopah and Gail Rappa from Tuscarora who are coordinating their community postcard delivery.
Remember you can make a card on your own whenever you want, and we all have seen the urgent need for more love notes between us. Please visit the Nevada Humanities website and look at some of the cards others have made or to find out more about the Nevada P.S. I Love You Postcard Project.
Upcoming Virtual February Nevada P.S. I Love You Workshops
Double Down Blogger Image/Bobbie Ann Howell.
Bobbie Ann Howell is a Program Wrangler for Nevada Humanities, working statewide from the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery located in Las Vegas. She manages the Nevada Humanities grant program, the Nevada Experience Exhibition Series, a variety of outreach programs, and works with the city of Las Vegas producing the Las Vegas Book Festival. Her experience includes art faculty and working for a variety of arts and cultural organizations, as a cultural center director, museum director and educator, curator, collection design and management, and in community arts development.
Howell is a visual artist who is from Nevada who grew up in Lee Canyon and Las Vegas. Her bachelor of fine arts is from Abilene Christian University, Abilene Texas. She received her master of fine arts in sculpture and drawing from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois. Howell works from her studio, B.E.S.T. Arts 4 U, in Las Vegas where she continues to teach and create. Her artworks are exhibited in regional and national exhibitions and collections. In 2018 she received the Nevada Arts Council Visual Art Fellowship Award.
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