Art | Wholesome
Connecting He’arts
A sweet, uplifting story based out of Chicago
This is not a picture of an art exhibition. Neither is it a picture of an art project by middle school kids. This is how the wall by my apartment’s mailbox looks like right now. As I soak in this moment of wholesomeness, let me tell you how this all began…
One Month Into COVID Lockdown…
It was 11:30 at night, third Monday of the week — one of those “new-normal” workdays where I wrapped up 14–15 hours of work and snuck in one meal. I hated staying alone, I had barely spoken to anyone in weeks, and I missed my friends. I was tired, irritated, and upset. As I crept on to my bed to hide away from everything, I wondered how everyone else was coping at a time like this and how isolating it must feel to be stuck within four walls with all that anxiety.
Could I do something to help make their day better and a little saner? I hoped I could let people know they weren’t alone in all this… and that was when an idea struck me. I grabbed a sticky note off my counter and made this quick doodle-
A Moment of Insanity/Bravery
I stepped out and stuck it at the one place everyone in the building has to walk past eventually- the Mailbox. I wasn’t really sure how people would react to it — would they be creeped out, would they think it was silly, or would it make them stop and smile for a second maybe? Over the next few days, I wasn’t sure whether to check the mailbox or not, but eventually, I mustered the courage to take a peek. Lo and behold, to my utter joy, there were two additional sticky notes.
In case you’re wondering, I knew NONE of my neighbors. Yet here I was, staring at 2 pieces of papers from total strangers. It felt like someone gave me a warm (socially distanced?) hug. I imagined them walking up to the mailbox, smiling at my note, deciding to go home to make one themselves and coming back to put it up. And that’s how the Mailbox series was born.
Mailbox series ft. Hallway Sticky Note Art Show
I’d made up my mind to keep this going for a bit. If I could make someone else who was going through what I was (or worse), stop for a second and smile at a piece of paper, I was all for it. And so in the following weeks I went on to put up jokes and doodles and slowly others started to put up their own.
As I’m writing this, it’s been 3 months since I started the mailbox series on my Instagram page. We’ve had a note from “the UPS guy”, a girl from a neighboring apartment joining in the fun, a Spanish blessing and someone saying how the notes cheered them up after a long day.
One weekend, I decided I wanted to try something new so I started the “Hallway Sticky Note Art Show”. I left a bunch of sticky notes, colored markers and a piece of tape. I kept my hopes to a minimum and went home. As always, people showed up, and how- happy penguins, whales and the works. That happy pig in particular makes me smile every single time ❤
“Let’s turn on the light”
When you try something new or put something good out in the universe, the point is never to *expect* something wonderful to happen; it is to create an opportunity for it to manifest. And most times you’ll find that the universe conspires in the most wonderful ways and watching it unravel is nothing short of magic.
Just remember- when things get grim it often seems like there is no hope, but you always find some lying unexpectedly around the corner, sometimes by a mailbox, on tiny pieces of paper. As Dumbledore said,
“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”
From,
Your friendly neighbor.
More about the series: Follow the whole series on the author’s Instagram handle thetimetwiddler
