A sealed letter is lost in the woods…. This image was conceived after I read an article about Britain’s National Archives opening the last letter of Mary, Queen of Scots. The letter had been “letterlocked”, that is, it has been folded up and then pierced with a sharp instrument, and then a dagger of paper was woven into the piercing. The woven paper was then sealed with wax. It was a way for the recipent to know the letter hadn’t been tampered with. I learned that Britain’s postal service has bins and bins of unopened and unread letters. Many of them were simply stitched with thread and sealed with wax. I chose the more common method here is this painting of love’s opportunity lost in the spring.

Read more about the making of this work here.

The listing also includes a few closeup detail photos of sections as I was still working on it.

24 x 36” h

Finished 2022. Oil on cradled hardboard. Silver floating frame.

Shipping USPS 2-Day Priority mail, insured. Item will be covered in a plastic sleeve and then sandwiched between layers of rigid foam and boxed in a light wooden crate.