A couple of weeks before I left, I got the most gorgeous email from one of my authors (yes, I’ve left, but first person possessive doesn’t exclude her from being someone else’s author either, OK, like Seal, and City Lights, and Suspect Thoughts who’ve all published her, and whoever replaces me…), Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, an Utne Visionary and editor of That’s Revolting, a book we published in 2004, and reissued last year. I knew I wanted to keep it till my own blog was ready so I could post it here, and herewith:

You know when you have a friend who you think will always be there — no matter what, at least you’ll have that friendship, right? Lostmissing is a public art project about the loss of that relationship, a specific relationship for me–right now it’s missing. I want to express myself in public space in a way that feels personal and more meaningful than a private expression because I want to connect to other people and other lostmissing stories. This project is a public expression of grief in order to feel hopeful again–it’s about that random poster you see and you don’t know what it means but your eyes get bright all the sudden.

I will be putting these posters up everywhere I can think of, and posting photos of the posters in public space, and even making new posters out of those photos and then posting photos of those new posters too. And I’m giving the posters out to people to put them up in their own towns and kitchens and living rooms and bathrooms and galleries and meeting spaces and community centers and bars and workplaces and on the street and on abandoned buildings in bus shelters and on public transportation at shows of all kinds and on bulletin boards and in store windows and in letters and in taxis and on the internet and near dramatic views and tourist attractions and in your own art and wherever else you can think of. I want to make this expression of sadness and anger into something collective, and I want people to add their own lostmissing stories to the posters if they want to, and then I want people to send revised posters or photos of posters in public or private spaces, affixed in any way you find appropriate, and then I’ll post it all on my blog and maybe make a zine or a handmade book or some form of documentation that puts it all together. What do you think?

Feel free to click the images on my blog as I post them, and print out the JPEG and post everywhere. I can also send you hard copies of the posters as I make them, or a PDF of each poster as it arrives — just let me know, and I’ll make sure to send them your way! You can leave me a message here, or feel free to email or call or write — all my info is here….

Yay — I’m so excited!