JILL.DESIGN

Yes, I am selling something. Here’s the story behind it.

A few weeks ago, I wrote here about the geopolitical impact on my livelihood as an artist and having to make the heartbreaking decision to cancel all my U.S. orders for the launch of my new photography magazine JOURNAL.

The alchemy, though, was: I ended up sending my collectors a small gift through the postal mail with a stamp and realized how cool and accessible this could be as a way of sharing and collecting art without walls or borders. It felt very true to my values and why I do any of this in the first place.

Every day many of us ask ourselves: What is my role in the world right now? Doomscrolling helps no one. We are all pretty small in the grand scheme. What I feel my role is: Uplift, give hope, help people restore themselves through art and creative practices to live and fight another day. I’ve done it for years from the heart but only recently realized it as a purpose or intention. I think people right now really want to feel hope and to look forward to things. This is may sound like a very grand framing for an art subscription, but this is at the core of it.

I’ve always loved sending beautiful things in the mail.

Over the years, I’ve made and mailed many, many handmade cards and small artworks to my friends — photo greeting cards, watercolor postcards, little lithographs. As a child and teenager, I had penpals all over the world.

I’ve always loved the possibility of paper and pictures and words.

And now I’d love to share that with you with PhotoMail.

Each month, I send one of my photographs through the post — a happy and hopeful message from Zürich to the world.

It comes with a letter from me and some PhotoPrompts to spark your own creativity.

Some I prepare by hand here in my studio — signed, sealed, and stamped. Others are printed closer to where you are, but they carry the same image intention.

It’s a simple idea: a photograph that travels — from me to you.

From wherever I am in the world, to your hands.

Join by November 8 to get the November drop.

And now back to our [ir]regularly-scheduled writing.

Thanks as ever for joining me.