SAD Mag chats with Jamie Smith about her upcoming collab involving 18 local artists, hundreds of anonymous letters and a whole lotta love.

SAD Mag: Hi there! So tell us who you are, and a little bit about how the Love Letter Project came to be:

Jamie Smith: I am Jamie Smith. I am an artist myself and I have started getting more involved in creating shows and experiences for people, such as ROVE.  Within this community-based art activity I naturally meet lots of different people, one of them being Fiona McGlynn.

Fiona and I met because we were at a little dinner with a group called Loaded Bow, run by a group of sweet ladies who do lots of interesting things in the city. At the dinner, we all had to share a story and so I shared a confession. I had just finished a project called “Confessions” where I painted different anonymous confessions and so I read someone’s anonymous confession as my story. Fiona read a love letter from someone else–also anonymous—so afterward we both came together and thought, “Ok, who are you and what do you do?” (laughs).

She had started a project and a blog, based on her own experience. She was going through a difficult time and didn’t really have a lot of direction and people gave her all sorts of advice, but a mentor said to her, “Why don’t you stop worrying so much about yourself and instead think about how you might make something better for someone else?” And that clicked, so she thought about her life, and difficulties, and her parents’ divorce when she was young, which was really hard on her. So she decided to write a children’s book, to help kids navigate around divorce. Surprisingly, there are very few books that deal with divorce.

The book is beautifully illustrated, so very kid-friendly, but really about communicating the message: “it’s not your fault.” So this jumpstarted her life in a totally different direction: then she thought, what if I gave people a platform where other people could write letters about an experience they had, but directed at someone else going through a similar problem? So that’s how The Love Letter Project blog, started! Now it’s been a year and there have been over 180 letters from all across the world.

SM: And so are these old-school letters, with pen and papers and coming through the post? Sorry, I’m totally an analog girl over here.

JS: No actually, most of them come through online. That being said, they’ve done different letter-writing parties at a community center and that’s all hand written letter writing. Whether they’re submitted online or in person, the letters are written to help others overcome life’s greatest challenges. Topics cover many areas of life including relationship, loss, self image, illness, and many others. Authors can write anonymously or under their own name. Letters are then posted on www.theloverletterproject.ca where readers can go to find support and encouragement, and be inspired to create change in their lives.

SM: That sounds amazing! What can people expect at the opening tonight at Omega Gallery? 

JS: What you can expect is a spectacular little event in a cute, small venue that is perfect for an art show/book launch.  The art show includes all of the works which appear in the book, with the letter displayed beside it. Each artist chose a letter that resonated with them and responded to it in a 20 x 20 canvas. If you feel moved to purchase a piece, all of the funds go directly back to the artist and the book sales go back into producing other Love Letter Projects. We’re going to have beer and wine for $5 and cupcakes for $3–then of course all of the art with the letters.

DEETS:

Friday February 6, 2015 from 6:30pm – 10:00pm
Omega Gallery (4290 Dunbar St.)
FREE
RSVP here