Chekov greeting card

Well, I know, when you think 'greeting card', probably 'Anton Chekov' is not the first author you would think of to contribute text. Nevertheless, I did this as an ACEO earlier this year, and thought that the text could make an unusual card-- one perhaps to be used when getting in touch again with someone temporarily lost. Or just to send to a Chekov fan. Better yet, a Chekov fan you haven't communicated with in some time. (A Chekov fan would like this kind of thing, trust me).

The text reads,

"At times one catches a glimpse of cranes on the horizon, and a faint gust of wind brings their plaintive, ecstatic cry, and a minute later, however greedily one scans the blue distance, one cannot see a speck nor catch a sound; and like that people with their faces and their words flit through our lives and are drowned in the past, leaving nothing but faint traces in the memory."

My latest ACEO. I love this one. More Chekov, you will be unsurprised to discover.


When I make a piece, I usually start with the paper-- I have some portion of my dyed paper that I think is well composed for my purposes. Sometimes so composed intentionally, sometimes serendipitously. Then I search for the words. I collect text as I'm reading, and I write some myself, and I go through all these collected bits searching for the right words. I try to feel the mood of the colors and pattern, see what they tell me. I can't go the other direction so easily-- starting with words and building around them. Sometimes I compose a piece just for that paper and that time. Sometimes I find the right sort of thing in my scrapbook of text, but it's too long or too short, and I set it aside for another project. Then sometimes I find one that fits perfectly in every way, like this one did.

At the beginning you just have some words, and maybe some pretty paper. But combine them in the right way and and you have magic.

Finally got some decent shots of the Chekov necklace, although for some reason (possibly for the sole purpose of driving me mad while wasting tremendous amounts of my time), the photo of the full necklace will not load properly-- it keeps rotating sideways, and when I uploaded it to Flickr and rotated it, Blogger won't link to it. Apparently Blogger REALLY thinks it looks better sideways. So if you want to see that one, click here. Go ahead, it's worth a look.

Anyway, did I mention that I'm really proud of this piece? Here's the full text, from one of Chekov's personal letters:

"My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom-- freedom from violence and lying (...) This is the programme I would follow if I were a great artist."

The clasp, a paper tile plus hammered sterling toggle:

The Chekov bangle

Well, I promise that this isn't going to turn into the All-Bracelets-All-The-Time blog, but I just wanted to share this one.


The text wraps around a couple of times and reads, "I used to sit in the evenings at the open window, lonely and alone; often there was music playing, and all at once I used to be overcome with homesickness and felt as though I would give everything only to be at home and see you." (Anton Chekov, "The Bishop")