Letters To Edna is a collaborative greeting card series by artist Rikkianne Van Kirk and Grey Moon Vintage. the Poems and texts (with their original penmanship) inside the cards are from a found autograph book from 1905 that belonged to a woman named edna from San Antonio, Texas. Autograph Books were a keepsake popular in the late 19th and very early 20th century among university students to collect poems, mementos, saying and signatures from friends. known for her illustrations on antique paper, Van Kirk visually interprets each text using her sentimental and minimalistic perspective.
Rikki and Natalie in the Grey Moon trailer
When we met in the lot at Broadway News, Rikki and I became fast friends. I always looked forward to her stopping by the Grey Moon shipping container to chat on days she was working on her art inside Richter Goods. Our friendship grew out of our love of the vintage hunt, learning of each others' strange interests and collections, and even more so from finding an artistic female friend that just "gets it". After learning about her artwork, I began collecting vintage notebooks and paper for her, and she kept an eye out for cool vintage for Grey Moon. One day, I found two autograph books from San Antonio that were from the early 1900s in amazing condition! I gave one to Rikki and kept the other because I wanted to read and enjoy the poems and writing. several weeks later while I was sorting through our vintage books, I came across the Autograph Book. As I carefully flipped through the fragile pages of skilled penmanship and funny poems on antique paper I realized that this Autograph Book wasn't meant for me--it was meant for Rikki.
That week we met up at our nearby Local Coffee to catch up. I gave her the Autograph Book and as she unwrapped it she was visibly taken back by the unique cover. She carefully opened the book and was in awe of each nostalgic page. I, too, was in love with all the poems and texts and wanted to do something that would pay homage to the forgotten art of keeping an Autograph Book, the penmanship, and the hilarious and morbid poems. We both knew this was our long awaited opportunity for a collaboration.
While the poems may be interpreted romantically, many of the poems in the Autograph Book were written platonically by female friends and family to Edna. "Letters To Edna" is an art collaboration celebrating the beautiful phenomenon of genuine female friendship. The greeting card series is also a gift that keeps on giving: the cards are meant to be framed and displayed by the recipient.
