painting – The Posted Past

Reed Fowler is a textile artist, pastor, and writer. Originally from Vermont, he now calls Minnesota home. Reed taught themselves to sew at a young age, following in the path of their grandma and aunt, and fell in love with weaving in college. Reed’s dad instilled in him an embodied love and care for the spaces and people he lives with, expressed through craft.

Reed is a member of the Weaver’s Guild of MN, and a founding member of a queer-centered intentional community, where they live with their spouse, their four cats, and housemates. They love books about magical libraries, watching reality cooking shows, and dreaming about garden layouts, systems, and tea blends.

Q: Are there stories that came to you while looking through the Art Card bundle that was sent to you?

A: Unfolding pathways, roots, landscapes. Distance and closeness – across time, and geography. Timespans of creative practice, of months feeling like decades. Calling back to ourselves, to our embodiment, to the tactile. Mycelium below the surface.

Q: How has your relationship with these collages changed from first receiving the images, through the process of cutting and gluing, and to final finishing touches?

A: The relationship to empty space evolved over the course of the collages. Density, words, lines, space. I originally resisted the blank cards, choosing instead for one to collage atop an existing postcard, rather than dissembling it. The sharp contrast of new printed paper to what I knew had passed through many hands before it reached mine threw me at first.

Q: Among your creations, which images stand out and why?

A: The “All happiness this day” was one of the hardest for me to cut into – the postcard was from the 1920’s, and was the main card I received that had writing on it – it had already gone through the mail. The final collage it’s in makes my heart happiest. The collage on the existing postcard, with the line “home away from home” feels most aligned to when I was creating it – in a cabin at a state park, celebrating my 5th wedding anniversary with my spouse, crafting by lantern-light.

Q: Is collage similar or different from your regular studio practice?

A: Collage is one element of my regular studio practice, at least for my personal creative practices. I’m primarily (currently) a textile artist – working in wool and thread and fabric. Earlier in my life, I was more of a mixed-media artist, where collage featured more heavily. So now, when I need a creative outlet just for myself, or if I’m trying to think through a project, or feeling, I’ll often turn back towards mixed-media, and collage.

Q: If you could give and/or receive a postcard from anyone living or passed, who would it be and why?

A: My late grandfather. He shaped my current path in beautiful ways that he never knew, and I’d love a chance to send him a postcard and receive one in return.

This watercolor postcard depicts a tranquil lakeside landscape rendered in soft, muted tones. The composition is divided into three distinct layers: the foreground features delicate tall grasses and reeds painted in warm golden and green hues that sway gently along the water’s edge. The middle ground shows a calm, reflective lake rendered in pale blue and gray washes that mirror the sky above. The background reveals a range of mountains painted in subtle purple and blue tones that fade into the misty distance.

Larry L’Ecuyer, the artist, has used the watercolor medium’s natural transparency to create atmospheric depth, with colors bleeding gently into one another. The overall mood is peaceful and contemplative, capturing the quiet beauty of a lakeside morning or evening.

Flip the card over and a quiet story unfolds. An adult son’s note to his mother in anticipation of a cool summer getaway.

Landscapes, by Larry L’Ecuyer

As I curated this show of my brother’s painted postcards, I found three facts about the artist that help to put this small selection of his work in context. One, Larry loves long distance bike rides. Two, he has always doodled. Three, sometimes he paints when he can’t sleep.

I suspect watercolor landscapes are a welcome choice for an outdoorsman. Beauty on the road whizzes by at miles per hour. Fish moving below the surface are mesmerizing in the moment. A chance to reflect comes later, with enough time to figure out light, color, and form in that same solo flow he finds on a bike or in a kayak.

Both the humor and graphic techniques of doodling show up in Larry’s houses, trees, and cacti, which almost always hint at a face, gesture, or mood. On the back, his notes to our parents include the puns and word play that are part of our family culture.

Larry’s art cards started arriving in Dad’s mailbox when discomfort and displacement were real worries for our elderly father. These painted palettes delivered smiles instead. We have learned a thousand times again that life’s difficulties (including insomnia) must be met with simple joys. He sends cards to Mom, too, and who knows all the other mailboxes he graces.

Larry’s cards are painted, mailed, and delivered to individual people, and they ripple out in countless ways. This Posted Past show is inspired by the reminder: Art has a sneaky way of getting right to you.