AN artist is helping people rediscover the joy of receiving something nice in the post by mailing people small pieces of artwork.

Suzie Devey, from Northfield Close, Stokesley, is creating postcard artwork for people as part of a project that enables the public to own an original artwork for the price of a stamp.

She gets people to send her postcards which pre-date the advent of text messaging, and then she alters the postcard with collage work and sends them back.

“The idea is it has to be a postcard from before 1984, because that’s when text messaging was invented – although it wasn’t really used until 1991.

“When I was a kid we used to communicate with a postcard which has all but died out with text messaging. You get these franked letters and your heart sinks because it’s usually a bill.

“It’s all about the thrill of something personal just for you in the post.

“If you change one letter in a text message and send it, it could be quite catastrophic or funny.

“Given that people used to take so much time and care choosing the picture – because that was part of the message –then I thought what happens to the message if you change the picture?”

The artist, who works from a summerhouse in her back garden in the North Yorkshire town, asks the recipient to text or email their response to the artwork with three words, which she will put on her website next to an image of the artwork.

The former Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council worker has created artwork all her life, but decided to go professional when she was made redundant from her post as project manager.

She says she has already been inundated with the interest in her project has received nearly four times the number of postcards she anticipated. The txt24 project was funded by the Yorkshire Visual Artists Network. For more information, or to take part, visit the website: http://www.hirihare.com/#!txt24/c1htb