Sometimes it’s nice to have a good reason to make something. So, when my friend John pointed me in the direction of an artful letters campaign, I knew I had to join in. The purpose is to create artistic letters to send to Maryland legislators to encourage them to support arts funding in our great state.

I decided to focus on arts accessibility, telling the story of how hard my mom worked to make sure my siblings and I were exposed to all sorts of amazing things — visual arts, musicals, orchestra performances — as kids. As a parent, I want to make sure my boy has the same experience!

I decided to take the “accessibility” issue quite literally, creating an office-like envelope with a confusing (but not impossible) maze of string to keep the reader from his or her message…

When you get in, you see my message peeking through the main point: Kids Need Art.

And there’s my message. I really do hope it helps…it was definitely fun to make!