Connecting Dots is a monthly column by writer Amy Cowen, inspired by her popular Substack, Illustrated Life. Each month, she’ll introduce a new creative postcard prompt. So grab your supplies and update your mailing list! Play along and tag @print_mag and #postcardprompts on Instagram.
Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
Colette
Into the late summer, and the change of seasons thankfully is coming. As we move into this final postcard for this yearlong series, it is tempting to simply send home, less “look where I am” than “wish you were here.” This month, share a bit of home by celebrating a companion, most likely the furry kind.
Maybe that’s a dog or a cat. Maybe it is something else. Maybe it is a pet that you once had or never had. Maybe it is a turtle or a bird. Maybe this leads you to something Seussian, something fantastical, or something dripping with just a bit of magic realism.
From Frida Kahlo, David Hockney, and Henri Matisse to Andy Warhol, George Rodrigue, Mary Cassatt, and Keith Haring, artists have often included dogs, cats, and other pets in their work.
Woman with Dog, Pierre Bonnard, 1981. Wikimedia; Woman on a Striped Sofa with a Dog, Marie Cassatt, 1876. Wikimedia; Mme. Charpentier and her children, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1878. Wikipedia
Here are a few quotes for inspiration:
“It seems to be my mission in life to wait on a dog” — Georgia O’Keeffe
“And it is very true that the most tender, complicated, most generous part of our being blossoms without any effort, when it comes to the love of a dog.” — Maria Kalman, Beloved Dog1
“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.” — Mary Oliver
“My little dog—a heartbeat at my feet.“ — Edith Wharton
“Always to be treated as a personality and not as a thing, Flush resented indifference and returned affection in full measure.” — Virginia Woolf
“Animals are such agreeable friends—they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.” — George Eliot
“If a fish is the movement of water embodied, given shape, then cat is a diagram and pattern of subtle air.” ― Doris Lessing
“The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself.” — William S. Burroughs
“The dog is a link between man and paradise.” — Milan Kundera
“A dog reflects the family life.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle
“Even the smallest feline is a masterpiece of nature.” — Leonardo da Vinci
“Before I had one, all I’d draw was dogs, but I didn’t know that they were dogs, I thought they were me.” — Maria Kalman2
This month, send a message from your pet or companion.
A Year of Postcard Prompts
This is the final prompt in a year-long series of monthly postcard art prompts, prompts that nudge you to write or make art on a postcard and send it out into the world, to connect with someone using a simple rectangle of paper that is let loose in the mail system. I have enjoyed watching the year unfold and encouraging postcard art and old-school add-a-stamp connections by mail.
Thank you to those who sent me a postcard during this process.
I hope you continue reaching out to friends, family, new connections, and those you have lost touch with in the coming weeks and months.
Amy Cowen is a San Francisco-based writer. A version of this was originally posted on her Substack, Illustrated Life, where she writes about illustrated journals, diary comics/graphic novels, memory, gratitude, loss, and the balancing force of creative habit.
Head image features assorted postcards and a hand-carved stamp postcard received from Sara Barry. ©️ A. Cowen. All rights reserved.
- Beloved Dog, for an inside look, see “Beloved Dog: Maira Kalman’s Illustrated Love Letter to Our Canine Companions” (The Marginalian) ↩︎
- Quoted in “Maira Kalman’s ‘Blue Dog’” by Françoise Mouly and Mina Kaneko (The New Yorker) ↩︎
