I was closing up the library, so I was going floor to floor
and checking on things. I don’t know what I was doing in
this particular location of the library because I don’t
normally go over there, especially when closing. I was
walking and I noticed a complete set of your posters on
the wall. I mean, a full set! That is so rare, its like
collecting all of the pokemon or something.
I was especially impressed because it had been four days
since Valentines Day and they were still up.
—S.D.
On February 10, 2012 I was walking through the library at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. I noticed two colorful signs randomly hanging on the wall with QR codes on them so I stopped to read them. There was just something about the posters that I immediately loved even though I had no idea what they were or what they meant. Once I had read both of the posters and scanned the QR codes I took pictures of them. Then i noticed that they were numbered. It drove me crazy that there were only two and no no. 3,4,5 etc. I looked all around the library and didn’t find any. The next day the posters were gone.
Over the next few days I would tell people about the posters and asked if they had seen them. Some did and some didn’t. I asked a friend who worked in the library what happened to them and where the other ones were. She told me that she didn’t know where they came from and they were taken down because they were not approved to be hung. I was so bummed.
On February 17th, I was eating in the cafeteria at Westminster College and noticed 7 of the Crazy Love Letter posters on the wall! I was so excited so I dragged my friend over to read them with me. At first he didn’t really want to and didn’t get what I got from them so he didn’t want to finish reading them, but I made him. When we got to the [6th] one that gave us coordinates in the QR code we both looked at each other with pure excitement and knew we had to go! I was so drawn to these posters that I really wanted them. I felt bad to tear them down but I knew that if I didn’t, the school would throw them away because they weren’t approved. So i carefully took them down and posted them on my wall. Thats how much I loved them.
A few hours later my friend and I grabbed the last poster, hopped in the car and started driving. It was a 26 minute drive to the coordinates. The whole way there we were wondering what was going to be there. My friend was guessing that it was just a look-out point where someone could write a love letter. We pulled off the freeway and parked at the rest stop. At first we didn’t see the QR codes posted on the cement wall, we were just looking around. All of sudden we saw the stickers and I started screaming. I was so excited! Then we scanned it and I almost cried, it was so cute. It is really hard to describe the way this project made me feel. I think maybe it hit me so hard because lately I have been feeling like maybe love isn’t real or wasn’t meant for me. Finding these posters and the letter on the cement barrier, not know where they came from or the story behind them, made me feel that love really does exist. And in a way, I found love. I found something where love was demonstrated and it gave me hope.
We documented this lovely adventure on Twitter and through the journey to find love we ended up using the song “We Found Love” by Rihanna (Boyce Avenue Version) as the soundtrack because we did feel like we found it in a hopeless place. The rest stop was really wasn’t this beautiful place until you looked out past all the weeds and out into the water. It was amazing. So here are our pictures, thought you might enjoy them.
Sincerely,
Rondy
———————-
A note from the Artist:
Dear Readers:
Last March, I was driving west on the I-80 out towards Tooele. I have no idea why I was driving out there. I don’t know anyone who lives there. But, just as I passed this rest stop, I looked to my right and written in gigantic, black graffiti letters on a cement retaining wall was something totally beautiful. I drove all the way to Tooele and turned around just so I could get off at the rest stop and take a photograph of it.
I went back to photograph the wall in the summer with polaroid film. When I went back in the Fall, the wall had been removed and replaced.
When I first thought about doing the poster project, I wanted to include the wall somehow, but it didn’t make sense since the graffiti had been removed. Even though I had friends who vowed to re-write the graffiti, I didn’t think it counted. It was just gone. But, we came up with a better idea.
As the posters went out, I knew a small portion of people were actually scanning the codes, so I assumed probably no one would drive all the way out to the coordinates.
I just have to say to Rondy (and her unnamed friend): THANK YOU!
(Her documentation is pretty gorgeous.)
Enjoy!
a girl in salt lake city
PS. please let me know if you drove out there. I know of one other group (pics & story coming soon).
“Because of limited space, I changed posters each day.
I then posted all posters for one day at the end.
Also, two posters went to a high school teacher
who wanted to show them to his students, and one
went to a letterpress printer who was in the coffee
shop as I was taking the posters down at the end.”
Thank you Holly C!
An email written after the first 2 posters were removed:
I really admire postal workers
and I hope that the pieces might bring
some joy to the monotony…but maybe
its their postal duty to keep boxes free of posting?
(Thank you MPT!)
we’ll assume that postal worker took those posters home
a crazy love letter 