| THE EPISTOLARIAN |

I love comments like this because they prompt so many questions: What do they think wax seals (or art for that matter) should be? Are seals limited in their creativity? Is creativity limited in its absurdity? What do you mean, Art Karen?!

The commenter left me wondering if they thought my seals weren’t creative enough or if “creative” was the wrong word altogether. I reached out to understand what they meant, but there was no response. It made me reflect on the expectations people hold about what wax seals “should” be. The idea that absurdity is outside the realm of wax seals or fine art is curious. It’s like Art History 101: What defines art, and who gets to decide?

Art often stretches far beyond traditional aesthetics. Take Damien Hirst, who’s known for his taxidermy animals, or Joseph Cornell, who created intricate shadow boxes filled with found objects—small worlds within frames. I think of wax seals as tiny canvases, miniature worlds that invite you to pause, examine, and ask, “What is this?” They carry a duality, rooted in history but alive in modern creativity, meant not just to be admired but to travel out into the world. What other art form is meant to wander like that?

The notion of absurdity in art intrigues me, and I feel called to defend the absurd as much as I defend beauty.

There’s an artist I adore named Lewis Rossignol. He draws intentionally “bad” art, and on his social media, the hate comments are endless. But if you look closely, his style is deliberate and skillful. In skiing, I’ve seen something similar. There’s a kind of art to pretending you’re a bad skier—once you know control, it’s surprisingly challenging to mimic being out of control. The same goes for breaking aesthetic conventions in art; there’s a skill in playing with a style and then stepping outside it. It’s in this breaking from control that something uniquely intangible and wonderful can emerge.

We need space to experiment, to ask “What if?” without the constraints of expectations. Art that tries too hard to be something else ends up stagnant. Play is the ground where creativity and beauty find fertile soil.

The absurd reminds me of the "ugly" and how difficult it is to define things once we try. One of my favorite books, On Ugliness by Umberto Eco, dives into this question. He explores ugliness' cultural and political roots, noting that ugliness is only defined in contrast to beauty whose aethetics continually change. He also shares that beauty and attraction aren’t always aligned. Sometimes, what’s aesthetically pleasing isn’t about conventional beauty at all—look at runway fashion, which often flirts with the absurd. Or consider Eco’s example of a mask from Africa: from a Western perspective, it might look frightening with missing teeth and strange features, but in its own culture, it represents a benevolent god and brings joy. Beauty, ugliness, absurdity is all in the eye of the beholder.

All this brings me back to wax seals. For me, they are a meditation on possibility. What can a wax seal be? Why should it not be absurd, if that’s where it wants to go? Beauty has its place—yes, a wedding invitation or a love letter might call for elegance—but maybe a friend would delight in receiving something unexpected.

So here’s to the freedom to be absurd, to stretch what we think art “should” be. Wax seals, art, life itself—they’re all playgrounds where the absurd and beautiful can coexist. And I’ll keep asking these questions well into my eighties: What can it be, or why not? Because why should art have limits? Why should beauty or absurdity be mutually exclusive? In the end, they’re two sides of the same wonderful, limitless coin.

Some *absurd* Halloween seals

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been having fun “dressing up” the seals and reimagining them in new ways. While the pirate and Margaux Tenenbaum designs are still in progress, I wanted to share some of the ones that are all dressed up and ready for trick-or-treating, just in time for Halloween tomorrow!

Color of the Week: Hypnos

This week’s wax color of the week is a deep, rich aubergine inspired by Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep and dreams. The color draws from the poppy flower, which was traditionally used to create the purple dye associated with Hypnos. Though no poppies in this pigment, this wax embodies the peace and tranquility of restful sleep, making it the perfect choice for sealing letters that carry messages of comfort or support.

With love & mild absurdity,

Kay