Over thirty years ago, one of my pet projects was working on a written alphabet based on a five-pointed star. As the letter forms developed, so did the imaginary culture associate with the language, and before I knew it, I'd developed an entire society - the Star People. Eventually, I not only had an entire alphabet - I had a mathematical system, societal laws, a historical context - you name it. I loved the calligraphic feel of the letter forms and the ancient scroll-like feel of the "historical documents" I was developing.

This project continued on and off for years; every time I pulled out the Star Language documents, I found inspiration to continue working on them. One day, I sat down and wrote an entire letter in Star Language and mailed it off to my friend Bruce just for fun. Imagine my surprise and excitement when a week later I found a letter in my mailbox from Bruce - who had cracked the code and sent a 2-page reply letter in Star Language!

A few years ago, when I went back to my printmaking roots and started doing monotypes, I dug through piles of old work and unearthed a huge folder of Star Language pieces, which are just as intriguing to me now as they were when I first developed them over thirty years ago. I pulled some of the choice pieces out, scanned them, and started ripping, tearing and adding them to some of the monotypes I was working on.

All of the pieces in my Monoypes with Collage Elements gallery have bits and pieces of the Star Language documents incorporated in them, including parts of Bruce's original reply letter. These are some of my favorite pieces, and it's great to give a nod to my younger, weirder self who spent all that time working on such a strange project. She saved all that stuff, somehow knowing that some time in the future they'd surface again.

Hope you enjoy those pieces!