Collaborators
Leanne Hinton (California)
Suzanne Lacke (Connencticut)
Nadja Lazansky (New York)
Jessalie Hamer (California)
Rina Margolin (California)
Delivery Sequence
Leanne sends to Suzanne
Suzanne sends to Nadja
Nadja sends to Jessalie
Jessalie sends to Rina
Rina sends to Leanne
PROGRESS GALLERY
April 4, 2026—Rina Margolin’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
March 5, 2026—Suzanne Lacke’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
March 3, 2026—Nadja Lazansky’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
January 21, 2026—Leanne Hinton’s completed collage has arrived at headquarters.
Leanne Hinton, January 6, 2026
Rina writes:
Here is my reconstituted album. As I tried to write earlier, I’ve been dismayed by how rapidly climate priorities have plummeted with only isolated voices raised in alarm.
Please add two facing album pages of your own, including if possible a thought that’s gotten you through our challenging times, one that you can still set course by, something to share with others. Mine’s been “trust the timing of your life.”
Because of the time crunch now, I completed the additional pages I had left mostly blank in the original album (with climate themes.)
I appreciate your making time for this in your lives at this point.
So I added my facing page set, with a quote from Otomí climate activist Xiye Bastida (Otomí is an Indigenous group (and language) in Mexico, that also represents the theme of my collage. I had a river-like picture of fish going across the facing pages, but I thought It looked too separated, so I added a piece to it that folds across the page. Not sure I like that either, so I left it unglued. If anyone wants to discard it or change it or added something else instead, I leave it to you to decide.
I want to add to my report on the collage I started (I am repeating the photo here that I had put with my report of Dec 30, below.) The other artists had such wonderful descriptions of what they added to the collage; I wanted to make sure they are included in our report.
Nadja wrote: was following the theme of turmoil, climate disaster (political disaster) and added the polar bears. Still keeping it simple and accessible, I left the edges unglued in case someone wante to add something behind them.
Jessy wrote: I explored the theme of climate change, destruction. I added the fire, smokey trees, foreground, and fire fighter. She is looking at the polar bear and he is looking at her – maybe for help, or blame. She cannot help the bear or get across the water to put out the fire.
Rina wrote: I added the wary capulins and the poem but also the phoenix, a rebirth, since I couldnt bear a permanent end of our world with this cycle of destruction. And made the animals 3-dimensiional, evened the white edges, and gave it all a backing
The capuchins covered one of the birds, but Rina didn’t glue them down all the way, so you can sstill peek at the bird if you lift the capuchin picture a little.
Leanne Hinton, December 30, 2025
Suzanne’s collage has evolved into a very rich and meaningful work as it has wound all the way to me (the fourth collagist). I focused primarily on a page that hadn’t been posted before. The right part of that page (a tryptic) had been done by one of the others – a beautiful design of flowers, vines, leaves and butterflies, which I left as is, with a couple of migrating walkers as most of the other pages have. The left part of the tryptic, when I received it, had just a few items on it – the bears, the blue picture of Half Dome at the bottom, cut out of a square of sky at the top. And a barely visible woman at the left side, continuing the migration theme. Everything else there I added myself, cutting across the two pages with whales and birds (great migrators themselves), and continuing the migration theme with a couple of people walking along or standing beside a beflowered path. I used some Australian Aboriginal designs as well. I bedecked each bear with a flower heart. Looking closely you can see that the bears are walking through water, so below them I added an Australian water design. Someone (Suzanne) had pencilled in the flowing lines that I accentuated in black, adding leaves to tie it to the right side. I didn’t at first mean to make this page entirely about migration, but now it seems that everything there is a pathway.
I got my own collage back yesterday after everyone had added to it. I think it is beautiful. The original as I did it was alll grey (partly because I don’t have a color printer, but it was of grey waves and cloudy skies anyway), but people added color in such a great way! The oranges, first of sun and reflections and polar bears playing in the water, and later of fire. The notion of destruction was strong in my mind when I made the crashing waves and dark clouds; so fire also fit that theme. But other collagists added hope through trees, birds, and even a fire fighter (or if she is not that, she is definitely doing something to fight chaos). Finally Rina, the one who gave it back to me, added a pheonix and propped up that and the bears to make it a pop-up collage! And she rimmed the collage with the Robert Frost poem about fire and ice, a perfect finale.
nadja lazansky, November 6, 2025
I got Leanne’s starter from Suzanne early. So, I am the third contributor. I was keeping with Leanne’s theme of turmoil, climate and political, and added several polar bears into the mix. I am very upset (among many things) about the Trump adminstrations’ okay to build drilling roads through pristine Arctic land. As Leanne did, i also left some edges loose so next people can add behind the bears if they want. Then onto Jessy.
Nadja Lazansky, October 26, 2025
I got Suzanne’s starter. She wrote that it could be “pattern, migration, evolution, nature is a bit of it – but it doesn’t all tie together yet. I think It will work out after everyone adds.” I decided to take a page (or so) and work on the theme of evolution / extinction. It came out of the maps I started to cut up of South America, Brazil in particular. Celebrating life, I think this woman is choosing to head back to the jungle to live! I will send it on to Jessie soon.
Rina Margolin (as told to Leanne Hinton), October 25, 2025
Rina asked me to post her report. Here is what she said about her collage:
“I’ve been dismayed by the rapidity of environmental collapse with only isolated voices raised in alarm. If only we could trust we’re living at the right time, that we can give voice to our feelings then maybe we can say with Cory Booker that ‘history will show we rose to meet this moment.’ If you can relate, add two facing album pages of your own with images and include a thought that has gotten you through tough times, one that you still set course by, something to share with others.“
Rina’s collage is a small booklet (image 1). Beside the lovely picture on the back of the front cover (image 2), she leaves a page almost blank except for one small picture, and invites the rest of us to add to that. Then four blank sets of facing pages wait for each of us to fill, and after that she herself did the last set (image 3). The very back page is like image 2, that we will all also contribute to. She adds written sequences of poetry, song and essays throughout.
Leanne Hinton, October 3, 2025
As first author of this collage, I figure my charge is to create a background for the others to work on, and possibly a tentative theme (as Jessy and Nadja did). I wanted a roiling stormy sea and thunderclouds, representing to me the chaos of climate change (or political chaos if one prefers). I made it all greys, partly to display the metaphorical darkness of the chaos, and partly because I only have a black and white printer. :-)
Except for the background of clouds, I left all the other layers (i.e.. ocean layers) tacked only at the bottom, so that my fellow authors have the option of putting pieces sticking up from behind layers if they want, as well as on top and wherever.
Jessalie Hamer, September 22, 2025
This is my second year participating in the postal collage project, and what I learned the first time around is that I work best with a theme. As soon as I thought of a theme for my own project, the creativity started flowing, and I found it so helpful to have Nadja’s theme in mind when adding to hers. We add a note in the package with details. Another thing I changed from last year is size; I chose a smaller format this time around.
Nadja Lazansky, September 5, 2025
I thought this would be a tough start, as I am out of practice and so much else is going on, but I sat down and it all poured out! I set a theme, but i hope my start leaves enough space for others. The theme is grief. Art is such a profound expression, I hope it will be healing for us.
