Spartan artists are keeping alive an almost lost art of mailing handmade postcards to their families who could not attend Parents’ Day.

Parents’ Day is a special time for Middle and Upper School parents to spend a day in the life of their student on campus. But for Spartan parents who live far away, Visual Arts Instructor Elizabeth Zepeda wanted to create a special project that would connect families to campus from afar with artistic watercolor postcards that each student painted themselves.

“We have a lot of international students, especially in the arts, and they don't always get to see their parents during events like this,” said Zepeda. “And when something's coming from the heart, even if you don't feel like it's your best work, the person you're gifting it to — it's always going to be in their mind and in their thoughts, and it shows you're thinking about them, because chances are they're thinking about you, too.”

Izzy Stiebel ’26, who is in Zepeda’s Visual Arts II class, was inspired to move beyond the walls of the Upper School art studio. The boarding student from Jamaica selected an outdoor space near the Temple classrooms where he focused on an aging oak tree trunk. Using a paintbrush and a set of watercolor paints, the senior Soccer Academy athlete began creating his vision on the front of a blank postcard.

“I’m sending this to my mom,” said Stiebel. “She likes colors.”

Stiebel says his skills have evolved since taking Zepeda’s Visual Arts I class last year. In the end, Stiebel painted a Y-shaped tree trunk that anchors the center of his watercolor scene. The yellow and green hues on both sides of the trunk have a slightly different shade, and showcase the sky and trees off in the distance.

“It’s supposed to be the two different sides of perception and view,” said Stiebel, while holding the finished postcard. “You have one side of the tree with the light, which is from the morning, and the other side is darker for perception.”

Stiebel will be writing a personal note to his mom on the back of the postcard and mailing it to her since she was unable to make the 1,500-plus mile journey from Jamaica to attend Upper School Parents’ Day. 

“Hopefully, it will make her feel happy — the light from the arc is supposed to make her feel calm.”

The postcard project is part of Zepeda’s Visual Studies II curriculum each year, but this is the first time the class is doing it in conjunction with Parents’ Day. It was a decision she and her students made together.

“A lot of students don't write letters anymore, and so I told them, ‘Before there was FaceTime, before there was email, before you could text message — this is how you got messages to friends and family.”

The wide variety of handmade postcards are covered with watercolor paintings that are significant to the students, and include everything from landscapes to flowers to family pets. Zepeda says the project also serves as an important lesson in letter writing, a skill some students haven’t been fully taught due to the rise of modern communication.

Before dropping the postcards in the mail, which are written in multiple languages, they will be hung in the Scanlan Gallery as part of an upcoming exhibition. Students can choose to put the postcards in an envelope to protect the painting, or stick them in the mail as is.  

Zepeda told her students that the stamp and any marks or tears that happen in transit are similar to getting a passport stamped. It becomes part of the history and experience of the piece before it reaches their parents, which is fitting for the journey they are on together.

Learn more about Visual Arts at St. Stephen’s