The President of the United States may be getting a little more mail thanks to artist Sheryl Oring. Oring is currently touring the United States with a 38-year-old typewriter, a stack of postcards and a camera with a question as simple as the postcard it is written on - Want to tell the president what you think?
"I want to make people think about what they would say to the president and to think about politics," Oring said.
Oring gave students the chance to voice their opinions yesterday by quietly sitting at a desk outside The University Center and dictating students quotes on a postcard.
After a message is complete, Oring gives each person an embossed copy of the message on a postcard with a stamp and the address to the White House already attached.
The other copy is for a book, featuring letters from people around the United States, that Oring is currently working on.
"I started in California, and I've been to over 12 states," Oring said.
She got the idea after living in Germany for several years and hearing that many Europeans see Americans as all having the same views.
"I want to show that America does have diverse feelings," she said.
While many of the letters are obviously political, many people simply want to let the president know about important events in their life, Oring said.
"A man from Ethiopia wrote that he felt like the United States rescued him in 1977 from Ethiopia, and now they rescued him again in New Orleans,"she said.
The plight of Hurricane Katrina victims has been a popular subject of many letters, Oring said.
"Today there have been a lot of people talking about the response to Katrina and how it wasn't quick enough," Oring said. "I think people are pretty eager to say what is on their minds."
Letting the president know exactly how they feel is something freshman Christine Kelly has never really considered.
"I never thought the president of the United States would ever really care about what I think, but this is a good way to let him know whether he reads it or not," Kelly said. "At least we are trying to get our voice heard."
Bringing Oring to The U of M to offer students that chance was one of the main goals for University of Memphis assistant professor of art Cedar Nordbye.
"People are a little afraid," Nordbye said. "They act like they might get in trouble if they say what is on their minds."
Although teaching students to fully use their First Amendment rights is a key concern in Oring's work, her example of artwork is rarely seen at The U of M, Nordbye said.
"It is a kind of art making that students are usually exposed to here," Nordbye said. "It is art that is social and political."
Oring is not only simply typing letters for U of M students, she has also been lecturing to several art classes over the past few days.
"I think usually when an artist comes here they lecture and disappear," Nordbye said. "She has been sticking around and interacting with the students."
