A History of Blue Mountain Arts
Poet Susan Polis Schutz and physicist/illustrator Stephen Schutz founded Blue Mountain Arts in 1971. Idealistic and very much in love, the couple had left the busy East Coast in search of a new life in Colorado. In the basement of their Boulder apartment, they silk-screened posters of Susan's poems paired with Stephen's paintings and then traveled the country selling the posters from their pickup-truck camper. Everywhere they went, people were drawn to the candor and emotion of Susan's words and to the mystical beauty of Stephen's illustrations. What began as a way for Susan and Stephen to spend their time together doing something they loved quickly became a publishing phenomenon.
Today Susan and Stephen are widely hailed as the bestselling poet-artist team in the world, with Susan's book To My Daughter with Love on the Important Things in Life, illustrated by Stephen, having sold over 1.8 million copies. Blue Mountain Arts continues to be at the creative forefront of personal expression—a thriving, international publisher with strong product recognition and a loyal following. Blue Mountain Arts' cards, books, and other products have been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Dutch, Hebrew, Finnish, Hungarian, Polish, German, and Portuguese.
Susan and Stephen credit much of the company's success to the fact that it has never strayed from the principles and beliefs on which it was founded. The warm, communicative style, dense inks, rich colors, and beautiful papers that distinguished the very first Blue Mountain Arts products continue today to make them standouts in the marketplace, filling a very unique and necessary need... that of helping people communicate their feelings and connect with the special people in their lives.