Calligraphy Valentines 2013

The calligraphy Valentines I received in 2013 were few, but choice! (Click on the images, please) to see more detail.)



This lovely one in red and black is from Indianapolis calligrapher Kathy Laporte. I love it!

This beautiful and gracefully flourished "Love" is by California calligrapher Bonnie Noehr.

This lovely gold on teal note is from Nashville calligrapher Mariana Richardson. I love the way she lettered her last name diagonally over her embossed return address.

I should start sending more valentines. Maybe I'd get a lot more of these pretties in return!

Creativity and Communication

Creativity and communication are closely related, I think.  Artists are often trying to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings through their work.
What do you think of this piece of work?  It's a large quilt-sized piece which I am only able to show you in pieces, because of its size, and because lights reflected in the glass-fronted frame made some photos less clear.  I found the work fascinating, and studied it for a long time. 

Click on images to see them slightly larger.

The need to communicate is clear, but the communication is muddled somewhat.  I can't imagine how long this took to stitch.  The stream of consciousness style of 'writing', the misspellings and the different colors add to the  aspects of creativity and communication, but puzzle me as to why the threads were changed when they were.  Some thoughts seem to go in two directions while at the same time forming new thoughts.

I took these photos during a visit to the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri.  The artist has been in my heart ever since.  She had so much to say, but could anyone understand? 

Happy Valentine's Day 2013!

Happy Valentine's Day!  This is my valentine for 2013.
(Please click on images to see them larger.)

The heart flourishing was a little tricky, and the paper was a horror to letter on...but I'm stubborn.

This is a shot of samples for the valentine class a year ago (sorry for the stray get well card in green.)

Here is an older valentine that I still like a lot.

And here is my surprise early valentine from Steve!

I hope everyone has a wonderfully happy valentine's day!

Flourishing Workshop with Kathy Milici

Last weekend I attended a flourishing workshop with Kathy Milici.  Kathy is known for her extravagantly flourished work, and I wanted to know how she makes it look so effortless.  Her technique is totally different from Michael Sull's, a workshop I attended in November.  It was wonderful to get a feel for both. 

  

 Here's my first exercise...flourishing my name in an oval.  This was a rough, done with pencil.  The flourish on the t was meant to balance out the lower bowl of the J.  It's a little awkward.  It seems that every name or phrase I selected had its difficult parts.

 

Later, we selected a classmate's name to letter and flourish.  These were also done in pencil and then inked.  This was a fairly quick exercise.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture without the pencil rough showing through. 

 

The above is another classmate's version of the same exercise.

Another exercise on  day one was this one.  Kathy did the first flourish, and we each added a flourish to hers on the otherwise blank paper.  The photo above shows Kathy's flourish and mine.  The photo below shows the finished exercise.  Kathy elaborated on the flourishes and added the script.

Above, Donna Hacker, Kathy Milici and moi.  Day one of the workshop was "The Flourished Name", day two was about the business side of art, and both were practical and entertaining too.

 This is a view from the parking garage at Nashville's downtown Sheraton Hotel where Donna and I stayed.  Foggy day.  The drive down for me was delayed due to a little ice storm that closed I-65 South for the morning.

These cute letters decorate the wall across from the entrance at Paper and Ink Arts, where the workshop was held.

  This carved piggy was part of a collection of pigs (including one very naughty one) on the kitchen bar at the fabulous City House restaurant where Donna and I ate dinner on Saturday night.  We were able to watch the kitchen crew toss the pizza crusts and heat up the kitchen in general with high flames under the pots.  I tasted Donna's octopus, and I ate the best pizza ever here - ham belly with egg on top, Sicilian style.  It's not on the menu, you have to ask for it.  I'm so glad that Tom Lazzaro, owner of Lazzaroli Pasta Shop and Italian Market two blocks away recommended the restaurant and told me what to order.  Too bad Lazzaroli's had sold out (by noon) of the Mozzarella cheese Tom makes every Saturday morning, but Donna bought fresh pasta to take home.