Showing posts with label Donna Hacker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Donna Hacker. Show all posts

Friday, February 1, 2013

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.






Friday, June 1, 2012

Artsy Days With Friends

Where does inspiration come from? For me, it can come from almost anywhere, a passage in a book, a FaceBook post, a seen-by-no-one-but-me image in a floor tile, a museum visit, paging through art books, workshops, and especially fun days exploring with art-minded friends. Here are a few photos from recent and not so recent friend fun days. Rob, Laura, Steve and I went to Nashville IN for a joint birthday/anniversary outing in March. These photos from a general store feed my artful soul.



A trip to Indianapolis and Carmel IN with two calligrapher friends was fun and full. In Carmel I got these photos of Doris Sisk, Jen Grove and myself along with a few locals.

Here's Jen thinking about the day's news while Doris 'reflects'.


Jen and I trying to help Grandma shop.


Jen had a little brush with the law.


A few years ago my friend Donna Hacker joined me in the NuLu district of Louisville for a trolley hop where we had these photobooth photos made.





That photo memory resides on my 'new' antique library drawers. I'd love to have a wall-full of these!




And today I had another great art day...at Gaye Medbury's annual art sale for friends. Here are Pat (Artkerfuffle) Pleacher, Gaye Medbury, Diana Hutchison and Connie Newbanks...all wonderful artists/calligraphers, and I'm proud to say, my friends.
Well, La Dee Da!

I love art. Even more, I love my friends.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Doing My Best to Keep Post Offices Open


With the news of many small post offices closing, I wonder if most mailings come from:
1. Advertisers
2. Utility and Credit Card Companies
3. Doctors, Labs and various insurance invoices
4. Politicians or
5. Calligraphers

I vow to do my best to add more pretty mail to the mix. I don't get enough of number 5s. I hate the political ones, accept 2s and 3s as necessities, get too many 1s and 4s. My most hated are the 4s. (I believe I've said that before!) I confess that I do most of my bill-paying via automatic payments, so have taken that much monthly revenue away from the postal service. I'll try to augment that by sending a few more pleasant notes and cards to friends and family.

The mailbox photo above is one I took near Turkey Run State Park in central Indiana when my friend Donna Hacker and I took a watercolor workshop there from Joe Fettingis. It was great fun, the scenery was great, and this was at our favorite restaurant there (a bar with fabulous fish.)

Here's a photo of Donna at that restaurant - with a friendly companion. (She's not this red - there was a reflection from the lighting.)

Here's a photo of the very talented Joe Fettingis hard at work.

Here is my attempt to paint the little Indian boy from one of Joe's resource photos.

And here is my poor rendition of the ibis (?) - unfinished. There were so many talented people in that classroom doing fabulous work that I'd much rather show you theirs!

Here's someone's old homestead off the beaten track.

Here's a beautifully tended and picturesque red barn.

And since I began with the post office and a nice mailbox, I'll end with one...send more (pretty) mail!!!