My Calligraphy and Art Books

I wasn't sure what to name this post. "I Need More Shelves" popped into mind, as did "Something for a Rainy Day", "Resources", "I Should Never be Bored" and others.

Indeed, I love art books. I have resisted the temptation recently to add more of them to my shelves, partly because - "I Need More Shelves". Partly because I have enough here to keep me busy for years, and partly because as my friend Doris and I discussed just the other day we seldom read them all when we get them, preferring to skim the eye candy. There is much to be explored in those pages! These are just my most accessible shelves of "Resources". There are others.

Because I often justify the purchase of a new book by saying it is less than the price of a workshop, I am making a late year resolution. I plan to go through each of my books throughout the year and at least practice something from each of them until I have decided which to keep and which to remove from the shelves. "Something for a Rainy Day".

Besides, I have books on DVD to peruse, such as Denis Brown's tour de force which I recently featured on this blog, Jacqueline Sullivan's and Carrie Brown's and many more...and Fran Strom's calligraphy tapes to have transferred to DVD so I can view them. Not to mention all the handmade books I want to make. I have plenty to keep me busy. "I Should Never Be Bored".

UPDATE 8/21/2012: I am so excited! My new bookcases arrive this morning! Finally I hope to organize all of my art books and group them by subject. A little redecorating will also be called for. Busy week!

Pointed Pen Uncial

A little something different from my usual pointed pen work. Because my nephew and his bride to be are having a (major!) Celtic theme to their wedding, I surprised them with an adapted Celtic lettering style for their envelopes. The pointed pen uncial that I used - and the mixed green gouache as the writing fluid - carried out their theme. The envelopes were yellow, so the green is not as vibrant as I'd hoped it would be, but I think it worked well anyway.

I thought Jennifer did a great job making their invitations by hand. She carried out the theme beautifully, and I loved the wrapping band and the pocket for enclosures. (I blurred ceremony and reception details here to maintain their privacy.)

I wonder what the appropriate Irish blessing would be? All I can think of is "Slainte!"

Denis Brown's DVD Set

If calligraphy had been an Olympic game, Denis Brown might have been the youngest to medal. At age 15 he had his first commission, and he has never looked back. No less an iconic calligraphy specimen than The Book of Kells was his study guide.

I met Denis Brown at the annual international calligraphy conference in Ohio about 9 years ago in order to arrange a visit to his studio in Dublin. Due to an overambitious tour schedule, I had to cancel that highly anticipated visit hours before it was to happen. Luckily for me, I was later invited to participate in a retreat in South Bend IN where none other than Denis taught me and several fine calligraphers his "Dangerous Lines", a forerunner to his polyrhythmic calligraphy. We all basically lived in the same house for the week.

He began that session with water in a squirt bottle to demonstrate dangerous lines on the black(green!)board.

You can see more photos from that wonderful week on my website in the "Denis in South Bend" album. At the end of that week we were looking and feeling pretty tired, as evidenced in this photo of Denis, my good friend Diana and me.

When Denis very recently brought out his DVD set on polyrhythmic calligraphy I ordered it. Excitement began when the beautifully packaged materials arrived in the mail from Dublin. Denis doesn't do anything half way.

Though I've only had time to watch a small portion of the first DVD, I can tell you that it is very thorough. Denis gives basic, practical advice on tools and set up, and advocates enjoying your practice on the theory that if you don't enjoy it, you won't be as apt to do it.

I look forward to delving into this DVD set and its 12 plasticized guide sheets as I get back to practicing some of what he taught in 2005 at Anne Binder's in South Bend.

If you'd like to learn more about Denis Brown and this wonderful DVD set (including ordering infomation if you too would like to own a set), please visit his Quillskill and Calligraphy TV websites.

(This photo of Denis Brown is from his Quillskill website.)

Rosie Kelly Has Written and Published a Book!

One of my favorite paste paper makers, instructors, book creators and all around people in general, Rosie Kelly, has written and published a book. I have ordered mine, but don't have it yet, so I am copying her article word-for-word to help her publicize it. Her handmade books are beautiful. If they are any indication, this book will be a must have. (I am not affiliated in any way - just love her work and want to share!)

And here's a photo of the book.

Here are some photos from one of the books I made in her Memphis workshop.

Here are some pages from Rosie's books and class members' books.

Here's her marketing blurb, including ordering information. Can't wait for mine to arrive!

Artist Rosie Kelly has an extraordinary gift for designing original handmade books from painted paste papers. How many of us multi-media artists have stacks of beautifully decorated paste papers, but no idea how to best feature them? In Beyond Paste Papers: Artists’ Books, Rosie shares her expertise on painting papers, designing pages, and embellishing a simply bound book. Step-by-step instructions take you from the blank page to a bound softcover manuscript. Along the way you receive inspirational insights combined with tips and tricks to create your best work. Rosie’s artist’s books are housed in the permanent collection of the Newberry Library in Chicago and have been featured in many publications, including Letter Arts Review. She teaches workshops to calligraphy and book guilds throughout the United States, New Zealand, and Japan. At home in Chicago, she paints in her studio and continues a tradition of life-long learning, inspired by fellow artists and teachers.

Beyond Paste Papers: Artists' Books by Rosie Kelly Multi-media artists will love this book to best feature your paste papers. ISBN 978-0-615-64651-0 $9.95 plus tax and shipping. (From her Illinois home to my Indiana one, postage and handling were only $1.50.) To order please contact Rosie at roseykelly [at] sbcglobal.net

Addendum. Rosie's book arrived this afternoon! Wonderful! She concisely shares her methods and includes lots of photos. Here is the mail I received today. Love the glittery gold script behind my name and address! The same gold was used on the contents page for her signature. Hard to see in this photo, but I realy wanted to share the contents anyway. In case you can't see it in the photo, they include: materials, painted pages, book design, binding, tips and tricks and a gallery.

Teri Dryden & Collage

This week I took a couple of hours off to attend a Food for Thought luncheon at the Louisville Visual Art Association at the Watertower. The guest speaker was Teri Dryden, a collage artist whose work I admire. I was very happy to meet her - she has a winning personality with smiles to match. Her collages have great subtlety. I love them and think you might too. I took one photo of the wall display, but did not get a photo of the slightly more crowded table display of smaller pieces.

Collage is a favorite medium of mine, but unlike Teri, I usually include some lettering in mine, combining my love of calligraphy and collage. I liked the purity of hers, which are made from discarded books. The textures are delicious, and I repeat myself, very subtle. Her talk was interesting, and was accompanied by slides of her collage work - and a couple from her days as a clown with Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus. I'm so glad I made the time to meet Teri Dryden, see her work, hear her story, reacquaint myself with some fellow artists and meet some others. It was a good afternoon, well-spent. The lunch was good too!

In searching for more information for this article I ran across an excellent blog post by Keith Waits with great photos of both Teri and her work. Please check it out here.

A Lines Tale - or Trouble, Right Here in River City

Usually when I letter envelopes, I don't need to rule guidelines. This is not because I letter so evenly without them. Instead, it's because I use a lightboard.

I used to use a very clunky handmade frame with plexiglass top with an undercounter light wedged under the plexi. I would tape a guide sheet to the plexiglass and place my envelope or other item over the guidesheet and letter away. Now I use a wonderfully compact Art-o-Graph lightboard. When I can. Recent envelopes have made it impossible to use my light board. Silver envelopes required my ruling white lines (measuring, carefully setting the envelopes in place, and ruling the guidelines) and erasing them later with a white eraser. Another set has a purple lining that couldn't be removed. It also negated the use of my lightboard. In fact, for both these and the silver, I had to turn off all ambient light in the room and turn on one desk lamp in order to see my faint ruled lines.

The silver set is amazing though, and well worth the trouble. Below is a snippet from the purple lined envelope. Graphite lines had to be ruled and erased. I had to get very close (a la this photo) in order to see the lines and letter on them. In addition, they were made of a letterpress paper. Wonderfully soft for printing...terribly fibrous for calligraphy. The texture as seen magnified somewhat in this snippet just grabs the pen nib and is a difficult surface for a pointed pen. A light touch and modified ink help somewhat with that issue.

I sure do appreciate those envelopes that allow me to use my light board.

Celestial Painting Session

My niece Celeste, whom I sometimes have called "Celestial", came over this week to paint. She had an in-progress canvas and wanted me to advise her on where to take it next. Celeste is as fearless a painter as she is in most parts of her life. She'd been experimenting with texture. My advice earlier had been to add some complementary color and lighter values to the dark blue. She was not happy with the result.

I brought out the pastel pencils and chalk pastels so she could experiment with color. Once sprayed with fixative, most of the pastel disappeared, but it did show her what adding depth and highlights with color would do to the painting.

I brought out the paintbrushes and paint then, and she painted in some lights and darks. She achieved a look of depth and mystery, I think. Some of the larger crevices look like places to be explored.

I thought the painting had an under the sea look, but Celeste thought it was celestial. She took it home to work on it some more, but before she left she humored me with a Vanna White impression.