AND WE HAVE A WINNER! ITS JAN HURST!

Imagine my surprise yesterday when I happened to browse over to Lisa Englebrecht's blog and see the above headline. I was not expecting to see my own name when I clicked onto her blog! I had forgotten that I'd entered her blog contest a while back. I love sweet surprises! What fun!!!

This is what I won...a signed copy of Jill Berry's book, Personal Geographies.

I took a workshop from sweet Lisa a few years ago in Nashville, TN, and knew her from Cyberscribes, an online calligraphy group. After that workshop I bought Lisa's book, Modern Mark Making, when it was published. Here it is.

Here's a photo of two inside pages that happen to contain works by two talented friends, the lovely calligrapher Barbara Close and fun font designer Stephen Rapp, and by the fabulous Carl Rohrs, a calligrapher I have long admired and from whom I am looking forward to taking a workshop in April.

Having Lisa's blog as one of my favorites in the links section of my own blog was a natural. Now I am super happy that I had it there, so easy to click onto. I might have missed the lovely surprise otherwise.

Thanks, Jill Berry, for donating and signing the book that I'm anxious to get my hands on, and thanks, Lisa Englebrecht, for sponsoring the contest. I'm so glad that my name was pulled!

Monogram, Pretty Mail, Certificates, and a Bible Inscription

This is a monogram I designed for a couple getting married later this year.

I've designed a few monograms and like it more each time. I am going to work on a monogram for myself, I think, and also a monogram for my son and soon to be daughter in law.

This is some recent mail. Clockwise from bottom left, the envelopes are from fellow calligraphers Kathy Laporte, Kathy Milii, Jody Meese and Jean Wilson. Pretty!

I recently filled in names, titles and dates on these certificates. I like designing certificates, but happily do fill ins like these too.

This Bible inscription was done as a Christmas gift.

Adoption Poem

One of my projects this week was this lovely adoption poem. It was lettered in a more casual script than I usually do. Long and narrow, it was made to fit a specific sized frame. The most difficult task was to keep the lettering legible while adding bounce and looseness. I compensated by making the interior lines of each stanza plainer than the upper and lower lines.

I love the poem, and have seen two versions of it. This is my favorite. I do not know the author's name.

Thanks to my personal photographer, Sandy Wright, for brightening my photo (above) to more closely match the original.

Here are some snippets of the piece:

Fr. Eric Lies, OSB - Requiem in Pacem

Today's post is in memory of a wonderful man who taught me a lot about a lot. His sweet, gentle demeanor along with his love of life and letters are what I will remember about him the most. Fr. Eric passed away Monday at the age of 92. His health had been failing in the past few years, but until last year I always got a Christmas card from him.

You may be familiar with Fr. Eric's calligraphy. Many of his religious pieces are sold through Abbey Press and many other sites selling religious works. He studied Roman letters with Father Edward Catich, and his Roman letterforms were quite beautiful.

Father Eric was a monk and priest at St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. I met him through calligraphy, and St. Meinrad's beautiful campus hosted many exhibits of his works, as well as those of Fr. Donald Walpole - an artist friend of his who passed just the day before at age 94. Fr. Walpole's brother was my parish priest growing up, and the stained glass windows in my church were designed and created by Fr. Donald. It was a fun little coincidence in my friendship with Fr. Eric.

Every visit my friends and I made to St. Meinrad and Abbey Press included a visit with Father Eric. Sometimes we shared lunch, sometimes a walk around the grounds, and once we were treated to the lyrical sounds of chanting in the chapel. Fr. Eric was a former director of Abbey Press and knew my recently deceased former boss, publisher of Automobile Quarterly, who at one time was art director there and often asked me about Fr. Eric. It is a small world. And I wonder if the two have met in heaven yet.

Once, friends from Kentuckiana and the Evansville region got together with Father Eric's help to have a calligraphy workshop retreat at St. Meinrad. Fr. Eric taught a session, I taught a session, several others also taught sessions, and it brought many good people together who otherwise might never have met. Last Spring I was in a workshop in Memphis with beautiful Travis, a transplant to Arkansas whom I remembered fondly from the Evansville guild. This connection to the Evansville guild also led to my taking workshops from the 'Queen of Calligraphy' Sheila Waters, whom the Evansville guild had contracted with to teach there. (She broke her wrist at one of the workshops and we feared it might end her calligraphic career, but she is indomitable.) The calligraphy field is full of such connections that make us feel almost like a family.

Father Eric was very prolific. When I once lamented that I worked at my dining room table and had to clear projects away each night, he taught me that it is important to have a dedicated space for art. In his case it was only a small table in his tiny quarters - but it was a place where he didn't have to clear away what he was working on each night, but could keep his tools and current project out for work when he had time. His days were quite full with development office work, traveling to many churches to fill in when priests were needed, prayer and more. His calligraphy time was limited, just as mine was as a young mother then. He taught me to flourish, he taught me how to drop color into water-drawn letters to get magic. Of course, when he dropped colors into his Roman letters it was sheer heaven. And speaking of heaven, I picture Father Eric in heaven now lettering for the angels with one of their own quill feathers...taken from the left wing, of course!

I found these images of a few of Father Eric's pieces online.

Requiem in Pacem, old Friend.

Valentine/Greeting Card Class

I will be teaching a Valentine and greeting card class on the next two Saturdays. From 2 - 6pm this coming Saturday and the next (February 4 and 11) I will be teaching for the Arts Council of Southern Indiana at the New Albany Indiana YMCA.

There is a roster of classes set for this month and early March. To sign up and to check on other classes, which include accordion books, intro to calligraphy and paper batik, contact the Arts Council of Southern Indiana (812) 949-4238.

Here are a few of the cards we'll be making and the packets for each.

A Monkey for A Monkey

The first monkey in the title of this post is an acrylic painting I did for my almost two year old grandson's bedroom, which is decorated in a monkey-jungle theme. The sweet grandson is the second one. His mommy called him monkey since before he was born because he kicked so much.

I began this painting on a used canvas, one on which I had already made deep colored brush marks. I thought that would give me a cool background to work with, but it was really an obstacle to have to work around and try to mute colors and shapes that were in the wrong places. Here are three photos of the progress of the painting. The happy little monkey was a hit with Jace, who kissed it several times when I gave Monkey Monk to him.

Granny's Curio

What does my Granny's curio cabinet have to do with art and calligraphy?

I remember my Granny's curio cabinet from my childhood. It was in the dining room and held glasses, for one thing. Spectacles too, but I mostly remember the drinking glasses. They were pretty glasses with fruit painted on them. I remember tracing the fruit designs with my child-fingers through the glass doors. It also held bowls full of pennies. My grandmother sold chicken eggs (before my memory) and there remained the legacy of cups and bowls of pennies everywhere. There were also pens on the cabinet - in a basket. They belonged to Papa. Now I recognize them as old fountain pens. The pretty ones, maybe Conklins, which happened to be their last name. So there is an art and a calligraphy connection. A lot of sentimental value for me.

Long after his death I learned that my grandfather had done some metal engraving. There were some samples of beautiful script associated with it, but I have no idea what's happened to that. My grandmother had an autograph book that I loved to peruse on every visit, wishing I could write in the style of the beautiful handwriting on its pages.

The cabinet was ruined when my aunt's house had a ceiling leak in the foyer where she kept it after Granny and Papa died. The glass door was broken when the front door - seldom used - was opened into it. But when my aunt was going to get rid of it she remembered that I had always loved it. She gave it to me, though she tried to talk me out of it. I had the convex glass replaced, but the shelves and the back are in terrible shape, but somehow it seems appropriate to me that I keep my pen collection and my grandmother's autograph book in it.

When ebay was new I used to buy pens. Lots of pens. I got many at bargain prices. I also bought lots of nibs before I even knew which nibs were the best. Years went by and competition got tough. I paid more for pens. I got taken a few times. I stopped buying pens. I have many varied nibs to practice with. Who knows? Maybe some will turn out to be my favorites. (Actually, some already have and competition is very stiff now, if you can even find them.)

I do have some cool pens. One is solid gold. One is shaped like a rifle, one like an umbrella. Some are carved. A couple have stanhopes in them. One is a trainer with finger rests built into it. One has a swan carved into its staff.

I have some with ivory staffs. It seems appropriate that my husband's Indian elephant with ivory tusks keeps watch over those.

I like that my grandmother's cabinet that used to house my favorite art and my grandfather's pens is in my living room. Even if it has seen better days.