Bring in the Light, Happy Winter Solstice

Calligraphy friends exchanged winter solstice weather grams this week. Before hanging them in the tree outside, I thought I'd share them with you.

Being part Scandinavian, I enjoyed this link about Winter Solstice and  Mother Christmas.

Ready for Magic

I'm working on a final project for this fall term calligraphy class with Carol DuBosch. We learned Bookhand, simple Roman Caps and Bone. I really like the pen manipulation with Bone. I wrote a poem four years ago entitled A Childhood Myth and used this text for my project. Recently, I read Elizabeth Gilbert's book Big Magic which inspired me to take a line from the poem for a card- "ready for magic".  Here's the poem hand lettered in Bookhand with an Uncial title. The holiday season tells of dreams and childhood memories.

Gel Plate Papers

Jane Davies' Monoprint Collage online class started last week. I'm learning some new techniques and am enjoying seeing what other students create. Suzanne told us about a new app to make photo groupings. It's called PicFrame.

 

Calligraphy and Poetry

I discovered a Lynn Ungar poem entitled Camas Lilies through a poetry site that I like to read called Panhala. Panhala is Hindi for "source of fresh water". This Yahoo Group shares a poem by email each day. It introduces me to poets and their poetry. The Camas Lilies poem inspired me to write the first sentence with resist and watercolor. One of my challenges is to explore ways to incorporate calligraphy into my artwork.

Last Meditation Book Exchange Pages

Here are my last two pages for our meditation-themed book exchange. The first page, I lettered with Pebeo drawing gum to create a resist and painted watercolor over it. The gum is then erased. I like this Georgia O'Keeffe quote- "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I could not say any other way. Things I had no words for." This led to drawing and painting the mandala.

Upcycled Wind Chime

At our Portland Art Collective picnic this month, we exchanged yard art. I had in mind making a wind chime. I went to SCRAP for inspiration on what to make. Scrap is a Portland recycling center for art supplies. Their materials change frequently depending on donations and what people purchase. The first things I saw for my wind chime were the metal knitting needles, fifteen in all in assorted sizes. The longest needles measure fifteen inches. I also found in the metal section a round grill-like piece about five inches in diameter from which to hang the needles.

I had to figure out how to hang the knitting needles from the grill. I used washers to hold the needles and drilled a couple holes on each side to wire them to the grill. The center consists of colorful beads I had on hand and a bell. The whole project cost under $10. It's fun to create something that you usually don't make.

Meditation Book Exchange Pages

I'm enjoying the calligraphy book exchange with Shelby Barrentine and Jan Kruger. Below are my June pages with a more literal take on our meditation theme. I made a stencil silhouette  for the woman meditating and printed her on my gelli plate. The background needed to be more solid for the lettering so I painted it all cerulean blue deep. Blue, the color of water, represents stillness, quiet and relaxation to me.

Contemporary Book of Hours

Last week, I attended the Focus on Book Arts Conference at Pacific University in Forest Grove. The biennial conference attracts outstanding book artists and instructors. I made this book in Carol Pallesen's workshop entitled The Contemporary Book of Hours. We painted Arches text wove pages with casein or milk-based paint. The milk protein casein acts as a pigment binder. It's non-toxic, dries quickly with a matte finish, is waterproof for layering other media and takes lettering well. The colors can be mixed and applied with several layers to get a deeper hue. When working wet on wet wonderful blooms occur. I'd use this paint again. We bound the sections in beautiful cow leather covers. I love the feel of the leather and want to make a smaller book. The book's ready for my collection of favorite poems, quotes and sayings.

 

Happy Summer Sostice - Weather Grams

Happy Summer Solstice! My calligraphy group met last week to share our summer weather grams. Each season, it never ceases to amaze me how we create new sayings and expand our calligraphic skills. Enjoy the summer sun, warmth and long days.

May Calligraphic Pages for Book Exchange

My May pages for our book exchange continued the meditation theme with an emphasis on mindfulness. I used my Gelli plate to lay down the color for each page. Noodler's red black ink is my new favorite and lettered "mindfulness" with it.

Fun Interactive Book Box Structure

For a couple years, I've wanted to make a book/box structure similar to Randi Parkhurst's Patience.
Lorraine  Jones offered her guidance to start this project. The first structure measures 3.5 x 2 inches. The whole experience of pulling the books out of their cubbyholes reminds me of the Asian boxes that fascinated me as a child.

Removing the first book

Removing the main book/box structure

Opening the box lid to see a medium sized book and pulling out the little book on the right

The back

Two small accordion books from front of box

Another photo of the smallest book and its cubbyhole

I plan to keep building up and adding to this to make a larger book/box.

Book Exchange Artwork Pages

My interest in calligraphy led me to do a book exchange with two other calligraphers. Each month, we create two pages to put into a Leporello accordion book with Arches black cover pages. One of my goals in learning calligraphy is to add lettering to my artwork. We chose meditations on the creative muse as the theme of our books. My first meditations are on nature-

 

Expressive Drawing Practice

Layer by layer, I'm playing with being more expressive in my mark making, use of color and composition. I struggle with this process one layer at a time. My left brain wants to take over and keeps me from being spontaneous. I'm beginning to realize that this process may not work for me or that I'm not ready for it yet. I feel that if I keep at it it'll get easier, more intuitive and free.

PLAY!: Whimsical Words and Calligraphic Capers

The Portland Society for Calligraphy play exhibit will be at the Multnomah Arts Center Gallery from April 3- April 28, 2015. Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri. 9am-9:30pm; Sat. 9am-5pm. The opening reception is Friday, April 3, 7-9pm.

Spring Equinox Weather Grams

For three years, I've been part of a group of women learning the art of calligraphy together. Each season, we write, letter and exchange weather grams in the tradition of Lloyd Reynolds.  I hang mine in a lilac tree outside our living room window. I love seeing them move and spread their messages to the wind reminding me of our friendship.

Come to Play Book

I decided to submit a piece for the Portland Society for Calligraphy exhibit entitled "PLAY! Whimsical Words and Calligraphic Capers" at the Multnomah Arts Center in April . In preparation, I took a Calligraphy Studio class from Christine Colasurdo, practiced and practiced writing my Haiku poem, thumbnail designs, Modern Versal lettering, a watercolor line, etc. Lots of time and energy went into this project. Fittingly, my word for 2015 is 'Practice'. It's a lesson for me to learn that the creative process takes play, practice, and time. Here's photos of my book-

The cover-

The pages-

An overview-

Elements and Principles of Design

I found a great way to understand the elements and principles of design online through Gallery Cocoa. Here's the grid that I made-

Creating this chart made me think about how the elements of art interact with the principles design. It offers ways to look at composition and experience the variety of ways each element can be explored.