Art Heart for Haiti

Laure Ferlita has put together a wonderful project to raise funds to help with the Haitian relief effort. Because I first heard about the project only hours before the deadline, I am so happy that it was extended so that I could participate. Thank you Laure for your big heart!

Out of Africa – Beach Calligraphy

Out of South Africa comes the truly unique work of Andrew van der Merwe – beach calligraphy, he calls it. Andrew writes about his work: “If a calligrapher is someone who loves writing, then I have been a calligrapher since my very first writing lessons. Or is it just a love for women? I dunno but I did think the teacher who gave me all those gold stars was beautiful! Either way, it wasn’t women who had me breaking my academic trajectory in philosophy and politics, but calligraphy. To help pay my way, I started freelancing while I was at university and went full time soon after that.

I also love the surf and the beach and have always enjoyed scratching words in the sand with sticks. Sticks make more of a mess than a mark, so this led to the special shaping of the sticks and to the development of various instruments to achieve better results and ultimately to ways of cutting the sand out to leave a neat V. The V was a great discovery, not only for its neatness and shadow, but because it sets up a lovely contrast between the typical, permanent V of stone carving and the wonderful, temporal quality of the beach calligraphy.

I also developed ways of avoiding footprints, and this is often what impresses people most, but for me the real challenge remains getting the letter forms good. Any calligrapher will understand that!”

Above is just a small sampling of his work. He has more online at www.behance.net/beachscriber, and you can buy prints at www.beachscriber.artfire.com or www.beachscriber.imagekind.com.

What's Your Name?

As I was going through images to use for the lecture that I will be giving this Friday evening for the San Diego Fellow Calligraphers, this little gem popped up.  I took a quick shot just before putting these name tags into the basket to take to Yves Leterme's workshop last August.  They are of paste paper and I made them for the students that would be attending the class.  The letter style is one with which I fell in love when I saw a piece created by Yves, that appears on his website. Since the piece did not have a full alphabet, it was an interesting challenge for me to come up with letters on my own that went along with the style!

I Am

For some time now I have been wanting to create some art for my father, a retired minister and professor of theology. This year for Christmas I found a little extra time to make a small piece. The verse is from the book of Matthew in the New Testament.

Lost Emails!

Over the holiday season, I was checking my email on remote computers and had a few inquiries and questions about calligraphy come through. I planned to answer them when I returned home, but found, to my dismay, that they had disappeared from my Inbox. If you wrote recently, and had no reply [how rude!] - please accept my apology and try again!

A New Year Cometh

How exciting ... a New Year!  For many people, 2009 could have been better, much better.  Me?  Well, there were ups and downs just like everyone else, so I am excited to move on and get started with 2010 ... to live and experience life like never before.  I hope that your coming year proves to be the best ever and I offer all good wishes for prosperity, health, much love and joy....