GEMMA BLACK : ARTIST / CALLIGRAPHER

On the day my mother died, just under four weeks ago, my gorgeous partner David (aka The Oboe Player) went out searching for a gift that would have meaning for me, that would make me smile, something I could enjoy and think of my mother. He bought me this Georgia O'Keefe book and gave it to me that night. It was simple and something nice, as a memento of that sad day.  I treasure his very sweet gesture. A remarkable woman was my mother Marie MacLaren Walsh as was Georgia O'Keefe, both leaving amazing legacies in their own way.  Reminds me also of the loss of another remarkable woman Susie Taylor, calligrapher & curator late of San Francisco & SFPL.  I have just spent two hours reading about her in the latest issue of Alphabet. Here's to all the exceptional and remarkable women and one special guy!

There are some really exciting happenings in this little calligraphic life of mine and one of them will happen in November/December this year.  I have been granted residency at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venezia.  Needless to say I am more than a wee bit excited. While I am there I shall take a couple of night classes at the Scuola, have an exhibition as well as run a workshop on Saturday 1 & Sunday 2 December part of Calligraphy Week in Venice. While I am in Italy, I have the opportunity to run a workshop in Turin thanks to my friend & colleague Massimo, just before my residency 25 & 26 November. I am very excited and a little nervous, at the prospect of this Italian calligraphic adventure. I am indebted to the Lorenzo of the Scuola and my friend & colleague Kathy of VIS  for making the application and the workshop planning a smooth process. Take a peek at the Scuola: http://www.scuolagrafica.it/ I am madly practicing/learnin...

  An interesting phone call came my way last Friday - was it only last Friday?  We were coming up to the long-weekend, 8 hours day, and we were to go to Bruny Island to stay over with friends. The call came while I was at the Lettering Shed around lunchtime. Would I come to Perth to complete some new work in the Declaration Against Modern Slavery Books?  These magnificent books were created by Joy & John Tonkin and I did all the original calligraphic design in both books.  The books travel the world with their instigator Andrew Twiggy Forrest of the Minderoo Foundation & and Global Freedom Network, collecting signatures from people of all walks of life, Sovereign, Religious, Civic leaders and more. An Indonesian signing was coming up on Tuesday 14th March and they needed the pages to be created for signing - four of them two in English and two in Bahasa - and this was Friday 10th. Oh and while I am at it would I add eight new heading and eight new dat...

Marie Maclaren I am continually amazed at the things I learn about myself. The past four weeks have been full of highs and lows, from one extreme to the other. On 24th February 2017 my mother Marie Therese MacLaren Walsh, died. Mum died in Sydney at the Mark Moran aged care facility, a beautiful home by the ocean in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.   Mum had lived a full, rich and rewarding life. Most women born in the 1920's became remarkable women, living through the Depression and World War II and onward through the 50's, 60's 70's up until today. Mum was born on 16th August 1928. When my mother died three weeks ago, so many of my thoughts and emotions shifted regarding this remarkable woman who nurtured and raised me, along with my eight siblings. I was never the model child, a disappointment to my parents really. I guess I was always fighting to be heard and seeking attention in the milieu of a large Catholic family.  All disappointments aside, my mothe...