The music pages are real and have a little foxing that adds to the authenticity.
It is something I can't seem to shake off, the feeling of guilt. What is it that makes me feel guilty. I don't even know what it is I am guilty of? I have always had this guilt complex since I was a youngster. Upbringing in a strict Catholic family? You are all guilty even if you aren't. I am always afraid even though I truly have "nothing" to be afraid of.
Just recently, I felt guilty in having to let a beginner student go because I needed, no, wanted my Tuesday mornings back, or so I said. teaching one-on-one is difficult and even though I would sometimes work on my own stuff while they were labouring away ... I'd feel guilty about that even.
Now I feel guilty I have not worked hard enough to have all my film clips ready ... when I said I would. Am I lazy? What do I really want to do in life? I feel that dwelling on such questions are a waste of time, just get in and do something good, something worthwhile. Something, anything I won't feel guilty about. Oh dear ... whatever it is "it's bigger than just me" and what does that mean exactly?
I'm stumped. I think I need a holiday but there is nowhere to go to. I feel guilty about even writing this post. Back to work.
Time is moving on at a rapid pace. I don't know if that's because I am busy or that time has actually sped up. Of course I have been busy. I have been preparing for an upcoming one-day virtual workshop with the Texas Conference Legacies III and as usual I am privileged to be on the faculty. Over the week-long conference I will attend lectures, view the exhibitions and partake in some breakout conversations and lettering discussions. I will be wonderful to se many of my friends again and to make new ones.
Recently I ran a three hour workshop for the Art Society of Tasmania on how to use gold leaf on a number of different substrates. Time was tight so I had to be quite regimented in the flow process so I could get all the different techniques in that I wanted to share with the group. It was a successful little gathering at Lady Franklin Gallery and all went home happy with their bits ... and pieces.
In the recent two weeks covid-19 outbreaks have arrived on our shores again. Not here in Tasmania, we are fine with no reported cases though we are prepared in the event we find ourselves heading toward lock down. It all started with one unvaccinated limousine driver taking airline crew to their hotels in Sydney. One or more of the crew tested positive to covid and the spread was incredibly fast. Two weeks later we have the entire Sydney basin in lock down with numerous escaped little bugs throughout the country. It is a great shame and to the country's detriment that the Federal Government has been so slow in rolling out the vaccine here in Australia. So few in the population are fully vaccinated unlike many other coun tries around the world boasting high numbers. I am hoping my upcoming family & teaching trip to Canberra is not cancelled. We will lick it eventually.
Five weeks over May I taught a course for the Cinque Port Scribes (UK), Hierarchy of the Scripts, it was very fruitful. In June I taught a lovely little Versals workshop as a treat for all who signed up to the ABC Red Deer conference in Canada. It was first postponed then cancelled altogether this year. It was wonderful to see so many friends and people enjoying the creative get together.
As far as commissions go I have worked on a couple, a life membership certificate, a book jacket design, a book inscription but the lovely thing is I have had some time to prepare some pieces that I have really enjoyed doing for the National Capital Art Prize in Canberra along with my faculty piece for Legacies III.
The football season is well underway so David is enthralled with our new sporting channel Kayo whereas I enjoy snuggling down with a good book or movie. All is well even though tempus fugit ...
I'll write again another day ...
Artist: Neville Dawson
I met a man on a bus
I arrived into Hobart Airport from one of those long haul trips that I have taken from time to time. I was exhausted after an enjoyable teaching tour. I boarded a mini-bus to take me into the city centre as David was working in Orchestra and had taken the car. A gentleman asked was the seat next to me taken. It wasn’t, so I said he was welcome to sit there. Invariably a small-talk conversation started though I could hardly keep my eyes open with the tiredness. Suddenly my senses piqued when he said he was an artist and all my concentration was suddenly focused on this quietly spoken man sitting next to me … "An artist? So am I”, I said … “well sort of”.
The gentleman, whose name is Neville Dawson, turned out be so interesting and charming that our trip into the city ended so very quickly. It saw us swapping names as he exited down the steps getting off the bus. “Look me up” I called.
I had just met Dr Neville Dawson, Head of Art Newington College (Rtd.), Master Portrait Painter and a true gentleman.
Not long after our serendipitous meeting on the bus, we met up again at a lecture I was giving at the NSW State Library for the Australian Society of Calligraphers. It was lovely to see Neville again as I could introduce him to David. A few years had gone by though we corresponded during this time. Neville shared a great deal of his portrait work with me. Then out of the blue he asked would I sit for him to have my portrait sketched then painted with the aim of entering it into the Archibald. Gosh, what a very special treat.
The Painting
I had always loved a particular fresco portrait of a young woman since I was a child. We had a magnificent library with many wonderful art books and the paintings around the house were poster facsimiles of famous paintings. From all the paintings I liked the Blue Boy the most, but from books my favourite was what I called my Pompeii Woman. After I started learning calligraphy I found her again during my studies and I have used her ever since as my muse. Some claim she is Sappho the Greek lyric poet but I doubt this is true. She is holding a stylus and wax tablets so I would say she was a young woman of some wealth who had the good fortune to learn to write.
I showed her to Neville and I asked if we could use her somehow. So we took the concept from the Pompeii Fresco and Neville used it to direct his approach to the painting. And as Neville says “The idea of linking two women 2,000 years apart by their gifts and talent is very special” and that it’s a “comment on the continuity of the written word within our culture”.
I hope you enjoy the painting as we have both enjoyed the journey. As for the Archibald … well who knows … it’s a lottery!
It's a good to be alive day ...
Following is an article just written for the Canberra Calligraphy Society.
____________________________________________
Twenty-twenty started as quite a frightening year for many in South East Australia. Traumatising communities from the Queensland border to our beautiful Tasmania. Bushfires that had been raging throughout various parts of the country since September 2019 were now out of control. By late December Canberra residents and other visitors were trying to flee the south coast. We here in Tasmania also had our own bushfires to deal with. Twenty-twenty started badly and then turned worse. An illness, an emergency, a pandemic.
On the twenty-fifth of January the Australian news headline read:
The first case of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has been confirmed by Victoria Health Authorities this morning. The patient, a man from Wuhan, flew to Melbourne from Guandong on 19 January.
On the twenty-sixth of January I flew to Canberra to spend some much-needed family time and to catch up with hometown friends even thought the fires were still burning. Everyone was talking about the fires and shared their experiences. Our communities had common concerns which effected everyone if not physically then psychologically. The world was sympathetic to Australia as times were very hard for most in the bush. At the same time though our minds became over-engaged with first of all the small changes we had to make due to the coronavirus then much larger consequences of the pandemic. We experienced lockdowns, job losses, hygiene regimes, supermarket scrums and, yes, a whole new world order not seen in our generation.
As a calligrapher and artist running a studio based practice and a healthy teaching program I, like everyone else had to adapt and work positively in a way that didn’t see me loose my mind, my work and my sanity. And I am extremely fortunate unlike many to be able to control my own working environment. On March fifteenth I cancelled a five-month teaching tour of the northern hemisphere. An endeavour that was two years in the making was gone in an instant. I was so relieved even though there were neither ongoing commissions nor any type of income. While I enjoy all my teaching adventures it is extremely hard work as I am the one responsible for each and every person in my workshops to reach their potential indeed exceed it.
Whilst I had cancelled everything we were still having workshops here in Australia by visiting internationals. Our lettering shed was still going and face-to-face classes were still happening. Late March I took a workshop by American book artist Daniel Essig as well as signing up for classes with Marina Soria.
At the end of March I was to go to Sydney to teach for the ASC an Arthur Baker workshop. Thereafter we were to welcome Marina to Hobart. I spent a good deal of time on the phone with Shas Baker discussing the state of covid affairs as borders were starting to close. At first we hesitated about doing anything drastic but at the last minute the Tasmanian border closed and though I could get to Sydney, I may not have been able to return home. I suggested to Shas it could be worse for Marina if she continued her travels here. Cancellations started all over the world from then on even though many still believed it would blow over in a month or two after which we could carry on.
The first thing I did was look up the last world pandemic, the so-called Spanish-flu of 1918, I wanted to know how long it lasted. Two years. I wanted to know the countries affected. The entire world. So in my mind I knew it was going to be a long time before we would become a healthy country again.
With no work and no income I was fortunate that my partner’s position in the Orchestra was safe and our income was solid. My accountant bless her, wrote to say that I might qualify for JobKeeper. A miracle. For the first time in my life the Australian Government gave me some money. Pure relief.
I signed up for a course run out of the University of Tasmania and received a commonwealth-supported place in The Wellbeing Toolkit that lasted one semester. I chose my units well:
· Human Performance in Extreme & Unusual Environments
· Making Home
· Arts in Health and Medicine
· Stress, Self Care and Mindfulness
Each module related to me personally feeding my mind with the power of positivity in particular the last three. Making Home was not about fluffing the cushions in the lounge room but rather about our home environment where we are safe and feel comfortable, a space of simplicity and beautiful, useful things. It enabled me to have my/our place home where I could be content. With the idea that this would spread to our immediate community. My time (and my mind) was starting to fill up.
Meanwhile in the studio I messed about doing what I do best, making art. Fortunately an interior designer from Sydney needed artwork for a new hotel lobby that they were decking out. These were works to “blend-in” not “stand out” so after many trials and tribulations I managed to sell a few works. This kept me busy while studying.
I started filming little snippets of calligraphy training to put “out there” for a small price. As one of my overseas slots was to do Foundational Hand course filming with Harvest Crittenden of Acorn Arts I managed to organise myself with the technology to complete all the filming from my studio. Voila, we now have a FH course running on the Acorn Arts Platform. I am extremely happy with the results having run our first five-week session all online. I am on hand for the five weeks to interact with my students on a daily basis. I mark up all their work and feed it back to the forum. Now with the videos all done it gives us the opportunity to run it perhaps twice a year.
Then along came a word I had only heard on a car television advertisement zoom, zoom, zoom! A friend from Europe wrote to me to ask would I mind if she suggested my name to a friend of hers who ran a platform of teaching lettering arts via Zoom. What’s zoom? With hindsight it seem a pretty silly answer. Sure, why not? So she put me in touch with Riccardo Ali and the rest is history. I have taught some workshops for Riccardo on his Calligraphy Italia platform, Adolf Bernd, Art Deco lettering, Gold leaf sgraffito and a four week course on Hermann Kilian.
When Pam Kemp and I were in England a few years ago I taught at Ardington School of Crafts run by Yvonne & Simon Sonsino. As part of their initiative to keep the school open they started a series of classes called Ardington Academy Live Plus. Over the past year I have also taught for them via Zoom five x four weekly workshop. The classes included: classical Italic, Hermann Kilian, Cnut Charter Hand, Versals & Ampersands. With the time-slots for me in Australia going late into the night or early in the morning it has certainly been a marvellous worldwide experience from the comfort of my own studio. Phew, I am exhausted.
I have also taught a few workshops for other Societies around the world some gratis and some paid just to keep everyone’s head, hearts and hands active during the pandemic. But there is one more activity I have undertaken in my covid-stride this past year. In March my poet/calligrapher friend Linda Lanza started a small group of friends to take part in creative writing sessions. Run out of Linda’s New Jersey studio I jumped at the chance to meet with the group of like-minded artists on Sunday mornings at 6am. On a weekly basis we have a new theme along with prompts and word catchers and a great deal of encouragement to write. If we wish, we share or written works, some poignant some wretchedly sad, some deep and meaningful and others fun and flippant. Originally the sessions were to run for a few weeks the duration of this pesky flu but of course we are still meeting. We are now up to our 46th week of writing with no let-up in sight.
I am very fortunate enough to have sat out the covid-19 pandemic on my backside in my studio wearing pyjama bottoms and a beautiful blouse, keeping warm and creative making art and sharing with friends in winter and keeping cool in the now summer months of twenty twenty-one.
“Humankind is a curious creature. We are
makers of things and survivors’ of obstacles.” Gemma Black
Reflection Day
26th January
a day for all Australians
I have been a little introspective of late, which usually happens to me when a subject of real importance is being discussed socially. Is this happening a lot more lately or is that just that I am getting older?! Actually just what do I think about Australia Day? I have been fortunate to have listened to many wide-ranging opinions from members of the community. Every person's opinion should be regarded as valid. Not every Nation however has a national day. Here is a proposal that I would like to put forward to the Australian public regarding the debate that arises every year in the lead up to Australia Day.
The argument for and against changing the date I feel, will
continue to go around and around on an annual basis unless a well
thought out and brainstormed idea is acted upon at all levels of the community and government. How on earth will twenty-plus million people agree on which day?
The issue is intrinsically complex and I feel every one of us is entitled to have their opinions heard without judgement, but perhaps it’s time to be more forward thinking. I believe the answer comes down to identity and heritage. Yes, let’s look back for a bit before we look forward more positively. I don’t believe you can fully understand the complexity of the Australia Day issue unless you look back at one's family. Identify yourself, think about it and ask yourself “am I an Australian?” “do I identify with any other nationality outside Australia’s jurisdiction?” Or perhaps even ask yourself "do I want really to be an Australian?” Then I believe we can move forward.
Just as we have very recently legislated to change the wording of Advance Australia Fair to “we are one and free”, then surely we can legislate to change the title “Australia Day”, though not the date. The 26th January should be a day of reflection for all Australians. It is actually the date that is the source of all the debate. Yep the day Captain Cook planted the flag at what is now known as Botany Bay … terra nullius … while those already on the shore looked on. We all know the enormity of Australia’s Indigenous Peoples history and what followed. I hasten to add that can’t be dealt with in a few lines of writing.
From our earliest years in education we must learn about, reflect upon and acknowledge our past. Such education is not available to so many around the world. As Australians we are very privileged and fortunate however there are parts of Australian society which through no fault of their own are definitely not as privileged or fortunate. So it is time for those privileged Australians to do something about it.
Surely all Australians should be able go forward as “one”, as
the newly amended Advance Australia Fair states. I believe changing the existing Australia Day to become a national Reflection
Day for all Australians would be an important step of the many we must
take towards true reconciliation.
With only a few weeks to go, I was commissioned by the Australian Government to create a congratulatory gift on vellum with the full text ...
