I found a treat in Turin

Today I walked into a church in Turin, Italy that I discovered unexpectedly. It was completely empty. Not a soul, apart from in the crypt (I imagine). It was a strange yet special experience.

San Filippo Nevi Catholic Church

I found a treat there. It will be a part of my body of work for my residency in Venice.

Here is a sneak peek:

 

Ampersands Mandalas, and Colour & gold

I am fortunate enough to teach at various places around the world and I'll continue to do so until such a time as the invitations stop flowing. I am grateful for time I have to spend with all my lettering artist friends.

A couple of weeks ago I returned to a favourite place of mine to teach, Adelaide. After an invitation from the  Calligraphy Society of South Australia we settled on two one-day workshops. Workshop one: Ampersands and Workshop two: colour & gold. Both workshops were just a taste in each area.

 "BRAVO"

a shout of congratulations to the Calligraphers in South Australia.

Ampersand Mandala

Random

My in-class sampler

My in-class sampler

Ramblings from Missoula Montana

One of the lovely things on this trip is I don't have wifi at the home of the people hosting me Cindy & Jim. It allows me time, time I don't bother taking to do other things, things I used to do before wifi (BW) :-)

Long story but now in Montana, Amity has kindly given me access to her wifi so, here are my late night ramblings.

This year, to date, I have been invited to teach in three Australian cities & towns, Buderim, Sydney & Pokolbin with two more to go Sydney again and Adelaide. To my Australian colleagues I am eternally grateful for your support.  Thank you.

I have also been fortunate to visit and teach in eight US cities this year, Pittsburg, Salt Lake City, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Colorado Springs, currently I am in Missoula and next week I’ll be in Minneapolis.

To friends and colleagues around the world who, spend hours of their busy lives helping to organize these workshops and classes, I am indebted to you, thank you.

I have also visited Canberra a couple of times to have fun with the grandies, not to forget starting the year off with a New Years Eve concert  - and a few others - in China.

Each class takes a lot of preparation time in email conversations, creation of new exemplars, samplers and new artwork. Travel time and endurance is a huge factor to take into consideration with hours and hours of both flying time and airport time. To me it is a precious time for reading … oh okay and the odd movie or three.

This has been a marvellous year to say the least and it is not over yet.  In November I fly to Dubai, Saudi Arabia to visit with my sister then on to Barcelona to visit with my niece and family. Whilst in Spain I’ll teach in Madrid in November, then on to Torino after which I spend the month of December in Venice undertaking an artist’s residency at the Scuola Internazionale de Grafica Design, in Cannaregio with a workshop and a few afternoon classes.

Coupled with the sadness of loosing my mother in February the year has been one of frenetic periods of pure joy and deep sorrow. I think of her now knowing she would be so proud of the immature daughter who had lost her way in life and finally found it.

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 I flew in from Colorado Springs yesterday.

Here, my gorgeous hosts Don & Cecelia Harris.

Just some of the 16 participants in my Colo Springs class. Fabulous share table in front here.

Cecelia and me outside their home.

Birdies, Ampersands & other ligatures San Antonio

My "ampersands & other ligatures" workshop has now finished in San Antonio Texas. The participants were fabulous and we all enjoyed our time of it. It was the first time I used a document camera but I am yet to be convinced that it is the way for me. I was also miked as the group was large and some a little hard of hearing. I got used to that but I had to keep my sniffles in check!

On the way to class, I snapped these "Grackles on a wire" out of the car window!

 

 

Participant mementos.

 

The classroom was a bright and airy pre-school!

Some of the participants painted Celtic ampersands.

 

 Students work:

 Depending on the style of ampersand some mandalas were quicker to execute than others.

My unfinished in-class sample.

It was great meeting so many talented peeps in San Antonio.

Highlights from The McNay Museum, San Antonio

 

 

Georgia Okeefe

 

Looking Down

 

A surprise seeing my favourite artist Amedeo Modigliani 

 

St Barbara

The Master of Frankfurt Southern Netherlandish 1460 - c1533

War Mother

Charles Umlauf

The best laid plans ...

I really have not had a moment to log my travels since I arrived in Pittsburgh.  Amazingly & luckily I have been through a few doors but I am not going to be a crashing bore and show them all. The pace has been (happily) frenetic.

On my first day I visited the Carnegie Melon University where I was to teach. Fortunately I was able to spend many hours in the Fine & Rare Books Reading Room. The lettering below was designed by Arnold Bank and thanks to Karen Nordstrom Roberts I was privileged to to view many wonderful works held here.

What's this? 

 Wait for it ...

Father Catich's rubbing of the Trajan Inscription.

 Oh my, I was somewhat excited. I took photos of every word up close and personal for study purposes but lucky you I shan't bore you with them all. Studying from a book is one thing and the best way if you have no other exposure, but to study from the real rubbing is a grade up from that. Other than climbing a ladder as Fr. Catich did.

 But If someone can tell me the answer to my question of the last thirty years "why oh why are the "I's" in "DIVI" (divine) raised above the cap line. Nowhere else on the inscription does this happen with the "I's". My only idea is that it is in reverence/homage to the the "Divine". You know the reason church steeple spire high to touch the Divine ... in this case the Divine Nevae.

 And so, on the visit went pulling out drawers of works held in the collection.

There were at least fifty of Arnold Bank's Teaching exemplars available to view & study.

More to come ...

The journey begins ...

To say I am fortunate is an understatement. Time and time again I find myself in the most wonderful of situations that allow me to experience extraordinary things.  What I love most is I am always ... always learning something new. Today for example I saw my first driver less car.  Never!!!! I could barely believe it.  Some one reading this in fifty to one hundred years time may chuckle and say "cars had drivers?".  I am in Pittsburgh after all.

I guess you could say today is day two of this particular journey. Day one was spent on a series of aircraft to get me from Tasmania to Pittsburgh USA. The route I like to take when traveling to the US is Sydney - Dallas avoiding that horrible commuter nightmare, LA.  All the flights went well, reasonably on time and smooth transitions. I am getting to know Dallas/Fort Worth very well and would highly recommend it.  For me it is a suitable hub for flying in from Australia and connects me to pretty well anywhere in the States in reasonable time.

I kick of this teaching tour with a weekend workshop 17th & 18th for the Pittsburgh Calligraphy Guild. After that I head to Salt Lake City before heading to Texas for three workshops. I am privileged.

One of the things I have wanted to do on a trip but always thought about it too late, is taking photos of all the doorways I enter ... within reason. So I'll start with the door to my room at the In Residence Marriott Hotel in Oakland Pittsburgh here in the health and University district - Carnegie-Melon, of Pittsburgh. Quite ordinary really just like any hotel door, but is is always good to know the number just in case one has had too much to drink as my son-in-law Shane and I recently chatted about. Gosh we really should have done this in China recently where The Oboe Player (TOP for short) and I spent thirteen days in seven different hotels.

                   

May they be of more interest from here on!

I collapsed into bed about 9,30pm last night and sank in a welcome sleep ... in a prone position as I was not in a prime position on any aircraft.  Today I am taking it easy, getting over my jet lag and doing okay so far, that is ... after waking at 3am and feeling I should be out and about already.

On the plane, I watched three movies and read half a book! The best movie was "Hidden Numbers" excellent true story. I highly recommend it.