Saturday, February 22, 2025; 12pm to 3pm 4207 W Irving Park, Chicago
This is a class for all levels with a focus on drawing, calligraphy, and incorporating nature, using trees as inspiration for creating fun and funky letters.
Students may bring in their own photos or cuttings of trees, branches, twigs, and leaves for inspiration, or they may use the instructor’s samples. We will explore the interesting shapes found in these items and sketch letters based on those shapes. Then, we will illustrate the alphabets using paints, colored pencils, gel pens, markers, and other materials. Students will work at their own pace and may choose to create a variety of letterforms or a cohesive alphabet or short phrase.
Materials will be supplied, but students may bring in photos or natural clippings for inspiration.
A heartfelt thank you to the enthusiastic members of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective and everyone who made the Artists Book House event so meaningful! I’m deeply grateful for the CCC’s talent and generosity in creating the Weathergram outreach. It was so wonderful to see art bringing people together, creating new friendships, and sharing stories. Here’s to more moments like this filled with creativity and connection!
Two years ago, we lost our dear friend and mentor, Christine Colarsurdo, a renowned calligrapher from Portland. At her memorial show, there was a poignant poem she had written and lettered about an oak tree, a fitting tribute given Christine’s love for nature. Her sisters later gave me the artwork. as a remembrance gift since I had planted a native oak tree in my yard.
Recently I took a class on Text and Texture with Yukimi Annand. Inspired by Christine and the poem, I chose the bark of my oak as my muse, seeking to imitate its patterns and textures in my calligraphy. The resulting piece featured the first and last lines of Christine’s poem, along with oak leaf stamps which were based on similar stamps that Christine made.
Phawnda is a lettering designer, author and instructor in Northern California. With farmers and gardeners in the family, she grew up around a lot of trees.
For 7 years, Phawnda designed promotional materials for 3 national food commissions of stone fruit and nut trees. Often, invitations to special events included hand-lettered envelopes to food editors on the east coast.
Now she especially enjoys a connection to the seasons of trees because of their similarities to the chapters of human life.
Phawnda’s four rounds are related to caring for her own dwarf Gala apple tree.
“Trees are an inspiration for beauty, challenges, faith, and literature ~ a gift from the Creator.”
Look what showed up on my doorstep! Over 1100 celebrated handmade paper rounds — 35 “trees” created over many months by the Kaligrafos calligraphy Guild of Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex members.
In December when the proposed gallery closed and the pandemic hit, creatives Tom & Brenda Burns, Trish Manche, Rick Garlington, Monica & Rick Winters, Betty Barna, and Sherry Barber sprung into action to display and video their work in a natural setting near Whitewright, TX.
It’s incredibly perfect and ever-so beautiful!
In gratitude for their journey—time, expertise and venture, I’ve captured some images below.
For the entire video scroll on the Events Page and enjoy!
Handmade paper and Mary Oliver story revered by Emilie Eklund, Grand Rapids, MI
In anticipation and celebration of the upcoming 2023 exhibition at Audubon, I’m combing the archives to honor the commensalistic relationship of birds and trees.
In anticipation and celebration of the upcoming 2023 exhibition at Audubon, I’m combing the archives to honor the commensalistic relationship of birds and trees. Here’s another l chance to enjoy Martha Slavin‘s lovely post, pondering, curiosity, and exploration of nature complete with a multitude of links for further information. Grateful for the connection, Martha!
In anticipation and celebration of the upcoming 2023 exhibition at Audubon, I’m combing the archives to honor the commensalistic relationship of birds and trees. Enjoy!
The Warli Painting traditions in Maharashtra are among the finest examples of the folk style paintings. The Warli tribe is one of the largest indigenous tribes of India, living in both mountainous and coastal areas along the Maharashtra–Gujarat border. It is believed that the Warli carry on a tradition stretching back to 2500 or 3000 BCE. The Warli culture is centered on the concept of Mother Nature and elements of wildlife are often focal points depicted in Warli folk art.
Having been brought up in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra, I was exposed to this art since I was a kid. Unfortunately, I didn’t delve into this art form until I took a class last year with Sampada Kodagali Agarwal, who brought back the love I had always felt towards this art form done by the Warli people.
Warli painting is a simple, ancient and an eloquent way to express one’s thoughts and emotions. Only with some simple drawings and the use of two contrasting colors, a lot can be expressed. For this book, I used the brand “Khadi Papers” made in India from cotton, grown in the state of Karnataka. The word “Khadi” means hand-spun cloth, but unlike your average cloth, the word “Khadi” holds a very special place in India’s movement towards freedom and independence.
The flora and fauna of Warli art has always fascinated me, so when I read this paragraph from Katherine May’s book, ‘WINTERING’, I felt I was able to combine my love for calligraphy, lettering and Warli art into this accordion book to tell a story. Just as the author Rilke reverenced winter as the season for tending to the inner garden of the soul, Katherine May writes about “Resilience, the Wisdom of Sadness, and How the Science of Trees Illuminates the Art of Self-Renewal Through Difficult Times. May observes, with life-tested clarity, is the key to wintering — to emerge from the coldest seasons of the soul not only undiminished but revitalized.”
The excerpt I chose for the accordion book was one in which May draws an analogy between the human experience and trees: “The tree is waiting. It has everything ready. Its fallen leaves are mulching the forest floor, and its roots are drawing up the extra winter moisture, providing a firm anchor against seasonal storms. Its ripe cones and nuts are providing essential food in this scarce time for mice and squirrels, and its bark is hosting hibernating insects and providing a source of nourishment for hungry deer. It is far from dead. It is in fact the life and soul of the wood. It’s just getting on with it quietly. It will not burst into life in the Spring. It will just put on a new coat and face the world again.”
What a delightful surprise to find this beautiful (inside and out) package in my mailbox. Thank you, Tim, for gracing these handmade paper rounds with your creativity and style. They will be a wonderful addition to the Treewhispers “forest”!
Artwork by Linda Lanza, North Brunswick, NJ (Yasutomo vermillion ink and Fine-tec inka-gold watercolor was used to letter lines from W.S. Merwin’s poem “Place” with a Soennecken 808/7 nib.)
Handmade paper by Stephanie Kulak Sager
I will be mailing my Treewhispers submission tomorrow, but I will email you the image here. My story is simple, reflected in the quote by Shakespeare which I wrote on the handmade paper. (Kitchen sink variety.) I’m so glad you asked Reggie to send the request out to his former students. This is the first calligraphy I’ve done for many years and because of this experience have decided to “go back to my roots” and write again.
My tree story.
Living on the central Oregon Coast in the Pacific Northwest affords great opportunity for walking in the woods among huge old growth trees. I marvel at their beauty and feel a presence even from the giant stumps left over from logging a century ago. I walk with my dog several times a week on secluded forest trails behind my house. It’s quiet in the solitude save for the voices of the trees who seem to speak volumes.
Best,
Christie Burns Handmade paper with Douglas Fir needle inclusions, walnut ink, gouache, and gold foil dots. (Thanks to Rosie Kelly for that little touch.)
Italic was taught in the San Antonio calligraphy class last month and the assignment was Lloyd Reynolds style weather grams for homework. Monica Flores did this very cool piece—appropriate for Treewhispers! Bravo!
Artwork by Eliz. Simmonds, Black Mountain, North Carolina
Artwork by Barbara Yale Read
