a bloggy presence...

Great news for all you blog enthusiasts - Yves Leterme - one of my favourite calligraphers (and I suspect a fav amongst many of you too) - has recently established a blog of his calligraphic wanderings/ wonderings...

ANIMAL SCRIBAX - The Calligraphic Art of Yves Leterme

(click on either the pic or the title above to be magically transported to the blog - and enjoy!)

....

more blogs!

Ready for some more calligraphy blogs?  well go get yourself a cuppa because I've got a big bunch to share with you today! Indeed they all come from a big land...... yep you guessed it - calligraffia is shining its blogging spotlight on the very big U*S*A..... and with so many spectacular american calligraphers with blogs it's going to take more than one post to show what we've gathered*

hope you enjoy these first pickings - (don't forget to click on the pic or the linked blog name to head off to the blog mentioned)

'Ink flourishes' is the blog of Heather Victoria Held....  

"I am a freelance calligrapher specializing in ornamental penmanship and offhand flourishing. I live in a small village in Ontario, about an hour west of Toronto. I have been happily married to my best friend Chris for nearly 23 years and we have a precious daughter Holly who is completing her university education. I have studied extensively with Master Penman through the organization Iampeth and the Spencerian Saga. I am currently an active member of the Hamilton Calligraphy guild. If I am not working with the pointed pen, I am studying medieval and renaissance illumination techniques. I love to spend time alone in the studio working on my art. It is a very spiritual activity for me."

*****

custom-lettering is the place you'll find 

Alan Ariail a.k.a. Alphabetguy

"Custom lettering is an art from I have been involved with commercially for over 25 years. My lettering has been used for a variety of consumer packaging and advertising. All the lettering I create is drawn by hand with pencils, markers, ink pens and brushes. Finished art is produced in digital format. I started this blog to show examples of rough lettering concept sketches including some finished art. My goal has always been to make lettering both readable and unique. "

 *******

'in good spirit'... blog of Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord

"in good spirit chronicles my explorations in art both past and present. As I record the discoveries and learn from the lessons in my journey, I hope that they may be of some use in yours."

*****

 idreamofletters belongs to Danae Hernandez

"My love of fine lettering began at the age of 12! The beauty of seeing clean swirling lines dancing across an ordinary sheet of paper simply enthralled me. I have been self-taught for the most part, learning from books and techniques of master calligraphers who gave life to the incredible art of calligraphy back in the "Golden age of Penmanship." I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to follow my artistic passions, while staying with my little ones. From my home based-studio, along with my trusty mac and countless bottles of inks and nibs, I create custom designs for wedding stationery, often combining calligraphy with illustrations and watercolored paintings. Here, I highlight my recent artwork and any other little inspirations I come across... I love sweet stationery, lovely decor, thoughtful typography, handmade beauty and unique finds."

*****

 'jan calligrapher' is the the blog moniker of Jan Kruger

"I am a strong woman with a tender heart. I am blessed with a wonderful, funny husband who makes me laugh every day. He takes such great care of me. Things I love, my family and friends first of all; praying, reading, thinking, calligraphy and creating art. I loved being a mom to small children and teenage children and now am grandmother to 6 adorable grandchildren. I am a lover of almost everyone and a good friend!"

*****

'lisa letters' = lisa engelbrecht!

"a rough compendium of the many things I'm into-from Letters, fabric, graffitti and tattoo lettering-thats at this moment!"

*****

and you get no points for guessing 'The Randall M. Hasson Blog'
is indeed the blog of Randall M. Hasson!

"I am a visual artist and calligrapher who works with large format paintings that combine calligraphy and image. I talk about these subjects at http://blog.randallmhasson.com I post recipes and things of that sort at FeastForThePalette.blogspot.com."

*****

and here's a few short and sweet others you might like to check out:

 Cindy Yount  - "I am a lettering artist with 25 years experience in calligraphy and the related arts, as well as a background in graphic design. My passions include creating unique, hand lettered gifts and artists books, with uplifting, colorful, nature inspired themes. Custom requests are always welcome."

 thegingerparasol is Dana Cochran - "I do what I love … "

and the blog with my favourite 'about me' intro....  

extraordinaryletterforms - blog home of David Ogden - "Slingin' ink since 1991"

if your favourite blog hasn't been featured yet-  fear not - we're getting there!

* calligraffia has gathered a screen shot of chosen blogs and are displaying them (and the written information) under fair use  of copyright - each pic is hyperlinked to the blog itself so click the pic to be whisked off to the blog shown - all information posted on calligraffia is a direct quote from the 'profile' or 'about me' section on the blog page. 

blogging right along.....

Welcome to blog review number two!

We had lovely feedback from our extended interview with Alice Young  from  Contemporary Calligraphy - thanks to everyone who commented/ emailed/ dropped a note in cyberscribes.... it was much appreciated

Now on with the show - we mentioned in our initial call-out for blogs to profile* here on calligraffia, that if you send it in (and it is indeed a blog primarily featuring calligraphy) WE WILL SHOW IT! 

So in future posts you'll see a wonderful variety of large and small calligraphy blogs - in mostly short and sweet posts - today we're going to share a site that some of you may have seen - but it's one that we thoroughly endorse - it's..... (drum roll please)

WORDS FOR PEACE 2010

and here is the blog author Mike Warner to describe what it's all about......

"Long ago (just before the start of the Iraq war) and far away (in California), Thomas Ingmire pulled together an art installation called “Words for Peace.” It has had several replications over the years as a strong anti-war statement in art and calligraphy on a simple 5”x20” piece of paper. Actually – hundreds of them. Well, Thomas gave myself and the Genesee Valley Calligraphy Guild (Rochester, NY) permission to mount a like installation. Hence our blog …

http://wordsforpeace2010.blogspot.com/

The Blog has been like a friend I could talk to and share my excitement with about the project. I think it was a while before I realized that folks were actually reading it. It’s a place to explain why I’m doing this. Who I am. I was accused of being a 20 something anti-war radical. Nah. I’m an old and grizzled Vietnam era veteran with a heart for Peace and a distaste for conflict with no reason. It’s the end of March (2010) and I’ll start posting the photos of the broadsides that are flowing in from all over the world. Visit our Blog. Contribute to the installation. Details are in the second part of the November 10th posting. BTW There is no deadline – we’ll accept whatever is sent in –whenever – and add it on.

Mike Warner"

Now the last post on the site is dated April 2010 - so I'm unsure of future plans (or whether indeed the project has run its course) - but one of the persistent features of blogs and blogging is that even when events have been and gone - there is a virtual residue of their passing in the form of a blog post remainder/reminder......








* there is no deadline for sending in blogs to profile on calligraffia - please feel free to send us your suggestions at any time - all we ask is that it is a BLOG (not website), is in English, and primarily features calligraphy.

calligraffia blog review - Alice Young - 'Contemporary Calligraphy'

At LAST I can bring you the FIRST of our posts on calligraphy blogs....

.... and I've saved the best for first - or rather, I wanted to start our series of calligraphy blog reviews with the blog that essentially inspired THIS blog - Contemporary Calligraphy - the blog of Canadian blogging calligrapher (or calligraphic blogger) Alice Young


Alice graciously (and generously!) accepted our invitation to share some of her thoughts about blogging; how it fits (or doesn't) with calligraphic practice, its benefits and pitfalls and a few thoughts about the future of calligraphy..... I hope you enjoy the discussion - for perhaps the best thing a blog can offer is just that - if offers everyone an opportunity to participate in that discussion.......

 

Ronnie: When and how did you commence your blog - Contemporary Calligraphy?

Alice: I started blogging because I was excited about the future of calligraphy. While others around me moaned of calligraphy being a lost art, I saw something different - incredible unexplored potential - and wanted to share my enthusiasm.

Online, I was discovering pockets of interest in calligraphy. Good calligraphers, poor calligraphers and kids posting their work. Of course, since we all start as “poor” calligraphers, seeing it all was delightful.

So, it was a bit of a personal reaction against the idea that calligraphy is old, out-dated and irrelevant. While this is the mainstream understanding, I saw - and continue to see - western calligraphy as an ‘infant’ in the art world. So much potential! So much has yet to be done, written, created! Eastern cultures have thousands of years of calligraphic tradition - and while you could argue that western calligraphy dates back to the first writing - western calligraphy as art and expression are so very young!

When I began the blog, I was also making calligraphic works for my first gallery exhibition, and grappling with an idea that many people expressed - that “calligraphy is craft, not art”. I would argue that it can be either, or both. Is every pencil drawing a piece of art? Not necessarily. But in the hands of a master, a pencil can create art. So too, can a calligraphy pen or brush.

Blogging was also a way to explore the technologies emerging at that time. Blogs were quite new, then, and facebook and twitter (and whatever is coming next !) still in our futures!

More practically, I began blogging in Winter 2006. My first blog post was done on a day when I was literally “snowed in” - unable to leave my house due to a huge snowfall. Perhaps when you can’t get out, you reach out?

 R: Has your blog's focus changed since its inception?

A: The content of my blog has shifted and morphed - blogs are by nature very flexible. Yet, the original mission as stated, “to introduce more viewers to contemporary calligraphy” remains the same.

Yet, like so many endeavors do, my blog back-fired! My hope was to expose viewers (especially non-calligraphers) to the wider world of contemporary calligraphy. But in fact, my eyes have been opened to the incredible richness and variety of contemporary artists working in calligraphy - throughout the world.

R: What have you found are the best and/or worst aspects of blogging?

A: The best aspects of blogging are that it is easy, instant and expandable. If you can upload photos to facebook, you can create a blog. It is that easy. Traditional websites can be cumbersome, difficult to update and keep current, while blogs are super easy to work with and can expand to include all kinds of information - text, photos, audio and video.

Many calligraphers and artists know they “should” have a website to put up their work or ideas, but find the thought and/or process daunting. A blog is definitely a simpler way to go, and my blog gets twice as many hits as my website.

The sheer wonder of blogging is in the connections made. Since starting the blog, I have connected with other calligraphers globally. It is truly awesome to discover the work of someone on the other side of the world - perhaps with languages and customs that you have never been exposed to, and yet see and sense the connections between your work, and often your lifestyle. (It takes a certain personality to dedicate yourself to an impossible task like being a good calligrapher!)  Like music, calligraphy can be a universal language.

But there are far fewer calligraphers than musicians, and we are spread thinly across the globe. The beauty of the internet is that we are now truly able to ‘meet’ each other and become a calligraphic community. And I think we’re all seeing that happening.

The worst aspects of blogging include my concerns about where this wondrous new technology is taking us. While it is allowing us to connect (good), I worry about the possibility that the online world will become one big popularity contest (very bad). With our increasing ability to rate online offerings by becoming a “fan” or voting up or down, we run the risk of hurting or marginalizing others, of “worshipping” certain cults (be it calligraphy, music, cultural trends) and losing ourselves in the process. 

We also, sometimes indavertently, brand ourselves. Having worked in advertising, I understand “branding,” (which corporations use to present their values to the world) and I’m well aware of the power of what is left out of those presentations. By developing an online presence, we are branding ourselves, and along with that comes the both the prerogative and pitfalls of any process which publicly defines “that which you are”.

What I did not expect was the “responsibility” which comes with blogging. It comes in the form of those sidebar links - how do you decide who is added to those links? In the beginning, this was easy for me - the top calligraphers I knew of were added to my links - a dozen or so. But as my knowledge of calligraphers around the world exploded (facebook played a big role in that; who knew calligraphers were so chatty?!), it becomes almost overwhelming to try to add everyone or to determine who should be added. I confess this is a real challenge, and one I have not completely come to terms with. I’m uncomfortable with the ‘power’ and implied judgement of editing those sidebar links!

And of course, like any endeavor, blogging takes time. I do not stick to a schedule (as perhaps I should), but rather, I add a blog post when something ‘strikes’ me. And when I get busy, the blog gets neglected.

However, I am a huge believer in flowing with life, and expect my blog to become more active at another period in my life. In the meantime, I can celebrate the work of others whose ink is flowing! And check out the latest posts on calligraffia!

R: What do you think is the most important contribution calligraphy can make in today’s world?

A: I think by practicing and exposing our contemporaries to calligraphy, we can perhaps nudge them to think about the written word and where it truly comes from.

We are at a place in history where small but powerful groups of people are taking the work of early scribes, writers and thinkers and distorting those words to justify violence or bigotry in today’s world. (In some cases they don’t need to distort; the call for violence and segregation is clearly there.)

So, if we can pique curiosity about the long and mystery-shrouded history of the written word, and why someone would take such care with replicating words, and how words have always been linked with power, we can stimulate thinking about historical texts and an honest examination of their beginnings.

Even witnessing the mesmerizing beauty of an illegible, abstract or mysterious script, we can begin to understand how early books - along with carrying practical knowledge - would have carried so much power and mystique, especially during times when literacy was limited to scholars, scribes and priests.

A study of calligraphic history, which then intertwines with the history of art and literature, cuts to the core questions of human existence.

If we can help people to recognize that mankind has always had the urge to write, edit and disseminate his views (and credit them to a higher power), then we will understand that what was written thousands of years ago is simply not reasonable justification for unethical actions today.

Many people already understand this. But, over the next several decades, human survival may depend on all people coming to this understanding. This is our area of expertise. Let’s talk about it.

Let's indeed..... 


please feel free to comment - or drop us a line.

and thanks again Alice for such a lively response and lovely blog!






** all artwork by Alice Young - reproduced with permission

blogging best...

Over the following year we are planning to post a series of reviews and links to blogging calligraphers and calligraphy blogs. If you have or know of a great blog that prominently features calligraphy in its posts – well you need to let us know about it!

You can nominate your own blog or tell us about one you've stumbled over – it can be new or established, feature traditional or contemporary, amateur or professional work, by individuals or groups, from any point of the globe*

Basically - it just needs to feature calligraphy. Over the coming 12-18 months we will intermittently feature blogs that YOU nominate (if it fits the guidelines, we will post it) and then we will also add featured blogs to a blog link page

we hope you'll all enjoy being a part of this evolving project

here's how to get involved

please email us the following information (or as much of it as you know...):

BLOG URL: (that's the blogs web address - this is essential!)

BLOG NAME:

BLOG AUTHOR:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION of the BLOG: (eg: in a few words tell us about the contents and focus of the blog – the type of calligraphy featured and whatever info you feel sums up what viewers will find when they visit)

FAVOURITE FEATURE/POST:

YOUR NAME/CONTACT EMAIL (this will only be used for the purpose of verification and will not be used for any other purpose)

soooooo let's get going people – tell us about your favourite blogs today (you can send multiple blogs if you can't choose a favourite!) and let us tell the wwworld!

* only blogs in English or with translation will be featured in this initial review.