new blogginess....

I've been trying and trying to find a few spare moments to share another bloggy gem - the blog site of Cari Ferraro.... but I've been rushed off my feet - and now it's all worked out for the best - as Cari has just migrated her blogspot blog over to an integrated website, with a little journal (aka blog) included..... 


Before you head off to enjoy the new site - here's what Cari had to say about her calligraphic (and blogging) journey to date...

Ronnie:   So Cari, can you tell us all how you got started in calligraphy?

Cari:   I felt for a long time that I came into calligraphy through the back door. I was an English major in college, studied literature and creative writing, but almost no art classes of any kind. After I graduated my mom gave me a copy of Jacqueline Svaren's "Written Alphabets" which was the seed.  This was probably 1976 or '77. I had been collecting quotations I loved for years, being a great reader, and gradually found that calligraphy was a way for me to communicate my love of these words to other people.

I was self-taught for many years and didn't even know about any of the calligraphy guilds starting up in my area, but finally I caught sight of a class in the University's extension program taught by Carl Rohrs. That class opened my eyes to all that I didn't know, and also put me in touch with the local guild and I began taking workshops. I had some bad habits to unlearn but soon I was making great progress. I had been encouraged by my husband to hang out my shingle as a business the same year we got married, 1981, and so I did. I shudder to think of some off things I charged people money for, but taking commission work made me practice and kept my nibs wet. I decided early on that I would put my energy into the business instead of teaching because it was more flexible for my schedule when my children came along a few years later. Calligraphy was at that time something I could pick up and put down at the drop of a hat if my kids needed me. That is not the case now though: when I am involved in the creative process I get so deeply into it I will forget to eat if my husband doesn't call up to the studio "Rapunzel, come down for dinner . . . "




R:  Ha! My long-suffering partner and kiddies can empathise! Now, how about blogging?

C:  I began the blog in September of 2008. I was always interested to read about other artists' experiences and how they created their work. We artists tend to work in such isolation. People like to know the "story" of the art, how it was created, what the inspiration was. I was also at that time in the midst of an episode of disability that went on for a few years, and not getting out much, not able to go to the calligraphy conferences, and generally just feeling very alone. So I felt that writing a blog would not only connect me to the larger world, but also give the creative writing muscles some exercise and keep me in good form. I have really enjoyed sharing my creative experiences and have also threaded in how my personal and spiritual life affects the art that I create. So the blog may be about how I painted pages for a bookwork, or it may be about a spiritual circle I have with my family. It's all of a piece to me, as one thing feeds the other and they are pretty much inseparable. It's also been a great way to get feedback on the work. There is much that I do not reveal on the blog, if it's of a personal nature, but I feel if it relates to the work then it's fair game for a blog post.

R:  What does blogging mean to you and your creative output?

C:  Blogging and being on Facebook has increased my circle of virtual friends immeasurably and given me great pleasure to connect to the larger world in this magical way. I have met and become involved with people who I first met online, who found me through my artwork, and have felt a soul connection to people across the planet by participating in these networks.

In the last few years, I have become much more serious about my work. Aside from some longtime clients, I have pretty much stopped doing commission work in order to give my full attention to making books. I always dreamed of writing books, but even as a youngster I had to be doing things with my hands, so to finally have it all come together has been extremely satisfying for me: not only am I often creating the content for my books, but I am painting, lettering, stitching and pasting them too! I feel a strong push to create work that reflects my unique spiritual path, which includes a serious reverence for the Earth and all Her creatures. As I have gotten older, I feel that, if not now, then when?

I look at the blog as something of a teaching forum for me, not only for my process but for my inspirations, my disappointments and/or frustrations, and sometimes to show early work to encourage aspiring calligraphers. I also like to share some pictures of what I do in my journal, very rough stuff, but often the seeds of an idea I might develop more fully later, or else just the practice of fooling around with tools and color for the fun of it.

 

R: Yes, I often feel that blogs/blogging can be simultaneously personal and universal..... and a place where one can give and receive at the same time..... Thanks Cari for sharing!

And in that spirit Cari has generously chosen to share with us pics of her working processes, not polished end products.


You can still catch Cari's work and words at Prose and Letters....
or you can drop by her newly vamped website to find her new blog home and enjoy the journey!




....

calligraffia chats with David McGrail

For the next in our series of calligrapher’s interviews I’m thrilled to introduce our chat with the marvelous David McGrail. For the uninitiated, David is a designer 'with a passion for calligraphy’ (his words exactly), living and working in Dublin, Ireland. It’s no surprise to me then to learn that he is a long-time friend and colleague of Denis Brown, with whom he has co-designed and authored a number of issues of ‘The Edge’ - I’m equally unsurprised to learn that David was the first recipient of the CLAS Advanced Diploma of Calligraphy, is a CLAS fellow, and has received numerous awards and honours for his spectacular work.

Gemma Black, also a long-time friend and admirer of David eagerly suggested calligraffia highlight this fabulous calligrapher - so without any further fawning from me I’ll hand over to Gemma and David… enjoy!

Two wolves –
Coloured pencil drawing of fighting wolves,
watercolour marks, mixed media with gold and silver powders

Gemma B: David, welcome to calligraffia!

David Mc: Thank you for inviting me to do this interview for Calligraffia, Gemma – I’m honoured. Your website has an excellent reputation – it’s great to see so much enthusiasm and encouragement for the calligraphic arts. It covers a great deal and it’s especially good that you continually update it with new work and fresh information. Talking about myself doesn’t come easy. Having a tooth extracted comes to mind as a somewhat similar feeling!



GB: David, with Denis Brown you have co-authored three issues of 'the Edge', the Journal of the Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society UK CLAS . An issue in 1997, 2005 and 2008. It appears that between the two of you, you made decisions to prepare different articles yet they seem to gel as an overall publication. How did you and Denis develop your plans for these now much sort after publications?

DMc: Being close friends, discussion and on occasion, argument, about calligraphy over a pint and a meal have been an enduring feature of our friendship over the past 20 years. Denis’s love of and mastery in calligraphy inspired me at my first class with him and that has strengthened over the years. We both enjoy dancing to different calligraphic tunes yet we always keep faith with the fundamentals of beauty and harmony. So when it came to the Edge (the CLAS publication), we each had a pretty well-developed sense of the other’s needs and priorities. While we talked a lot about the look and feel of it beforehand, we worked individually on our own articles and layout. But it was with a consciousness of the other’s work and in the context of the overall publication. As Denis has a design background and I work as a designer, this aspect of the Edge mostly fell into place.

Vibrant Lines
Design for the cover of the CLAS Festival of Calligraphy 2009 brochure

GB: Your students dubbed you the Holy McGrail, how did this come about and are you comfortable with the honorary title which obviously is a mark of respect (personally I love it and it is very clever)?

DMc: Now I am delving into the past. Yes, my students at Dun Laoghaire College of Art did call me that alright. Students often begin to search for miracles around March and April in their final year. I couldn’t oblige with miracles, but I was passionate about opening their eyes/exposing them to possibilities/different ways of seeing that they could bring to their work. Trying to forge a creative identity in the context of a college project is not easy for students. They get bogged down in satisfying others’ often divergent criteria rather than enjoying the process and looking inside themselves for answers. Giving them space to reflect on their project and its meaning for them rekindles their self-belief and often reveals possibilities to them; ideas can surface that enable them to produce work that surprises themselves. Often too, the difference between a seemingly ordinary work and an extraordinary work is a small sideways step. Recognising that can only happen when people are able to tap into their own deep resources.



GB: David, your work has a spiritual presence, a good sense of self, obvious excellent design, sensuality and depth of meaning. What and or who have been your influences perhaps starting with your formative years?

DMc: My first job after graduating was as an illustrator at the Natural History Museum in London. There in the cavernous bowels of that beautiful building I spent my time drawing all manner of animal. That solitudinous time spent in the close-up company of dead creatures was a very curious and rich experience. I became fascinated with the structural form of even the tiniest insect. In time, the structural form of illustration deepened to a more artistic perception of form as substance. To this day, I find so many things interesting – whether it is in the beauty of rain storms or the grand vaulted roof of a medieval cathedral – they all enthral me. And cathedrals have other characteristics that I love – emptiness, space and quietude. They are testament to human endeavour and commitment. In a way, they are qualities that I would like to emulate in my work. Emptiness is the space for our imaginations. Finitude is for instructions and signage.
Moving on from illustration to design after five years was a natural progression for me. I could indulge my passion for white space in my role as art editor for the publishers, Dorling Kindersley. What was absent or left unsaid was as important as what was visible. The sheerer a design is, the more successful it is. To me, an ideal design is like a haiku: it conveys a story in a simple, lean way, through metaphor. It is pared to its essence – one stroke, a hint, an atmosphere. Indeed, I found the aesthetics in Japanese culture echoed my own idea of design: it embodies simplicity, mystery and suggestion.

Japanese concertina – Intangible,
concertina book double sided limited edition
inspired by Japanese aesthetic principles, mixed media. 20 pages

(detail)

Some years later I was seduced by calligraphy and began the long haul journey. What I liked about calligraphy was its propensity to unruliness. The riskiness of it was a welcome counterfoil to the meticulous planning of book grids and type design. I wove its spontaneity, the unexpected accidents, into my design work.

Most calligraphic work that I do never sees the light of day. The pieces live for the moment. I like doing them but finishing them invariably eludes me. The pleasure is in the process. Assembling ideas or just thinking about possibilities; taking things apart and re-working them; discovering connections between things are very satisfying to me. I find inspiration in many different areas. My bookshelves reveal my eclectic sources. As well as my calligraphic books with work from many traditions – I love the mysterious qualities found in Oriental brush and Arabic pen work – I enjoy delving into architecture, philosophy, literary criticism, fine art. They all absorb me.
In the end, perhaps I’m a mirror to the world - always reflecting.
In a direct way, all the wonderful teachers at workshops over the years have given me great encouragement and inspired me and influenced my work in one way or another.

Arabic on black
Arabesque pen manipulations in gold watercolour on black paper

GB: In your business, Q Design, you work in partnership with your life-partner, the equally talented Hilary Wardrop. How much do the two of you draw from each other and how do you prepare your work, collaboratively or separately? Is it an easy task to draw the line between the relationship and the work?



DMc: I think the reason our design business is successful is because we brought totally different talents to it. Hilary studied law and had worked in systems analysis and computer sales – a world apart from my background. So our separate skills seemed to gel. For me, Q Design gave me the opportunity of producing work that I wanted to and Hilary enjoyed the challenge of breaking into a new business. For us both, it was a great freedom to wave goodbye to 9 to 5 commute jobs. Years later, many of our clients that gave us work when we started are still with us. We both share the responsibilities and still revel in it and, miraculously, we’re still together despite seeing each other 24/7.
Generally, Hilary discusses the project with the client and, depending on the requirements, one or other of us will work on it; then at a certain point, we’ll come together to discuss our thoughts and ideas. So we both have input into all our work and it has become an integral part of our life.

Concertina Neruda – If only you would.
Limited edition concertina book, mixed media. 14 pages (detail)

GB: One final question David - are you working on any calligraphic projects at present that you can share with us?

DMc: Yes indeed. Browsing in a secondhand bookshop, I came across a worn biography of Jeanne d’Arc which was fascinating for its detailed and erudite account of her life and trial. It provides a day-by-day account of the last two years of her life and a complete verbatim transcript of her trial.
One of the most puzzling and amazing things about Jeanne was her ability to answer her interrogators in such a direct and resolute way. Here was a young 19-year old girl from a rural peasant family, uneducated and unworldly, yet showing an agility of mind, an intuitive knowledge of military strategy and a maturity and wisdom that was inexplicable.
What I found intriguing were her replies to the ruthless questioning–often trick questions to catch her out. She answered with simple honest integrity, guided by her intuition. She showed an incredible sharpness of mind, a penetrating wisdom which at its heart was simply common sense. This went far beyond a normal intellectual response .
There was a simplicity to her profound, unshakeable faith that the combined might of the church and its political accomplices found impossible to subvert. In the end, they could only convict on a specious charge in order to sentence her to death.
I was greatly moved by the detailed accounts of her trial and my current work, a triptych, grew out of this. My reaction was not a religious one, but an intellectual curiosity in the way she thought.

Panel 1 - Visions

Here is the calmness of certainty.

Jeanne’s supreme confidence that came
from her convictions enabled her to take control
and lead fearlessly into battle.
She commands the respect and admiration of all.

I have for some time been interested in contemporary stained glass window design – there is a fractured quality that appeals to me. Using the shape and feel as a basic structure, I built on that in layers of watercolour, mixed media and calligraphy. Each panel follows a similar structure of a main image combined with a few stark and direct words. A reminder of Jeanne’s integrity. Some of the lines are in French to bring us back to her own language. At the bottom are personal quotes about her in varied coloured capitals that give a rich trembling effect – a hint of the unsettled life that Jeanne was to experience. In essence, her life represents the triumph of intuitive understanding over the power of the applied logic of the institutions.

Panel 2 - Justice
This panel represents the beginning of the conflicts and
a gradual deterioration of events.
Jeanne never understood the betrayals and the
political intrigues that were endemic in the world she had entered.

Panel 3 - Betrayed
This panel represents her final days –
her world has disintegrated; she has been betrayed
by those whom she had admired.
Her cruel death by fire, however,
is a final liberation where she becomes a role model
for all those who seek honesty and freedom.


(click on pics for larger view)

Thank you, Rhonda and Gemma, for giving me this opportunity to show my work. I hope your viewers find it interesting.




Thanks Gemma and David both - what FABULOUS work and words!

a wish come true...

To say that Denis Brown needs no introduction in the world of calligraphy is a tremendous understatement– if you have heard, seen, googled, or in any way accidentally stumbled over anything to do with the black art of writing, you will have encountered the wondrous works of Irish master calligrapher Denis Brown. Right now (and we mean literally - RIGHT NOW) his newest series of works is premiering at Gallery 13 in Hollywood (opening night is March 7 – yep, that's RIGHT NOW)... we are honoured that Denis is granting Calligraffia a privileged glimpse into the making of his newest works....

(Denis Brown - work from the '1000 wishes' series)

Ronnie: Your new '1000 wishes' series of work is extraordinary – where did the idea of a collaborative project come from?


Denis: Gallery 13 in West Hollywood Los Angeles have been showing some of my glass art pieces since last year. The current group exhibition has a theme: "Botanica: nature up close". Some of my earlier pieces had incidentally looked a bit like dandelion seed heads, so I decided to develop that image to fit the botanical theme. Of course dandelions are associated with the culture of blowing the seed heads to make a wish, so I thought to ask everybody to e-mail me their wish, and I'd write them all into my 3-D glass engraved images. It seemed a new and interactive way of sourcing text. Typically calligraphers reach for a quotation book and that can often result in work with facile levels of textual engagement on the part of the artist. Likewise, writing out work of the hallowed greats of poetry has become rather old. In this project I was excited by the idea to let my audience write texts which I promised to transcribe before really knowing what they would send me. I wanted to get people thinking about words and text and expressing their feelings- all simply through e-mail.




R: Tell us about some of the more 'interesting' wishes?.. were there any wishes that made you do a double take?.... just how many wishes have you had turn up in your inbox? (and have you used all of them in the works?).. yes I know that's more than one question!


D: I've titled the series 1000 wishes; so far I have received several hundred- difficult to know precisely how many, since many mails express more than one wish. I'm still seeking more wishes, towards that round 1000. The wishes are of all kinds- some related to personal and family desires, others of a more national or political or global nature. Some are religious and showed me that a wish and a prayer may be the same thing. Many are predictable enough even if sincere and important- world peace, and that kind of thing. Some are in languages I cannot even recognize, never mind understand. Some are very private and I should not reveal them.

In this project, I think the purpose of the text is more in the writing of it by the wisher than in the reading of it by the viewer. In my works almost all wishes are illegible, secret. I don't want to reveal too much. It is not important for others to read a person's wish, but I hope it is helpful for the wisher to release their wish, to express it, not hold it inside. To let it go. For the viewer all that is necessary is to know that many many sincere wishes are implicit in each work.

I will offer one interesting story where I helped make 2 out of three wishes come true for one lady in Finland. She had explained that her first wish was private so she wrote that one in Finnish. Her second had no explanation: she wished to see her friend Yukiko again. And for her third, she wished to take a workshop with me somewhere accessible to her in Europe. I have a course in Germany in March and knew that a Yukiko had booked to come from Japan and that this Yukiko had previously visited Finland for other workshops. I didn't know if it was the same Yukiko, but after I confirmed it, the wisher booked to attend the same workshop! Two out of three wishes will come true easily. Well that is just a coincidence, but I know her first wish, the private one, is the most heartfelt.

I sense that many of the wishes I received could possibly be made come true by the wisher's proaction. Take the wish out of your heart, write it down. Put it in your mind. That part has already been done by those who sent me a wish. Next, if you are serious about it, then what are you going to do about making it real? This applies to those who wished for world peace as well as those who wish to find their soulmate or whatever. Now you've made the wish, what will you do about it? So many wish for world peace but do nothing. If we all can make peace with someone, or between two people, then the world is a little more peaceful.



R: What a gorgeous thought! - I love the idea of the work potentially inspiring a move from wishes and dreams to actions and deeds.... so did you notice a certain common mood or theme emerging amongst the many wishes from around the globe?


D: I suspect most of my wishers are reasonably well off and are not left wanting too much. It has made me think that next, instead of emailing, I may go onto the streets of the cities I visit with pen and paper and ask the beggars and the homeless to write me their wishes. But I still like the idea of e-mail, since it brings that state of the art means of textual communication back to its scribal ancestry and interweaves manual and digital and shows that both may be expressive. But for the sake of a broader range of wishes, I think I need to address very different categories of people, including people without an e-mail address, or any address.

(Denis Brown - work from the '1000 wishes' series)

R: Rich and poor, digital and manual; those are interesting dynamic opposites – your idea of bringing them together in calligraphic work is certainly intriguing... but am I right in saying that has been an ongoing interest of yours?


D: Digital and manual, certainly. Rich and poor, this is not something I've thought about before I answered your last question! So that may be a new beginning. The word digital derives from 'digits' which originally meant fingers, and then later became associated with numbers through the signing of numerals with so many fingers (which is the origin of Roman numerals). Now of course digital is associated with the number crunching power of computers. Most calligraphers are unfortunately scared of technology, but manual and digital are etymologically as connected as fingers to a hand! (Latin: Manualis, manum= hand,; Digitalis, digitum= finger or toe). I have been inspired to take digital texts like e-mail, barcodes and SMS text messaging and relate them back to their scribal origins. On the broadest level, the integration of opposites seems a key to harmony. Artists have known this aesthetically, engaging with dynamics of dark against light, form against emptiness, big against small, motion against rest etc. And most of life's problems are due to inability or failure to integrate opposites. Some wishes I received aspire to such integration in varied contexts.




R: Like many people, I won't be able to get to see these wonders in the flesh; the computer screen will be my only viewing opportunity and I'm sure it doesn't capture the full impact of the work - Your pieces appear to have a certain dimensionality and physical depth that the screen can't adequately portray - could you tell us a bit more about the materials and creative processes in the series...


D: The works so far are all the same size of 12" by 12", and almost 2" deep. That depth comes from spacing 4 sheets of glass slightly apart over a background image on paper. I engrave the writing on the 8 glass surfaces (since each sheet has two sides) so as to approach a hemispherical appearance. I'd need much greater depth to actually achieve a full hemisphere, but there is a real three dimensional aspect towards a ball shape.

(Denis and the creative process - not your typical calligraphy pen!)

The lettering is simple enough and not like traditional glass engraving by calligraphers, which laboriously copies a drawn design onto glass. Mine is a direct process of writing with no pre-drawing, no roughwork. The letters are simple mono-line skeleton capitals written with quick strokes of a diamond tip spinning at 60,0000rpm. The tool holding the diamond burr is similar to a dentists drill, and is powered by a large air compressor kept in the adjoining room to my work room. Very careful inspection of the originals can facilitate reading of the wish engraved on the frontmost sheet of glass. But all others will remain concealed. One can catch a word here, read a word there; but these books will remain closed even though they are transparent.




R: I find it somewhat piquant that your series, which contains so many personal yet anonymous wishes and dreams, is premiering in Hollywood – where so many flock to fulfill their dreams of fame and fortune and to live their lives firmly in the spotlight....

D: Touché! Gallery 13 is in the heart of the film industry in Melrose, West Hollywood. My association with the gallery came in an interesting way. I e-mailed the gallery to introduce my work after an Irish friend then living in L.A. told me she'd been impressed by this gallery specializing in Irish art and suggested I should show there. By bizarre coincidence (or not), simultaneously gallery owner Linda Brunker e-mailed me, before reading my mail, but having had my work recommended to her by L.A. media promoter Barbara Ratner, who had also arranged workshops for me for the Society for Calligraphy. Linda later visited my home here in Dublin and we took it from there. The gallery are interested to have me do a one man exhibition plus associated live demonstrations, presentations, workshop etc. This may depend on funding and they are applying for grant aid.

(Denis Brown - work from the '1000 wishes' series)

R: Ahh behold the power of 'wishies'.... Do you have any plans to continue the series beyond this exhibition?


D: Absolutely. I've already mentioned above that it's still a long way to the 1000 wishes of my title and of how I may try to enlist a broader range of responses, eg by asking homeless and poor people to tell me their wish. Maybe also schools, old folks homes, hospitals. Even though wishes I've received to date are from 6 continents, I get the impression the social demographic of most of my wishers is middle to older aged people of middle or upper middle class. I'd like to broaden that, though I'm still asking for more wishes by e-mail also. Since my original request for wishes, your country (Australia) has faced a huge natural disaster with the fires in Victoria. I'd be interested to have some wishes after that, from anyone affected. But all kinds of wishes are still welcome and may be e-mailed to me.






R: Thanks Denis for your time and energy - it's always illuminating to gain a greater insight into that magical and mysterious creature: the creative process. I'm looking forward to witnessing the evolution of your series....


D: Thank you Ronnie, and I hope your blog attracts many new readers and stimulates a lot of discussion!

(Denis Brown - 9 works from the '1000 wishes' series)

'Botanica: nature up close' is now showing at
Gallery 13,
8302A Melrose Ave.
West Hollywood
CA 90069



more gorgeous images from the '1000 wishes' series can be seen at quillskill


and don't forget you can still send Denis your wishes for inclusion in his ongoing series

all works reproduced with permission - please see our copyright policy