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Tag: Calligraphy (Page 2 of 2)

Sense the Space: Improvise!

Here’s another Rock Star in the World of Calligraphy.

She just gave a five day workshop at Fort Mason in San Francisco. It was sold out.

Sense the Space, by Monica Dengo

Sense the Space, by Monica Dengo

Thank you, Monica Dengo, for a great reason to travel to Italy.

Dengo lives in Arezzo, about an hour south of Florence. I met her for a nanosecond during the time she lived in San Francisco in the 1990’s.

She teaches in Italy and worldwide and her work is in public and private collections. You can find out all about her courses at her calligraphy teaching website, freehandwriting.net.

I’m especially drawn to artists like Dengo, whose work exudes a vibrant aliveness.

It’s not about a literal reproduction of what we see.

It’s more an EXPRESSION of it.

It’s art that goes where words can’t.

Gestural art captures a feeling.

Gestural art is alive!

I did my own experiment and created some improvisational calligraphy. The piece below I worked a little further on with some improv digital a la Adobe Photoshop.

Improv + Digital by Mary Gow

Improv + Digital by Mary Gow


Hopefully Monica Dengo will be back next year for another demo and class. You can find one of her large scale pieces in the permanent collection of the Mountain View Public Library on the second floor.

Though Kalligraphia 13 is over, there’s a calligraphy demo by David Goggin on Friday, August 31, 6:30 to 8pm, at the Red Vic, at 1665 Haight Street, San Francisco, and he’s teaching a class there on September 1st.

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Inspiration From the Work of Master Scribe Thomas Ingmire

Calligraphy by Thomas Ingmire

“Everything is For Sale,” by Thomas Ingmire, 23 x 12

A few months ago I blogged about seeing a rock star in the World of Intuitive Painting, Michele Cassou.

Now, I want you meet a rock star in the World of Calligraphy you may not know about.

He was the first American elected to England’s Society of Scribes and Illuminators with a craft membership status. He lives in San Francisco and his work is in public and private collections around the world including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Stiftung Academy of Art in Berlin, Germany.

A friend from the Capital City Scribes (of Austin) referred me to Thomas Ingmire in 1996. I met him briefly, long enough to get his beautiful book, Words of Risk: The Art of Thomas Ingmire, written by Michael Gullick.

In the Kalligraphia 13 show of the work of the Friends of Calligraphy you can see one of Ingmire’s pieces on display at the San Francisco Public Library’s 6th floor Skylight Gallery (last day is August 26th).

During a walk-through of the art on display, Ingmire flipped through a book he has in the show which was a collaboration with Robert Sheppard. It’s called Afghanistan: a Visual/Verbal Book by Thomas Ingmire and Robert Sheppard and it’s open to a page (see previous post) that gives you a glimpse of Ingmire’s work.

You can see more of his creations on his website or more at Scriptorium St. Francis, and some of his works are for sale.

I still get inspiration looking through the book Words of Risk. Fortunately it is in print.

“Thomas Ingmire writes pictures. He is a visionary artist whose work resonates with warmth and passion….Ingmire has turned words into images, and combined words with images, to make potent visual magic.” – Michael Gullick, author of Words of Risk.

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"Flourish & Flame," by Carla Tenret

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"Launched," by Sherrie Lovler

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Thomas Ingmire (right) leads a talk about the Friends of Calligraphy's Kalligraphia 13 Exhibition at the Skylight Gallery of the San Francisco Public Library

Thomas Ingmire (right) leads a talk about the Friends of Calligraphy’s “Kalligraphia 13” Exhibition at the Skylight Gallery of the San Francisco Public Library

Something clicked when I heard that the Friends of Calligraphy were having a show at the San Francisco Public Library. I dropped in to find myself reveling in a well-presented adventure of the hand drawn line.

In Kalligraphia 13 you’ll see elegant letter forms applied in unexpected ways:

-bear puns all over a teddy bear (by Jenny Hunter Groat);
-a handmade miniature book growing out of an antique camera (by Terry Spodick);
-hand cut lettering featuring the poetry of a homeless man (by Doug Jones); and
-twisted into silver earrings (by Melissa Titone).

And there’s Chris McDonald’s piece that “takes a stab at the f-word,” with lyrics from an Amy Winehouse song.

Kalligraphia comes around once every three years the it’s on its thirteenth time. The exhibition is on the sixth floor Skylight Gallery of the San Francisco Public Library showcases the work of the Friends of Calligraphy.

The show runs through August 26th, 2012. Exhibition viewing times are: Sunday noon to 5pm, Monday 10am to 6pm, Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, 9am to 6pm, Friday noon to 6pm, and Saturday 10am to 6pm.

For the remaining Saturdays till the show closes there will be a calligraphy demonstration from 2pm to 4pm in the Lower Level Latino-Hispanic Community Room. Last week I saw Melissa Titone‘s demonstration of the pointed pen. (I thought this video would give you a sense of how the pen is held).

-August 4, Carl Rohrs will demonstrate Brush Writing
-August 11, Monica Dengo will demonstrate Improvised Composition
-August 18, Judy Detrick will demonstrate Unical and Rustic Scripts

If you’re in San Francisco on or before August 26th treat yourself to some visual magic!

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