The Renaissance poet Petrarch, one of the earliest humanists, wrote Il Canzoniere (The Songbook) in the vernacular Italian. Many of the poems in this collection were dedicated to Laura, whom he allegedly met on 6 April 1327. This excerpt from Poem 4 shows how smitten he was.
Jacques Chesnais (1907 – 1971) was a French engraver, painter, illustrator and marionnettiste. His troupe, Les Comédiens de Bois de Jacques Chesnais, performed throughout Europe. A friend of mine who is a puppet enthusiast commissioned this piece.
Citation attributed to Jacques Chesnais
De tout temps les hommes ont cherché à pénétrer le mystère de la vie et à défaut à créer l’illusion de la vie. La marionnette reste bien la plus touchante et la plus parfaite réussite de cette auto-suggestion.
Translation: For ages men have sought to penetrate the mystery of life, or at least create the illusion of life. The puppet remains by far the most touching and most perfect achievement of this self-illusion.
This song by Stephen Sondheim has always moved me. But given the recent wildfires that have obscured the sky of Northern California, the lyrics are particularly appropriate.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
from Romance Sonambulo by Federico García Lorca.
On display at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center as part of Calligraphies in Conversation, through January 16th, 2019.
Preparing for my copperplate demo at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center on Thursday, November 8th, 2018.
The text is from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, published 1609.
I also have a piece on display at the exhibit, which will be open until January 16, 2019.
For more information: https://www.calligraphies.org/2018-exh-opening
#calligraphiesinconversation #crossingboundaries #calligraphyexhibit, copperplatecalligraphy #calligraphieanglaise #pointedpencalligraphy #calligraphydemo #copperplatedemo #OaklandAsianCulturalCenter #liquidsumiink #cansonmarkerlayoutpaper
In 1984, ABC brought to light the love sonnets of Federico García Lorca, making quite a stir. The sonnet The Beloved Sleeps on the Poet’s Breast, the next to the last in the series Sonnets of Dark Love, is the first in which he speaks of a male lover. In November, 1983, a clandestine edition of the sonnets came out. In March of the following year, ABC officially published his 11 sonnets, for the first time together and in their original order.
Translation:
You will never understand how much I love you.
Because you sleep in me and are asleep.
I hide you, crying, pursued by a voice of penetrating steel.
In his only surviving work De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), the philosopher and poet Lucretius expounds on his theory that all matter is composed of tiny particles, making him the world’s second atomic physicist (Democritus, in fact, was the first.) My piece is on display as part of Kalligraphia XV at the San Francisco Public Library through 27 August 2018.
Translation by Dean Robino:
Thus the first things – atoms – are solid in simple singleness,
cohered from very small parts that were skillfully crowded together.
Not out of the union of their coming together
but their greater power in eternal singleness,
with things finally neither being torn away or made smaller
nature now gives way, reserving the seeds of matter.
A missionary working for the French Foreign Missions in West Tonkin (northern Vietnam) Jean-Théophane Vénard was arrested and executed in 1861 for proselytism. During his captivity, he wrote inspiring letters to his family and superiors, demonstrating his outstanding faith. He was canonized in 1988. I was commissioned to do this piece. #jeanthéophanevénard #catholicmissionaries #christianmartyrs #calligraphy #calligraphybyraoul #calligraphie #copperplatecalligraphy #calligraphieanglaise #pointedpencalligraphy #winsorandnewtongouache #archestextwove
This quote from Jack London’s Call of the Wild always gives me goosebumps.
My calligraphy is on exhibit at the Saratoga Library through January 31st. I will be giving a calligraphy demo there, with other Pacific Scribes calligraphers, on January 20th, John Hancock Day. Please come to say hello and check out the artwork.
This is a collaborative piece that I did with Delaney and Chin. A tree branch, a trowel and a toy truck carrying logs to the lumber mill are reminders of the gardening and landscaping projects that D&C do.
