As my final project for Chris McDonald’s Foundational class, which ended last April, I decided to do another take on Gertrude Stein’s famous quote from Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (1922). (See my earlier post They Were Gay). This one has a formal Humanist look, with a large illuminated letter T in the white vine style. The body text was done using Moon Palace sumi ink, and the illuminated letter T is in watercolor and gold leaf.
Thanks for your patience!
In homage to Prince, a great songwriter, musician and artist.
From his 1984 album Purple Rain.
Friends of Calligraphy asked me to write the names on the honorary certificates for their Annual General Meeting at the San Francisco Public Library on May 1st, 2016.
Mon petit neveu, Alexis, fête ses quatre ans demain. Joyeux Anniversaire, Alexis! Pour voir le vidéo, veuillez cliquer sur l’image ci-dessous.
My grandnephew, Alexis, is celebrating his fourth birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Alexis! To view a short calligraphy video, please click on the image below.
Last Friday, I did the calligraphy on the place cards at the San Francisco Opera’s annual gala. A big thank you to Drew Altizer Photography (@drewaltizerphotography) for taking this video.
This text is from Miss Furr and Miss Skeene, a short story by Gertrude Stein containing over 100 occurrences of the word gay. Many of Stein’s writings used repetition, or as she referred to it, “insistence”. Is it a portrait of her friends Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squires, who frequented her studio in Paris, or a veiled reference to her own relationship with Alice B. Toklas?
I donated this piece to Horizons Foundation for their annual auction.
The Copperplate exemplars and guidesheet from my Kalligraphia demo are online at Kalligraphia XIV Copperplate Exemplars. This page contains links to downloadable PDF files. The Copperplate guidesheet is the same one that I used in my demo. Place it underneath your writing paper when practicing to ensure that your lines are straight and that your slant is consistent.
While reading Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve, I became interested in Lucretius, the Roman philosopher and poet who authored De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things). This quote from his book expresses one of his principle beliefs: that it is useless and detrimental to fear the afterlife. In a way, it is a Latin version of Don’t Worry, Be Happy. I did this piece as my final project in Judy Detrick’s recent Uncial class.
Until a friend asked me to copy this poem, I had never heard of the Mexican modernist poet Amado Nervo. His poem expresses Nervo’s feelings about his life and how fairly it has treated him. Continue reading
Calligraphy by Raoul 