No. 261- 265

No. 261-265 / Laugh, Hope, Dull pencils make dull drawings, 0, and S (or stud). 

Last weekend I had the great opportunity to attend a calligraphy workshop taught by Carl Rohrs in Bozeman, MT. It was pretty mind blowing. Not only am I a totally newbie to calligraphy (grade school doesn't count), but Carl also talked about typography, history, and letter forms. It was great! I learned so much. And, I think it was a really special chance to meet someone with his credentials. Really, I learned how little I know! Ha! A big thank you to Kyle for encouraging me and enabling me to attend. A big thank you to my friend, Jean, for sending me the info about it. 

We used mostly flat tools; the *star* pen was a folded calligraphy pen called a Horizon pen. Let me just say calligraphy is hard. Really hard. Above are some words I drew with said pen (laugh & hope). One is an uncial typeface the other is more of the Neuland variety. The sad part is that both these examples are rather lousy in the world of professional lettering. At least I was able to see my own improvement just in a couple days. 

While sitting in my hotel room last weekend I really started questioning this #365DaysofArt project. Believe it or not, it is a tremendous amount of work. Work that I have to catch up on when I return home from a weekend away. Periodically I get discouraged and wonder if I should quit it. I don't want to, but I am getting to a point where some days feel like a drag. Maybe you as my audience aren't that interested anymore either? Would it be terrible if I abandoned it? These are all thoughts I grapple with. I then remind myself I am not a quitter.  For now, I have decided to continue on. I feel that my email audience might only be interested in seeing work weekly, or bi-weekly, so moving forward I will have a lighter touch in pressing the "send" button. I will also exercise this restraint on my Facebook page. 

I am not sure what the rest of the year will look like. I have some paying projects I am working on and they will take precedence. We will also be moving again in November/December, so there is THAT. I just want to thank you for having continued to support me in this endeavor. It has truly been a pleasure to hear from you all. I hope those of you who have purchased paintings really enjoy them. Thank you!