Gallery
Introduction
In this section I would like to offer work further amplifying today’s calligraphic spectrum, with selections from both my commission work and personal artistic explorations. Cumulatively, they picture my current view of calligraphy: the conscious use of letterform to express meaning, whether purely verbal or purely visual (non-legible), or somewhere within this range. For me, calligraphy is an integration of form and flow. We read due to the grace of form, by the direction, joining and spacing of strokes; however, we experience the stirring of life and joy through flow: the expressive quality of our movement and touch, its connection to feeling and energy.
Liberating the Mind
Text: This work breaks the rules of conventional writing for the sake of giving shape and form to the spirit of the text. As the author of these lines, the words have a deeply personal meaning for me. At the time of making this piece, I was absorbed with the communication of its feeling: the lightness and joy intrinsic to liberation. Only upon completing it did I discover further significance: liberation from conventional letterform. Symbolically, then, the unfamiliar lines of these letters may represent a break from habitual social convention where habitual reaction, the trained performance of writing, is replaced by conscious investigation. |
 Joy Text: joy liberating the mind Another calligraphic experiment with the expressive and symbolic use of letterform. |
 Client: NBBJ
Annually, this international architectural firm commissions me to create an inspirational piece for its newly selected associate members. It also serves as the first of many pages signed by current members. |
 This piece was created for “Responding
to Our World: Words Images Gestures,” an international
calligraphy teaching intensive, held in Connecticut, 2007,
at which I was invited to instruct.
|
 These pieces were inspired by songs
written by my husband, singer/songwriter Mick Read. In
collaborating on a book, Lyrics, I rendered his
words calligraphically — interpreting the music through
letterform, but not sacrificing legibility. In Phoenix,
the first verse of a passionate love song, I wanted to
express the energy of passion through the vigor of my strokes.
The lines of music sound like a surging sea, swelling and
subsiding. The historically-influenced style used for Troubadour,
with its melodic lament of cultural loss, seemed in harmony
with the song’s tone and feeling.
|
 Client: Café Vivace
Two signs for this local Seattle coffee shop. |
 
Client: Alessandro/Weber Design & Jamie
Geller
These images were commissioned by this New York City agency for Quick and Kosher, a cookbook they designed for its author, Jamie Geller. (I will post images from it, with information about its purchase, after publication.) |