Calligraphy & more — the studio of Beth Lee, Bozeman, MT
I was pleasantly surprised to see my poster design picked up and used in marches across the country on January 20. And really surprised to see it in a conservative article covering the march:
Also, tweeted here in the US and retweeted as far away as New Zealand. And picked up and used in Facebook headers.
It’s a little hard to focus these days, but I’m still trying to get a page of lettering done each day.
Trying #2-1/2 Mitchell nib with a combination of Sumi ink and jet black gouache at an x-height of 4.8mm. partway through, I gave up on a nib that was cupping, and not much happier with the new one.
Oh, and the actual sign was “You can’t combover mysogyny.” What is mysogyny after all but a form of hypocrisy, anyway?
Patrick Cabral, in Manila, does some pretty awesome papercutting. See more at his Instagram account: instagram.com/darkgravity/
via Strictly Paper.
In association with the Woman’s March on Washington, there was a call for posters and banners. The deadline was today. Here’s my poster submission, done in pencil, scanned and stitched together in Photoshop:
I didn’t send out very many Christmas cards — really, just to family.
At our local guild meeting today, I led a small group of us through an exercise that Yukimi Annand taught us two years ago at the Big Sky Scribes fall workshop here in Bozeman.
We tried lettering with matboard and squares of thin plywood as well.
At the end of our one-day tour of Bangkok, we took a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The next three days were one wat after another. We learned a lot about architecture of the Khmer Empire that flourished from the 8th to 15th century.
In Khmer architecture, the science and religion of water were closely inter-twined. On the one hand, the size and proportion of the surrounding artificial waterways played a scientific role in the durability of these temples (called “wats”). On the other hand, the theology described the bridges over these waterways as bridges from the secular universe to the sacred temple residing in heaven. Sacred geometry comes into play, with the spatial dimensions paralleling the proportions of the four ages (yuga) of the Hindu canon. The bridge is flanked by rows of gods on the left and demons on the right. You can just see one of the five entry towers at the end of the bridge.
One day went to Kulen Mountain and climbed the steps to see the reclining Buddha and have our fortune told by a monk who consulted the Life of Buddha for our readings. Phnom Kulen has been a candidate to be a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1992. I was interested to read recent controversy about that.
That evening we went to a dinner show of Cambodian traditional dance. The light was low, but here’s a taste of what it was like:
More next time.