Category: exhibitions

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The amazing exhibit @ Roman Holiday: “artplay: A Rosie Retrospective”

I’ve just returned from the most wonderful week at St. Ambrose University with hundreds of lettering artists and faculty. The first international calligraphy conference in five years was a roaring success. The exhibit of Rosie Kelly’s work was a jewel among the many week-long offerings. Imaginatively and beautifully curated by Pamela Paulsrud (and maybe another person?), it was a delight. Here are some photos from the exhibit.

  • The text from one of Rosie’s artist books was transferred to a decal for the wall.
  • Rosie’s hanging pieces depending from branches mounted to the wall.
  • In a corner of the room, one could sit and browse through this delightful collection of books.

There were a couple of tables in the corners with a chair which encouraged gallery visitors to sit with some of Rosie’s books. And two larger tables in the center of the gallery held several chairs each, with Plexiglas cases containing 15 or 20 more books that could be held and read and delighted in.

I didn’t get a photo of the entrance, a curtain of strings that held printed images of some of her work. It was a magical start to a magical experience.

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My work is in the Letter Arts Review juried annual issue!

26+ Alphabets in 4.
Gouache and metal pens on paper. 4 x 4 in.

I’m so pleased to have my work included in this year’s juried annual issue of the Letter Arts Review! My copies arrived in the mail today.

In making this piece I found myself exploring many of the same design elements that quilters contend with: proportion, color, texture, direction. At just four inches square, this was an exercise in small writing. Each 1-inch quadrant contains a large letter made of white space, the remainder of the alphabet in medium-sized capitals, and a lot of smaller complete alphabets. 

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Two of my artist books on display in CONTENT, upcoming show at The Artery

I’m honored to have two of my books selected for inclusion in the artist book exhibit CONTENT at the The Artery in Davis, CA. If you follow this blog, you’ll have seen them here before.

Scintillate, Scintillate is an edition of 12 manuscript books. I talked about them earlier in detail here.

And Omnigatherum: A Lexiphanic Glossary for Catastrophic Times is an edition of inkjet-printed accordion pages that fold into a box. More details and photos of that edition may be found here.

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My work in the annual juried issue of Letter Arts Review

I’m so honored to be included once again in the juried annual issue of Letters Arts Review!(Once again, my copy arrived creased. The regular issues arrive in pristine condition, but the annual reviews: not so much. Go figure.) The title of the piece is Variations on a Meme by Pandemic.

Variations on a Meme by Pandemic. Gouache and metal pen on paper. 16 x 20 in.

The meme, “We are all in this together”, has struck many different notes throughout the pandemic. At the beginning it carried cheer-leading tones, optimistic and bright. Then the corporations took it over and included it in their PSA-like commercials. As rifts in the social fabric widened, corporations abruptly dropped it, and the tone of the meme on social media became pleading, as it gradually became clear that, in many ways, we are not, after all, all in this together. This piece opens with this now-well-known theme and then provides 28 variations, ending with a restatement of the theme. Within those variations, a bleak subtext lurks.

This was made for my solo show at The Artists’ Shop last year. (The initial spark was Variations on a Theme by Paganini. I wandered rather far afield, but that was the starting point.)

As shown in Letter Arts Review, 35:4.

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Wild/LIFE traveling exhibition has arrived at Texas A&M University

“Wild/LIFE: Guild of Book Workers Triannual Exhibition”
May 2 -June 24, 2022
Cushing Memorial Library, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX

I’ve posted before about my piece in this traveling exhibition that is on the road for two years.

A slideshow of the exhibit as it as appeared at North Bennett Street School can be found here: https://www.nbss.edu/blog/detail/~post/wild-life-bookbinding-exhibit-2022

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Another calligraphy piece now on display in my solo show in Missoula

“Unusual Words for Unusual Times”. Acrylic inks, pointed brush, metal pen. 18″ x 26″.

This is one of the calligraphy pieces in my solo show at The Artists Shop. If you happen to be in Missoula, Montana, this month, go by and see it.

Each of the words in this collection apply in some way to these pandemic times.

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2021 roundel calligraphy – Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 at The Artists Shop

“To Every Thing There Is A Season” – gouache on paper, 24 in x 24 in

This is one of my pieces no hanging at The Artists Shop all month long in downtown Missoula, Montana. I’ll be there September 20 & 21. I’d love to see you there!

I have done this basic layout several times since the first time I tried it in 1983. It’s a kind of capstone piece, I guess.

In 1983, I was a rank beginner, and completely self-taught at that point, and I believe it is the first “finished” piece I ever did. Just for, I don’t know, entertainment, here’s an image of that first piece. I’m pretty sure it’s a scan of a photocopy of the original, which I gave to my mother way back then. So young and ignorant I was! But so enthusiastic, and I remain so after all these years.

I believe I did the original with a Schaeffer fountain pen (ack!) on the then-current version of Paper for Pens by Pentalic. The pad of paper was 11 in x 14 in, so this was about 10 in square in the original.
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Come see a solo exhibition of my calligraphy in Missoula during September

The postcard for a solo show of my calligraphy at the Artists' Shop in downtown Missoula

I’m so honored to have another solo exhibition of my calligraphy at the Artists’ Shop in downtown Missoula. Thank you, Ann Franke, for all your support! Ann will be hanging this show, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with such a disparate collection of pieces.

If you’re in Missoula during the month of September, please stop by. If you do stop by, please let me know your impressions. Unfortunately, I can’t attend the opening reception on September 3. But I’ll be there sometime after that date to see the show.

During the month of September I’ll be posting a few of the pieces here. So if you can’t get to Missoula, watch this space! As you can tell from the postcard, the show will, at the very least, include a broadside version of “Scintillate, Scintillate”. A manuscript book in this edition will be on display as well.

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My work in the GBW traveling exhibit “Wild/Life”

“The Mind I Love” — Inks and gouache on paper, 12 x 16 in.

I’m pleased to have this piece, titled “The Mind I Love”, accepted into WILD/LIFE. Hosted by the Guild of BookWorkers, this exhibition will travel to venues across the country from Summer 2021 to Fall 2022.

I enjoyed the work we did in Series 1 of Brody Neuenschwander’s online classes (see this post). So much, in fact, that I continued experimenting with it, and this piece is one result.

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My work in the Letter Arts Review Annual

“Scintillate, Scintillate” broadside in the annual juried review issue of Letter Arts Review. Irridescent ink and metallic watercolor, metal nibs on dyed Arches Text Wove, 10 in x 8 in.
“Prairie Spring” in the annual juried review issue of Letter Arts Review. Wheat-paste and acrylic ink on Arches Text Wove. 12 in x 15.5 in.

I’m honored and delighted that two of my pieces were chosen for inclusion in annual juried review issue of the Letter Arts Review. I’m in exalted company!

I’ve blogged about “Prairie Spring” before, here.