Here’s an image of one of the pieces I’m displaying in the Eveleth Green Gallery during the month of May.  It’s a quote from a fellow calligrapher, Thomas Ingmire from San Francisco.  He’s a great teacher, as well as a wonderful calligrapher, and this quote was heard in a workshop I attended.

This is a rather small piece, matted down to about 6′ x 11″.  I did it on a piece of specialty paper with embedded flecks of plant material inclusions, which I think gives the background a very nice texture.  I looked at many pieces of paper before I chose this one, because I didn’t want a fleck showing up in just the wrong place and spoiling the overall look of the lettering.  The decorated letter that begins the piece is a modern decorated versal executed in colored pencil and black ink, and the body of the quote is written with black gouache. 

As I get more images from the show, I will be showing you both individual pieces done by our guild members, as well as shots of the show itself, and hopefully close-ups of the displays.

I need to mention that I have Thomas’ permission to use his quotation.  You can see that I credited his words directly on the piece of calligraphy.

This relates to the quotation journal that I ask all my students to start keeping right from the beginning.  I tell them they may think they remember who said a certain quote, but I can guarantee they won’t!  That’s a good subject for a future post.  If anyone’s interested in the subject, I would be glad to share how I keep my journal, and it would be fun to hear how other calligraphers manage their quotations and longer works.

On April 28, 2009 members of the WindWriters Calligraphy Guild here in Ellensburg assembled at the Eveleth Green Gallery to deliver our hanging calligraphy pieces, as well as bookart works and displays, along with displays of the various tools of our craft.

Once all the works were gathered in one place, several guild members started laying out pieces against the various walls we would use for display.  We started by choosing the largest pieces first and placing them where the wall spaces were large enough to accomodate them without crowding, and where they would display well.  Thus, some of the most graphic pieces were placed on the rear walls of the gallery, where they served to draw visitors through the show.

Smaller pieces were placed on proportionately smaller wall spaces.  Where two pieces were placed on the same wall, great care was taken that they looked well together, and  we were able to use a theme on several walls.

A pedestal with a simple arrangement of twigs and flowers, with river rocks arranged around the vase and the title of the show written on the wall welcomes visitors to “Written on the Wind”.

In the stairwell leading up to the Gallery (The Eveleth Green Gallery is located on the third floor of Gallery One, in an historical building located in the heart of downtown Ellensburg), we hung one of our first group projects, the 12 original calendar pages for a calligraphic perpetual calendar, which we published for our group members at its completion.  Each piece is framed in a thin black 11 x 17 frame, and the whole display makes a wonderful entrance to the show.

Small pieces that need to be examined closely are displayed on the walls of the short hallway leading to the main gallery.

By 1:30 that afternoon, all the hanging works were on the walls, still needing cleaning and adjusting; but we decided to press on in the afternoon to bring display cases into the center of the gallery.

But that’s another post.