Book Available on Amazon!

Thanks to all who came to the launch at the Newburyport Art Association on Saturday. It was a full house. And even better, a full house of people who listened intently, asked great questions, and bought books. I couldn't have asked for anything better. You can see how much I am smiling despite my somewhat precarious perch in between two chairs in the front row (3rd from the right).

If you missed the launch, you haven't missed the book. It's available on amazon as a paperback and an ebook. I have it set up that if you buy the paperback, you will have an option to download a free ebook after purchase. I think the ebook looks great on a tablet.
  

CALLIGRAPHY: HOW I FELL IN, OUT, AND IN LOVE AGAIN

https://amzn.to/2kiWmFB

An illustrated memoir of a sometimes all-consuming, always challenging, and ultimately freeing relationship with calligraphy over forty years. Susan’s story is about more than how to hold a pen and form letters. It is about growing up and growing older, questioning and slowly finding answers— an inspiring read for artists and non-artists alike.

8.5" x 11", 154 pages, 277 illustrations, full color cover and interior

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2kiWmFB

Book Preview-Calligraphy at Home

"After I moved away from calligraphy in my art, it stayed a part of my life. While I didn’t “do calligraphy” for many years, I still used my pens and markers on a regular basis to write recipes, make cards, place cards, and ornaments, send seasonal messages, and create little books to share with friends and family. I continue to do so today."

The chapter on Calligraphy at Home includes a selection of holiday cards as well as birthday cards, tea bags, a little recipe book, and seasonal greetings. Above (clockwise starting on the top left) is a dinner invitation, a place card for Easter dinner of birchbark and a scilla blossom, a greeting for May, an herbal bouquet, and a Christmas ornament.

Calligraphy Memoir Book Launch

BOOK LAUNCH CELEBRATION & SIGNING

SATURDAY,  SEPTEMBER 14, 11:30 AM–1:30 PM 

We're in the final third of 2019 but in some ways, it feels like the year is just beginning for me. Much of the first two-thirds were spent in a state of semi-hibernation writing, designing, and organizing the printing for my new book, Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again. It is being published through amazon's KDP and will be available through amazon (selling for $24.99) and at my events (selling for $20). 

If you are in the area, I hope you'll join me at the NAA on the 14th. I'll give a short talk about the book and the role the NAA played in my growth as an artist followed by questions. Then we'll have refreshments and socialize. Writing the book brought home how important it is have fellow travelers on the journey. I hope you'll bring a friend, and maybe make some new ones.

Information about how to order on amazon will be coming soon.

Bread & Roses Download

For Labor Day. The line is from a poem written in 1911 by James Oppenheim. It is associated with the successful 1912 strike by women textile workers in Lawrence, MA. Mimi Farina set the poem to music in 1974, the same year she founded the non-profit Bread and Roses designed to bring free music to people isolated in institutions—jails, hospitals, juvenile facilities, and rest homes.

Book Preview-Jenny Hunter Groat and Notan

"In the fall of 1985, I took a weekend workshop in Boston with Jenny Hunter Groat on Notan, the Japanese design principle based on the interaction of dark (no) and light (tan). I had first encountered the concept in a design class with Brenda Lowen-Siegel at the DeCordova Museum School. I loved Jenny’s workshop and I loved Jenny, especially the philosophical depth she brought to the study of calligraphy and design. From her experiences with Zen Buddhism and Jungian analysis, she saw Notan as more than a design principle. It spoke to her of the importance of acknowledging and balancing light and dark, positive and negative, in all aspects of life."

The above paragraph is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again. Jenny Hunter Groat would be ninety years old today. I post this is her honor. She was such an important figure in my development as an artist.

Click here to download a pdf of the image. It is part of my Words From Susan: Inspiration for Today's World series of free downloads to print and share.

The new book launches on September 14 and will be available from amazon.

Book Preview-Too Soon

Writing Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again was an exercise in trust. This is one of many instances where things just fell into place. When I needed an image to go with the following passage, I came across this bookmark I made in 1979. The lettering itself illustrates how much I didn't know and the quote is so appropriate.

I threw myself on the unsuspecting and largely ignorant (of the finer points of calligraphy) public with a combination of outward enthusiasm and inward insecurity. You might think my insecurity lessened as I went on but the opposite was true. As my calligraphy got better, so did my critical skills. I could see flaws that I didn’t know existed the year before. Instead of abating, my insecurity grew. 

RIP Peter Fonda

Also:

I have discovered that my idea of a bit of a book preview every day until the launch of Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and I Love Again is too ambitious on September 14. There is so much else I need to do before then. Previews will still be coming but not as frequently.