Book Trailer and the Trials of Promotion

Phase Two of Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again has begun. It's time for my least favorite part—promotion. I was an only child in a supportive family who did everything they could to help me find my way and I credit whatever success I have had to my parents. However, they did not take to self-promotion. Others could say nice things, but a self-compliment would be greeted by a gesture of horn playing and a "Toot, Toot" from my father. I absorbed the message: Don't toot your own horn.  Unfortunately we live in a world where are increasingly being asked to toot away. It was an issue when I started forty years ago and it becomes more pronounced every year. I try to approach it as sharing and appreciate your patience.

Here's the book trailer:

Feel free to join in the sharing. If you buy a book and like it, please share reviews and comments. This is a totally solo project with no publisher or organization behind it. I'm open to suggestions of libraries and museums that might be interested in talks, calligraphy and art groups who might want to review it in their newsletters, etc. Any help you can give is most welcome.

First Day of Autumn

May the soft balance of autumn cradle and protect us.

Lettering with finetec gold watercolor and 

Brause 361 Steno Blue Pumpkin nib on Canson MiTientes paper.

Acorn caps resting on Ruby Gold Orach seed pods from The Flower Plot.

on instagram @theflowerplotjp

John Cohen Quote on Photography

I was reminded of an exhibit of photography and film by John Cohen at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston in January 2002 when Warren Lehrer wrote about his passing on facebook and I then read his obituary in the New York Times. John Cohen was a musician (founding member of the New Lost City Ramblers),  musicologist, photographer, filmmaker, and teacher. He said he thought about being a painter but chose being out in the world photographing over being in a studio in front of an easel. 

Click here to download a pdf to print and share.
Click here to visit John Cohen's website.

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.