Christmas/Solstice Greetings

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 24 (2018)

Last year's card was in memory of our dear friend Brian whose unexpected death shocked and saddened us to our core. I quoted the song—written for children in the 1920s by Harry Dixon Loes and later adapted by Zilphia Horton, amongst many other activists, in connection with the civil rights movement—in my eulogy and it seemed appropriate for our solstice card. I used a technique I learned in Carol DuBosch's Folded Pen Workshop sponsored by Masscribes. I did the lettering black on white, scanned it into the computer, and printed it on Wausau Astrobright Eclipse Black paper with my laserjet printer (doesn't work with inkjet). I made brush strokes over it with bleach which affected the surface of the paper but not the lettering. The final card was printed by Scarlet Letter Press in Salem, MA.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 23 (2017)

I had been working on a series of flower photographs with their names in Latin and had the idea to make a card with evergreen plants and their Latin names. My mother-in-law, a gardener and landscaper who taught me to use Latin names whenever possible (to prevent confusion as popular names are not as absolute), died that summer and the card became a tribute to her. 

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 22 (2016)

And another card inspired by the news of the day. The lettering was screened over an image of flames in photoshop. The quote is by Susan Cooper from the fifth book of her The Dark Is Rising series (wonderful children's books that I encourage you to read if you have not). Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day" has been a mainstay of the Christmas Revels and an annual tradition in our house. It is now a beautiful children's book illustrated by Carson Ellis.

The Shortest Day
by Susan Cooper ©2014

So the shortest day came
And the year died
And everywhere down the centuries
of the snow white world
Came people
Singing
Dancing
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees
They hung their home with evergreens
The burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new day sunshine blazed awake
They shouted
Reveling.
Through all across the ages
You can hear them echoing behind us.
Listen.
All the long echoes sing the same delight.
This shortest day,
as promise wakens in the sleeping land,
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
this year and every year,
Welcome Yule.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 21 (2015)

I don't remember exactly what was happening in the news at the time but I was sufficiently discouraged with the state of the world to be unable to make a card with an uplifting message for the season. I felt this quote from Einstein gave much needed guidelines for being better humans. I used the combination of upper and lower case letters developed in the previous year's card.The lettering was done in black and white, scanned into the computer, and laid over a scan of paper in Photoshop.You can read my blog post about designing the card here.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 20 (2014)

I write a bit about this card in my book as it marked a turning point—my return to a deeper involvement with calligraphic work after a workshop with Mike Gold sponsored by Masscribes. I often mix capitals and lower case letters in my calligraphy now and it traces back to this card. Here's an excerpt from the book:

The workshop gave me confidence in the work I was already doing and led me to new explorations. Shortly after Mike’s workshop, I made a solstice card using lines from St. Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.” I first wrote it in standard upper-and-lower case. When I realized that the many double ‘l’ combinations were keeping the eye from moving around the page, I combined upper and lower cases throughout the body of the text. I liked the way the mixture looked and continue to use it frequently.

You can read a blog post from about the process of designing the card here. You can find information about the book here.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 19 (2013)

In the fall of 2013, my husband and I rented an apartment for three weeks in Paris. I knew before we even left for the trip that my card that year would have the word "noel" in it. I wrote the word with the side of an automatic pen, brought it into photoshop, and copied, flipped, and repeated it. I printed it in burgundy on chartreuse paper from Paper Source and added the two dots above the "e" on each card in gold marker.

I went all out on this card and bought burgundy envelopes which I addressed with gold marker. The mail service was terrible that year. They were mailed something like December 17 and some did not arrive until mid-January, including cards that were staying in our town. After that, I switched to sending postcards. I can't bring myself to use labels although that would streamline the process even more.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 18 (2012)

In 2012, I was working on a little book called Art Lessons: Reflections From An Artist's Life. Each of the seven chapters started with a quote. For the last one, I turned again to Fra Giovanni's Christmas Letter that I now know was written by Ernest Temple Hargrove. Take joy! was written by hand for each card and then mounted on burgundy paper. I should mention that I send out over a hundred cards.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 17 (2011)

I remember that this was an unusually warm autumn. I felt unsettled by the shifting seasons. Thinking about the tradition of bringing in evergreens made me feel worse. I turned to flowers for comfort. I used a part of an image created from a photograph of a peony for my series of manipulated flower photos with lines from poems by Emily Dickinson. Nine of the thirty images are in my new book.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 16 (2009)

The year I switched to using recycled materials in my bookmaking workshops in schools, I decided to make an environmentally friendly card. The cards were printed on letter size copy paper from the recycle bin that already had writing on one side. I also made all the envelopes from recycled paper.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 15 (2008)

This card was created in photoshop. The lettering was screened over a photograph of holly. And on the inside:

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 14 (2007)

There was a long stretch of cards did not use calligraphy. I focused on photography and drawn patterns based on the borders I made for my first book, Multicultural Books To Make And Share from Scholastic Professional Books. I used them again in my 2010 reworking of the material in Handmade Books For A Healthy Planet which emphasized using recycled materials.

In the spring of 2007, I was invited to go to Seungnam, Korea to be part of the opening of a book arts center there. I exhibited some of my Spirit Books. The image is a photograph of a screen in one of the palaces. I added the text in photoshop and then made the gold dot in the center on each card.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 13 (2006)

One of the things that drew me back to calligraphy was a class on Chinese Brush Painting with Bruce Iverson at the Newburyport Art Association. I was reminded how much I loved working with ink. I did a piece for Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay with sumi ink banners on trees and then made these accordion books. I photographed them among greens and candles.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 12 (1994)

Photocopied grape vines with the word "solstice" written on each card with gold marker. Inside: May the light of the season burn bright for you.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 11 (1990)

Deep in my photocopier phase, I leased one and then purchased it at the end of the term. I used it until parts were no longer available. By that time I was using the computer but photoshop can not match the magical unpredictability of repeated photocopying. This card used a photocopied pizzelle cookie and some pieces of textured paper.

Advent Calendar of Cards 10 (1989)

1989 was the year I switched from Christmas to Solstice Greetings. This card was made from letter-size paper folded in thirds. The word solstice was written with a brush pen and copied onto the paper. The gold circles were made with marker on each card. The verse inside was:

solstice-sun stop

still point in the sun's cycle

MAY THE SEASON OF LIGHT

BE A QUIET RADIANCE, A GATHERING IN,

FOR THE COMING YEAR

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 9 (1988)

I went through a period when I did a lot of work with the photocopier, combining calligraphy and imagery created from photocopied objects, many gathered from nature. This one was made from grape vines and mistletoe. 

There are 8 pages of images of photocopier work in my book. I never really found a way to show much of the work so I am happy to be able to share it there. Information here.

Advent Calendar Day 8 (1987)

Two Christmases and almost three years after the unexpected death of my mother and the birth of my first child, I was still struggling to understand. I made this card which was offset printed on a white linen card stock. The front had only the word “greetings.” The card opened to show this double page spread with imagery created by photocopying a branch of yew.

Advent Calendar Day 7 (1986)

This card was a collaboration with my then year-and-a-half-old son. I gave him a brush loaded with ink and he made the design. I added the words, again from the Revels. The words of "Lord of the Dance" were written in 1963 by Sydney Carter and set to the tune "Simple Gifts" which was composed in 1848 by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett. This version on youtube is sung by John Langstaff, the founder of the Revels.

Advent Calendar of Cards Day 6 (1985)

I made this card the Christmas after my first child was born. I had already started on Childbirth Journey, a series of abstract pastel drawings with lines from my journal in calligraphy. Each card was created individually with pastels and gold marker.

You can see the complete series, and the black and white version in my new book, Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again.