PHENOMENA

Hand-lettered bookmarks made by members of the Friends of Calligraphy

While more than 50,000 attended the Pokemon World Championships in San Francisco, this past week, I spent Friday through Sunday from 9 to 5 as one of eleven members of Friends of Calligraphy writing names of attendees on bookmarks at the San Francisco Pen Show.

Pokemon? Pen Show? Unless you are a fountain pen collector or grew up in the 1990's and joined the game card collecting craze, you may not realize that thousands of people from all over the world are fans of Pokemon and collect fountain pens and all the paraphernalia that goes along with pens. They were all in the same city for a long weekend of interacting with other obessed fans.

Pokemon cards were first introduced in 1996 in Japan based on a Nintendo video game. The cards show characters such as Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Starfire along with about 1000 other characters. Our son collected them along with Magic: the Gathering cards. We moved to Japan at the time that Pokemon was becoming a "thing" for young people to do and found a ready supply of cards in Japan for him. Like collecting baseball cards for most people, collecting cards for our son was a passing interest and the cards disappeared eventually, Now, I've found that one Pokemon card has been purchased through an auction for $1M. Live and learn or let go. Pokemon followers continue to meet at championship and trading events 30 years later.

I was surprised when I went to the Pen Show for the first time last year to see hundreds of people lined up to browse through the rooms full of handmade fountain pens. Writing by hand is such a dying art that an instrument that encourages good handwriting seemed to be going the way of landlines, camera film, rolodex, and more. Not so to the collectors who crowded the show last weekend. Along with the beautiful handmade pens, the show included rooms full of stationery, journals, inks, stamps, and stickers. Some young people wandered the rooms with accordion books that they filled with vendors' stamps. Their collection of stamped pages reminded me of the accordion books that I carried from one shrine to another while we were in Japan, similar to the stamps that countries used to stamp into passports.

Courtesy of Inside Japan Tours  
https://www.insidejapantours.com/blog/2015/08/11/red-stamping-for-temple-tramping/

The members of Friends of Calligraphy have become well-known at the Pen Show with attendees lining up to receive a hand-lettered bookmark. Many people now collect them from year to year. We worked hard while each of us demonstrated a different calligraphic hand from Spencerian, Italic, Black Letter, Copperplate, and from me, Ben Shahn's lettering hand.

I had my latest art journal available for people to look through as they waited for bookmarks. I had opened the book to the pages of drawings of Harajuku-styled young women who come to the show. They fascinate me with their detailed attired, intricate hair styles, hats and the fobs they attach to their fluffy handbags. Hello Kitty, small stuffed animals, and little pins dangle from their bags. They are a contrast to other attendees who come in everyday clothing -- hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans for most.

Last weekend was an interesting window into a world of hobbies and passions that people seem to need as a way of connecting with other people. I think of crafting, racing miniature cars, boats or planes, creating art and nature journals, traveling and being a gamer as hobbies that take us away from the noise of our hurried lives and with people who have the same interests. Who knew, though, that pens and small game cards would still be flourishing.

When I got home on Sunday, I discovered that my almost-out-of-ink disposable fountain pen was missing from my art journal. A polite suggestion to find an elegant, handmade one with a reservoir to refill the ink next year?

Check out Pokemon here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon_Trading_Card_Game

https://www.pokemon.com/us 

Want to learn to do calligraphy? Use this QR code to access Friends of Calligraphy's website:

or click this link: https://www.friendsofcalligraphy.org/pages/classes.html

Window View - August 2026

Rest in peace, Gloria Steinem 

A MUSE or A GOOD LAUGH

"Way to Go" by Bill Slavin

Have you had a good laugh recently? I've talked with several people who hunger for a good belly laugh. I realized I needed one while watching a trailer for the new season of Ted Lasso. When he returned to England, Lasso came up to his new assistant coach and said, "Who said you can't go home again." The new female coach turned to look at him and replied, "I don't like riddles." I almost fell out of my seat. I also noticed when I tried to repeat the humor I found in this subtle exchange, that my sense of humor is a little quirky and maybe not for everyone.

Photography has been Bill's hobby since before we were married. He often asked me to be his model when he was given a class assignment or just whenever he had an "idea." So, I am from a long line of muses, or maybe guinea pigs for art. Artists often have a muse who becomes their inspiration in their work. I think of Victorine Meurent to Manet, Doria Marr to Picasso, and Camille Claudel to Rodin. These women inspired, taught, and changed the artists works that they appeared in. Some were artists themselves and are only now getting recognition. Others, like clothing designer Floge to Klimt, offered space where he could observe women in Floge's clothing that changed the way he painted.

"Reflections" by Bill Slavin

Since we moved to the city, Bill joined 52 Frames, an online photography group with weekly prompts. I often turn up as the subject of the prompt. I cringe sometimes because I am no longer young and those photos show me as I really am, not my delusions. 

We collaborated much earlier in our lives when we both took a class from a former assistant of Ansel Adams. In that class, one project was to show the personality of someone in a portrait. I'm not sure I was ever so coy, but I loved being surrounded by plants and one of my old paintings.

"Martha" by Bill Slavin

This past week, the prompt was to show humor. Bill wrote the caption for the photo, which fits a description of myself: "She has eyes in the back of her head. As a former junior high school teacher, wrestling coach, and as an artist, Martha can handle anything and anybody! She's not fond of portraits, but Martha laughed at this one."

"She Has Eyes in the Back of Her Head" by Bill Slavin

When I was diagnosed with glaucoma, we brought a pair of glasses to the doctor's office that caused the doctor to erupt into laughter. Sometimes you just have to laugh at what life throws you.

"Who's Looking at You?" by Bill Slavin

Sometimes a photo is just for fun. How many of us can still jump for joy? I know I can't. My best medicine: Smile and have a good laugh at yourself. And say "Yes" when Bill asked me to be his model.

"Jump for Joy" by Bill Slavin

AUGUST THOUGHTS

PHOTO BY BILL SLAVIN

Some days I just have to look up to the sky. That beautiful cerulean blue of summer, the cloudy grey of winter, the sunset hues of autumn, or the billowy clouds of spring. I look up and feel the wonder. How vast the sky is and how clouds stream or drift across, sometimes creating new shadows on the ground. The view reminds me how insignificant we all are. In August though, if you are lucky and can stay up way past your bedtime, the Perseid meteor shower fills the sky. The meteors, each small in comparison to a planet and all originally of the comet Swift-Tuttle, are pulled together and fly like one across the sky before they evaporate in the heat of our atmosphere. I think again of the lessons that Nature teaches us, how small things united can make a big impact.

PHOTO BY BILL SLAVIN

August, before school starts, can be a slow winding down of summer. August is filled with discovery: baby sparrows hop in front of me as I walk the neighborhood, still small enough to pester their parents for any tidbits the parents find. The dragonflies flit around inside Oracle Ballpark on game days. I ask myself why are they within the ballpark? Is it the humidity created by all the other bodies so close together? Was this their home before the ballpark was built and they persist in staying?

At night, somewhere out of the city, I can experience the quick thrill of seeing a shooting start late at night. As someone with nearsightedness, I didn't see a shooting star until I was given a pair of glasses in elementary school. Looking up, I was amazed at how full the night sky was. I could then identify the Big Dipper and Orion, where before all I saw was the dark, indigo sky with only the moon and some of the larger stars and planets like Venus and Mars visible to me. Perhaps that is why I continue to look up in hopes of seeing the moon in the sky.

PHOTO BY BILL SLAVIN

The slow, hot days of August are filled with historic reminders of human achievement and human failings:

August 6 and 9, 1945, the days when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

August 6, 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was signed by President Johnson.

August 13, 1961, East Germans began to build the Berlin Wall to prevent mass migration into Western Europe.

August 18, 1920, the day when the 19th Amendment was passed which allowed white women to vote. Black women, Asian women, Hispanic and Indigenous women waited till 1965 to gain full voting rights in all states.

August 28, 1963, when the March on Washington took place. Will we have a repeat of that march this year?

August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans.

August, the end of summer, a time of wonder in nature, and a reminder of the continuous progression/regression of human actions.

History of the Women's Suffragette Movement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution 

Check out Meteors, Comets, and Astroroids:

 https://science.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-meteors/

Read about the atomic bombing here:

https://visit.archives.gov/whats-on/explore-exhibits/atomic-bombing-hiroshima-and-nagasaki

Read about President Johnson and the signing of the Voting Rights Act here:

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/voting-rights-act

Check out the Berlin Wall here:

https://diplomacy.state.gov/berlin-wall/#the-legacy-of-the-berlin-wall

 The March on Washington information:

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/march-washington-jobs-and-freedom 

Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath:

https://www.weather.gov/mob/katrina

 

TOMATOES, TOMATES, OR POMODOR

Summer. A friend gave me a paper bag full of her garden-grown tomatoes. I bent down into the bag for a whiff of the luscious vegetable-fruit. Most of us, including nutritionists, call tomatoes a vegetable because we use them in savory dishes, but a tomato is actually a fruit. A fruit is a ripened ovary containing seeds (more than you want to know?) so tomatoes fit into the fruit category, but most of us use tomatoes in sauces, casseroles, or on top of pizza dough, not in cookies or cakes.

Another friend has an abundance of figs this time of year, and, if we are lucky to see each other when she is overloaded with figs, I come away with a bag from her.  What a luscious treat to bite into a ripe fig.

Friends of Calligraphy, the calligraphy guild I belong to, (and yes, they still refer themselves as a guild which is a name associated with the Middle Ages and the businesses that proliferated then) last summer produced a cookbook for their 50th Anniversary. Inside, are recipes from members with illustrations of ingredients. Tomato recipes include Baked Feta Pasta, Marinara Sauce, and Mostaccioli.

We used to call this period in history the Dark Ages; but in fact, the Middle Ages were a busy time for crafts and trades to develop. Silversmiths, merchants, leatherworkers, religious orders, and others banded together into separate guilds to protect their crafts or business or beliefs. The Middle Ages became one of my favorite periods in history because of the ambiguity between the name the Dark Ages and historical reality. The Middle Ages gave rise not only to guilds but to universities and the development of capitalism, making way for the Renaissance. 

I am writing something here far removed from recipes for tomatoes and figs, but these two fruits also have interesting histories. Tomatoes, since they are part of the nightshade family, were considered poisonous by some people. Figs, one of the first fruits to be cultivated, came to represent abundance, peace, and femininity, and were often consumed for strength development, and just because they are delicious. Depictions of figs and fig trees appear in the art found in Ancient Egypt, are referenced in the Bible as politely covering Adam and Eve, in the Quran, which identifies the fig as one of the fruits of paradise, and in California, missionaries planted fig trees at each mission along the coastal boundaries --one of the few good projects they accomplished. (Remember how we all used to spend fourth grade learning about the missions, while ignoring the treatment of the indegenous people caught in their system?) Figs are easy to grow and continue to flourish in the California climate.

Easy recipes for summer:

For using an abundance of tomatoes:

Heat the oven to 450 degrees

Brush tomatoes with oil. Shake on salt and pepper.

Place on greased broiler pan. Add other vegetables such as broccoli florets or brussel sprouts.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes till vegetables are charred.

Easy recipe for figs:

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread oil on a baking pan.

Cut a cross in each fig.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Place a dollop of Blue or Feta Cheese in center.

Bake till cheese melts. Add a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

What are your favorite summer recipes for using home-grown produce? Don't forget peaches.

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Check out the Friends of Calligraphy website where you can find a copy of the cookbook. Please consider a donation to FOC for their efforts to encourage the practice of calligraphy:

https://www.friendsofcalligraphy.org/pages/history.html

Tomatoes, Tomates, and Pomidor information here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

Best information about the history of figs:

https://www.hammersleyinletfarm.com/from-eden-to-empire-the-cultural-and-historical-journey-of-figs/ 

LIVING IN A NEIGHBORHOOD

We've lived in the Bay Area for ages, yet we are constantly surprised by how little we really saw of San Francisco before we moved here. Exploring the city and settling into a neighborhood gives us the option to ask a store clerk, as we learned to do in France and Japan, "Ca va?", "Genki Desu?", or "How are you?", and then to find their response, because they recognize us, a heartfelt reply.

Walking around the neighborhoods of a city over and over again gives us the change to see what was hidden when we used to rush around, trying to beat traffic out of the city, and going to the spots that everyone else knows--the Eiffel Tower, Ginza, the Ferry Building, Golden Gate Park, or Union Square.

Driving at night around neighborhoods opens up different possibilities too. We would never have spotted Uncle Boys without their bright lights on a very dark street. Uncle Boys is a local take-out burger place in the Richmond District. I can't even call it a restaurant, coffee shop, or cafe, it is so small. It reminds me of Asian places down alleys with a few counter seats and the rest of the room the open kitchen. Another place my son and I spotted was Pizzetta Napoletana on Frederick Street near Kezar Stadium. Again, bright lights drew us in. Theo found a parking place nearby and we walked into a busy, narrow bar and pizzeria with a large brick oven dominating the room.

In both places, my expectations were not high. A hamburger joint? A pizza place? Just a quick meal to keep our hunger satisfied, we thought. Instead, like so many small places in the city, the food was fresh and delicious. At Pizza Napoletana, we had a fresh greens salad with local fruit and sourdough slices with swipes of blue cheese as well as a pesto and parmesan pizza. Good food!

We've also found other places closer to us: Sajj's, a Mediterranean deli, Casa Sophia, a Peruvian-influenced restaurant, and Caffe Centro in South Park. We frequent Caffe Centro so often that they recognize us when we come in and know what our order will be. They offer good paninis, salads, soups, and various coffee drinks that we can consume while we sit in the park. Gradually, the park has become like a college campus with many young workers taking a break. We hear conversations with words such as research, agents, and "He talks over me as if what he has to say is more important."

For us, as we frequent the same places in our neighborhood, the city feels more like the place for us to be. It reminds of city life in New York City when I was fresh out of college and the neighborhood grocer would smile when I came in. Life there, later overseas, and here in San Francisco, starts out with much that is unfamiliar, but I find as we spend more time that the large city becomes a series of neighborhoods patched together. Now, we see people we know as we take walks, we have quick conversations with friendly clerks at cafes we frequent, and we find more and more places to explore. 

Next to explore is the area serviced by MUNI bus line 2, which runs from the Presidio to Sutter with bus stops in the Fillmore District, by the Japan Center, then traveling by the Victorians lining the street to Downtown, passing by 450 Sutter St., a beautiful Art Deco building, skirting Chinatown, and the Financial District with a final stop on Steuart Street near the Ferry Building.

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Sajj's Mediterranean, 636 2nd St. plus 2 other locations:

https://www.sajjstreeteats.com/location/san-francisco-soma/

Casa Sophia, 701 2nd St.:

 https://www.casasofiasf.com

Pizzettana Napoletana  775 Frederick St, SF

https://www.pizzettanapoletana.com 

Uncle Boy's  245 Balboa St, SF

https://uncleboys.com

MUNI bus 2 routes:

https://www.sfmta.com/routes/2-sutter

450 Sutter St. Take a quick look at the lobby and elevator:

https://450sutter.com

Window View July 2026

CREATIVITY EXPLORED

"Martha" by Bill Slavin

For the last year, I've been working to practice watercolor techniques, sketching in my art journal, and practicing hand lettering, all techniques that require, for me, a lot of concentration and work. With lettering, I need to make several drafts of a lettering project and decide what medium I'm going to use to finish it. It's a slow, steady process. Drawing in my journal is similar. I often draw from a photograph or from memory in pencil and then complete it with markers.

All the drafts to make one piece

The same is true each time I paint with watercolors. I have to remind myself of the techniques I've learned. I first draw the image I plan to paint, lightly erase the pencil marks, spray the paper with water, let that almost dry, and add a very, very light wash of Cobalt Blue across the top of the paper, and sometimes a similar wash of Permanent Yellow Deep across the bottom part. Those last two steps takes away the problem of "white paper--how do I begin?" that often crops up in writing or artwork. I am careful to leave any white areas showing that I want to keep. All of these precise techniques are more technique than experimentation.

Value study and light blue and yellow washes to prep for painting

I didn't realize how much I missed experimenting with materials until I took a recent workshop making abstract designs with sumi-e ink. Being creative and learning techniques are two separate parts of being an artist. Cutting up the papers that I had splattered with ink and water reminded me that nothing I make is precious and that I can find good designs within something larger. Putting the small papers together into a sketchbook with 60 sheets has given me a way to free myself up and to think more creatively again.

If you are one of Postcards in the Air followers, you might not see the video just above. You can go to https://marthaslavin.blogspot.com to see the video while I try to remedy the display. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog today.

An alternative view:

First and last pages of art journal

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Check out Natalie Cole's Instagram page for future art classes in San Francisco:

https://www.instagram.com/natalie.cole_studio.art/

HEARTBEATS

Jizo, protector of lost children

To continue my unplanned quest to read books with Library, Book, or Bookshop in the title, I've found two books based in Japan, both are gentle, somewhat magical realism stories. They both would be considered light reading, but they also ask questions about human existence that left me thinking about the ideas they expressed.

 I mentioned the first book in an earlier post, The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop by Takuya Asakura, which reveals the story of a bookshop that only appears in a park during cherry blossom season. The people who wander into the bookshop are helped by the owner and her cat to find a book that can help them resolve regrets left when people they were close to pass away.  The story made me think of our times during cherry blossom season when we walked through a park by the small stone statues of Jizo, protector of children who died, their red scarves covering their necks and the cherry blossom leaves slowly falling to seem like snow around them.

Heartbeat Library by Laura Imai Messina is another quiet story about tender relationships that develop because of grief and sorrow. The main character is cleaning out his mother's house after her death and finds answers to his own life in the house and in the unexpected companionship with a young neighborhood boy. Eventually they travel together to Teshima, a Japanese island that is home to the Heartbeat Library, an actual place designed by French artist, Christian Boltanski. Visitors can record their own heartbeats and listen to the hearbeats of others, a creative way to think of how we all are similar.

This juxataposition of France and Japan reminded me of our time living overseas in both countries. When we lived in Japan, we discovered that the Japanese we knew were enthralled by Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Both Japan and France had similar customs of buying a few high-end products, rather than throwaway items, and using them for years. When we were in France, every department store seemed to be celebrating Japanese culture, with furniture and clothing by Japanese designers on display. The two cultures also have similar imaginative and tender views of matters of the heart.

Once I read these two books, I picked up my book journals that I had been keeping since 1991, with notes on each book I have read. I wanted to see how many of the books were either about libraries or bookshops. I discovered a peculiar practice in my first journal. I had started at the back of the book and each page moved forward through the years. The journal itself was called the Book Lovers Journal. Inside were illustrations and photos of bookmaking, cartoons about readers, photos of bookstores and the insides of libraries, authors and their handwriting, and printing machines. In the middle of the journal I found John Dunning's The Bookman's Wake, a mystery with a central character who was a book seller, someone important in the chain between book production and readers.

Reading books to me gives me a window into someone else's thinking and of their values. A novel about a building filled with all those writers' voices seem to be a place where the heartbeats of those writers are stored.

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Check out the Hearbeat Library on Tehama Island, Japan:

https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/art/boltanski.html

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My list of books with Library, Bookshop, or Book in the Title:

Janet Charles, The Paris Library

Lisa Wingate, The Book of Lost Friends

Evie Woods, The Story Collector

Barbara Davis, Echo of Old Books

Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words

Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of AJ Fiery

Jackie Fraser, The Bookshop of Second Chances,

Amy Meyerson, The Bookshop of Yesterdays

Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

Susan Orleans, The Library Book

Kim  M. Richardson, The Bookwoman of Troublesome Creek

Nina George, The Little Paris Bookshop

Robin Sloan,  Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Freya Simpson, The Last Chance Library

Elise Hooper, The Library of Lost Dollhouses

Shirley Abbott, The Bookmaker's Daughter

Lewis Busbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop

Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book

David Crystal, A Little Book of Language

Christopher Beha, The Whole Five Feet

Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

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Window View in June 2026