FINDING CALM, FINDING PEACE

What have you done in the last week to ease the fear, the dread, and the anger you may be feeling as a result of the ongoing horrific attacks on one person, young children, or other groups, by, usually, a solitary individual? We don't have a leader who will stand with others and unite us. Instead, we can depend on our communities and ourselves and do two things at once: be active in our push to keep our democracy, whatever that action might be, and also preserve ourselves by finding ways to let go of the heightened emotional responses to tragedies. A friend recently mentioned the creative activities that she and others she knows do - everything from ukulele playing, ballroom dancing, and quiz nights. Each of these pursuits requires creative thinking and, at the same time, brings together people in community.

I am in the process of making a simple book of watercolor shapes and colors after taking a one-day online class with Amy at Mindful Art Studio. I didn't really need the class for the techniques she offered. What I needed was the art community. The work is meditative and easy, and it was fun to see the work generated by a group of people willing to give art a try.

First draft

Second, with dark rectangles covering squiggles

Lettering done with white crayon
on top of watercolor

I am not allowing my critical self to review it. When I paint something I don't like, I change what is on the paper by painting over the section with a rectangular shape. I draw across the shape with a white crayon and add lines of phrases. On another piece of paper, I use a 4-inch-wide cup to make circles. I use a white crayon again to draw small circles, lines, and branches, enclosing them all within the circle. 

A circle is a powerful symbol in many cultures, and to me, it represents a sense of wholeness. It is complete in itself, soothing, calming, like the moon. This last week has been a special week in the sky with the Seven Sisters close to the moon. One of my favorite quotes comes from Bill Waterson:

We can step away from the chaos of the news for a while. We can take a deep breath and concentrate on something close at hand, do something creative without judgment, and then go back to standing strong.

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Two observations from this week:

The San Francisco Main Library posted a flyer for the Silent Book Club, which meets weekly at a local food court. For an hour, participants read whatever book they like. Then, they can proceed to have dinner together or not. They can discuss what they are reading with other participants or not. No one has to read the same book. Meeting to read is another form of meditation, isn't it?

One of the joys of belonging to a calligraphy guild is receiving an envelope or a card that looks like these:

by K. Sevilla

 two versions by K. Charatan

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Robert Reich: The core of our national identity has been the ideals we share: our commitments to the rule of law, to democratic institutions of government, to truth, to tolerance of our differences, to equal political rights, and to equal opportunity. 

TALL TREES AND TALL BUILDINGS

Last weekend, we took a walk. We ended up at Redwood Park. We stared up into the small forest of redwoods towering above us. The cool canopy of 50 redwoods, transplanted from the Santa Cruz Mountains, muffled the street sounds and made the space feel cathedral-like. Adjacent to the park, the Transamerica Pyramid reached above to the sky. Nature and human achievement side by side, competing for space.

We had set that day for the Chinatown Car Show. We wondered how a car show was going to fit on the busy, narrow streets of Chinatown. We walked past small shops brimming with bins of fresh vegetables, dried fish, and cardboard boxes of fruit. We watched as people crowded into a tea shop with its walls lines with various types of teas and into a shop next door full of traditional Chinese medicine. Next to the crowded sidewalks, the cars lined up, one after the other, for several blocks. Car shows have become a popular entertainment in Northern California. On other adventures, we walked through blocks of dressed-up cars in Danville, strolled around a collection of Cadillac CT5s at Cavallo Point across from the City, and watched lines of low-riders follow each other on the San Francisco Embarcadero. We turned the corner at Jackson Street, intending to walk to Jackson Square, but we were sidetracked by the Transamerica Pyramid, newly renovated.

We didn't go into the Pyramid itself, but wandered around the open plaza with its giant planters full of greenery and plenty of places for people to sit. At the back of the Pyramid, we found a small exhibition hall showcasing the contents unearthed from a long-forgotten time capsule from 1974. We looked at news articles, photos, and diagrams of the then-controversial design. We glanced at a sheet of paper labeled We Built This, with the signatures of all the people who worked on the building. We read letters written by artists and community leaders who protested the building's design and its interruption of the San Francisco skyline. One poster showed what the artist imagined would happen to the San Francisco skyline if the Pyramid were to be built. As in the poster, today, the pyramid is almost hidden among the much taller skyscrapers that crowd downtown.

Next to the time capsule exhibit is another filled with the designs from the last years of Ray and Charles Eames' work, whose furniture designs match the mid-century modern style of the Pyramid. They are well-known for their lounge chair, stackable office chairs, and the wire and curved fiberglass chairs that sat together in the exhibit , along with small, brightly colored household objects and toys. Walking through the collection reminded me of how much the mid mid-century modern aesthetic had influenced my own early graphic design work.

When Ray and Charles Eames first presented their wares, the items were a radical departure from the heavy oak, maple, and mahogany furniture popular at the time. Suddenly, chair legs became spindly, seats were barely padded, and tables were unadorned and sleek. The makers, inspired by the Danish modernism and Bauhaus movements in Europe, followed the idea of form follows function. 

Mid-century modern has made a comeback. Its simple lines and easy care appeal to a different generation, setting up new living spaces. They are turning away from the Tuscany-influenced heavy furniture that has been popular for so long. I find walking through a Mid-century modern room to be a quiet space without clutter and the visual cacophony of other styles. 

The Pyramid's plaza and the park next door felt like a three-dimensional walk through the design principles of mid-century modern, including functionality, bright colors and earth tones, and organic and geometric shapes The two together created a quiet harmony within a very busy part of San Francisco.

Examples of the Eames furniture designs:

https://eames.com/en/seating 

Even better, the Eames Institute, whose mission is to encourage curiosity and creativity:

https://www.eamesinstitute.org/about/

ANOTHER WORLD DISCOVERED

A friend sent me a card recently. We both grew up when cursive was an important part of a school's curriculum and her handwriting is a perfect example of cursive penmanship. In school, we all practiced our handwriting every day. After a year, we graduated to a fountain or ballpoint pen. Some of us, like my friend and I, developed a love of writing, while others, like my dad, never achieved legibility when he wrote by hand. He typed or printed his letters. He had a lot of practice printing since part of his work as a comic strip artist was to fill in the caption balloons with words that everyone could read.

™: WarnerBros

I'm not here to argue for or against the teaching of cursive, other than to say that learning to write by hand is the same kind of practice in mind and hand coordination that origami folding provides. I've read many articles that proclaim that handwriting is dying. But this past week, I found hope.

When I first learned of the SF Pen Show, I thought this event must be for a small group of people interested in writing implements who gather to exchange ideas and to buy new pens. The Show ran last weekend at a local hotel. I walked into a crowded lobby with a line of people stretching from one end of the hotel to the other, all waiting to get into the show. I couldn't believe that there would be so much interest in pens, mainly fountain pens. I looked at the line, and saw people of all ages, oldies, eccentric dressers, and many young people eager to get into the exhibition hall.

I came to the Pen Show because the Friends of Calligraphy (FOC), an active calligraphy guild filled with members interested in the art of calligraphy and letter forms, provided free bookmarks to the show attendees. Many of our members are experts; some of us are students like me. FOC looks for new members by offering classes and workshops, participating in calligraphy conferences, and, for one weekend each year, creating bookmarks at the annual San Francisco Pen Show.

FOC calligraphers busy writing bookmarks

Bookmarks made by FOC members

Inside the Pen Show hall, I found table upon table filled with fountain pens, paper, inks, notebooks, stickers, pen nibs, boxes and wrappers to hold pens, and a room set aside for nibmeisters, people who have learned to grind a nib back to its first glory. I had no idea that there was so much interest in pens, and therefore, so much interest in writing by hand. Some of the vendors offered vintage pens, others showed a selection of handmade caps and barrels. Some of the pens reminded me of the detailed painting style done on show cars. 

I stopped at Deanna Ruiz's table, and she showed me her fine woodworking, which included not only caps and barrels, but a meticulously constructed box to hold a pen collection. She had learned her skills from her grandfather, a master woodworker, and it showed in the way she made the "waterfall" edges on the box. Each change from one side to another matched the direction of the wood grain on top. 

Another vendor offered Oak Gall Ink that he processed himself from the galls he collected from oak trees.

One wall in the room contained stickers, marking pens, papers, ribbons, pins, and brushes from Japan. At the end of the conference, an older Japanese man came to our FOC table and asked for a bookmark. He watched silently as the calligrapher wrote his name. With the Japanese tradition of calligraphy, I wished he had time to make a bookmark for FOC in return.

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A good source for information about pens and writing. Also, a list of pen shows around the world.

Well-Appointed Desk:

https://www.wellappointeddesk.com/about/

Nib Grinders:

https://www.galenleather.com/blogs/news/nibmeisters?srsltid=AfmBOorJCsNzfFbMPjRo_WhD_-vpCoLpuL8N8Q6IBNg9dzkh1Rle8fy8 

Window View -- August 2925