A Day with a Fine Book Artist: David Esslemont

Sunday, Sept. 15, a beautiful day in San Francisco, just a hint of fall, the America's Cup in full regalia on the Bay, the Bay Bridge finally open and magnificently white.

Five other people and I spent the day at the Center for the Book in a workshop with David Esslemont.  What a wonder!  a printmaker, bookbinder, as well as a chili-cook-off winner, and an Englishman, to boot!  Check out his website!

www.solmentes.com/‎ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/david.esslemont

watch this video and then tell me which coffee cup you choose to drink coffee from.

• http://www.flickspire.com/m/LifeSecrets/LifeIsLikeCoffee

SPRING WORDS:
Vernal Equinox
Clean, light green
cherry blossom snow
e.e. cummings' best words for Spring
mud-luscious

April:  Poetry month, Spring, time to take online art workshops.  I've signed     up for 

LIFE BOOK2013
at http://www.willowing.org/life-book-2013/

and 21SECRETS 2013
at http://21secrets2013.ning.com

and GIVING HANDS CREATIVE COMMUNITY
at http://givinghands.ning.com

All for fun and a great way to meet other artists and see their work.  Get inspired!

I love words. I always have. I play with letterforms by writing stories and this blog, printing on a letterpress, hand lettering, collaging and stamping. The postcard above is the one I sent to my postcard buddy in Canada for the Do What You Love postcard swap.  What I received from Jo is a completely different idea -- one that is ethereal, haunting and quiet.

Check out more postcards at Bev Nichols site:
http://dowhatyouloveforlife.com

Have fun today and discover something new!

 

HEAT

                                                                       

                                                                                               

A walk on the Iron Horse Trail

mid-July in California

dry, hot shade.

On the ground a dozen oak galls,

Bleached to ivory, traces of yellow ochre,

Ink-brown.

Spider web spans the braces of a bridge

Over a creek bed, no water tumbling through

Even the web looks dry.

                                                                                   
                                                                                    Buzz saws instead of running water,

                                                                                    Two 70-year old pines coming down.

                                                                                    Broken skeleton of a vine

                                                                                    Clinging to a chain-linked fence

                                                                                    In the distant haze, Mt. Diablo,

                                                                                    Yellow and fire-crisp.

 Iron Horse Trail
 In the heat of July -

 California’s winter:

 Only yellow and red cherries

 Burst with life.

 

http://dowhatyouloveforlife.com/blog/ 

I'm participating in The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap

Are you?

Bev Nichols is a great inspiration to do what you love!

Spring Hopes

Spring, a California spring:  three weeks in February when the sun shines, flowers bloom, and then March arrives, when our rainy season begins.  The beginning of spring reminds me of Japan and Betty, a Japanese woman, who exclaimed that she loved spring green, the new green of leaves as they unfurl.
March reminds me of the full moon and the vernal equinox with the days as long as the nights and the week before Theo was born when the moon shone into our bedroom late at night. Its round face spread light over my face as I turned to find a comfortable place to sleep. Theo came the day after Easter that year, and like spring, he was a sign of Hope.