Tuesday, December 25, 2012

 

 


January 2013 Scribnote

COMMENTS FROM OUR CHAIRPERSON
 
Several members of the MCG met at the downtown South Bend Library on Saturday, October 6th, to celebrate our 20th anniversary by doing what we love best…calligraphy and bookmaking.  Thanks to Anne Binder for organizing this wonderful event.  The morning started at 11 am with a marvelous talk from Bob Hohl about the St. John’s Bible. Bob had us all captivated with tales of how the 21st Century Bible came about and Donald Jackson’s vision to create it.  Luckily for us, Bob loves his subject and didn’t just stop at the 45 minute ceiling he originally put on his talk.  We could have sat for a few more hours listening to all the information.  I took about 5 pages of notes just so I could look back and remember all he told us.  He also brought a large bound version of Genesis.  If you didn’t get a chance to come to the event that day, please check out www.saintjohnsbible.org to learn more about this historic undertaking. 
At 1 pm, we began our make it/take it sessions.  Anne Binder lettered names on creative license sheets, Anna and Angie lettered bookmarks, Ginny and Maureen demonstrated zentangles, Renee demonstrated index card books, and Angela M., Sharon, Marty, Diana, Connie, and Patty all demonstrated an array of little books for make it/take its.  We had several people interested in our guild and their email addresses will now be receiving information from our Guild.  We ended at 4 pm, cleaned up our tables and bid everyone goodbye.  It was a great day to spend together doing what we enjoy. 
 
Our brush lettering workshop on October 20th with Marijo Carney was a big success and hopefully everyone got a taste of using the brush to letter, went home with some new ideas and spent countless hours practicing! Even though I have been using brush lettering since discovering it in 2000 at Reggie’s year long class, there were still new things to learn that I will put into use on my next project.  Marijo was a very kind and helpful instructor and we were happy to have had her here in South Bend. Thanks to all who helped set up tables and take them down again at the end of the day. 
 
December brought us all together again for our annual Christmas party held at the home of Maureen Trubac.  Maureen made her delicious pork loin that is in our MCG Cookbook while the rest of us contributed other yummy dishes.  We had our meeting, during which we planned for the rest of next year, and decided on our donations; Recipients will include Christ the King Church, where we have our meetings, South Bend Regional Museum of Art, and the Food Bank. Lastly, we exchanged our 5 x 7 gestural pieces before sitting at the table for the luncheon. The gestural pieces were lovely and all so very different.  There are some samples in this newsletter.
 
 
One of the subjects Anne Binder brought up to us at the Christmas meeting was the invitation from Moontree in Plymouth, Indiana to exhibit in 2014.  The idea is for us to begin to think of a project which could be a broadside, books, etc. Throughout the next year or so, we would work on that project, with the critiques and help of other guild members, and would be ready for the exhibit.  Read more about Moontree at www.moontreestudios.com.   
Hope everyone had a magical Holiday season and comes into the New Year with profound energy on what we will be working on for 2013.  Thanks to Sharon, Maureen, Amber and Jo, the MCG board that help make this group run smoothly and also to Amber and Renee who do such a wonderful job on our blog. 
Ginny

"Alone, letters are the instruments - Together, they become the symphony" ~Mary Dee

 

FUTURE WORKSHOPS

Rosie Kelly will be here on April 13 & 14, in the spring of 2013, to teach a two-day workshop topic, Playing with Design Possibilities.  Rosie always brings us fresh, new ideas and we are always happy to have her with us.  She is fine tuning her workshop thoughts and will send a supply list soon. Cost will be $100 per person or $115 if you are not a member of the MCG. The workshop will take place at the Whispering Pines Community Room in South Bend. Please send your check to the MCG mailbox and let Ginny (gvanderhey@hotmail.com) know if you are planning to attend.

Barbara Mann will be coming to South Bend to teach a two-day workshop on watercolor flowers on October 5 and 6, 2013.  Barbara is a member of our guild living in Michigan and gave a workshop several years ago.  We are thrilled that she will be joining us again.  More information will be forthcoming in the next few months.
Laurie Doctor will be in Kalamazoo in March with the Pendragons Guild on February 25,26 & 27 (Deepening Surfaces) and March 1, 2 & 3 (Landscape Lettering). Since Kalamazoo had so many people interested in the workshop, they have split it into two workshops so there may still be room if you are interested. Please contact Lucia Leonardelli at ltl914@sbcglobal.net.  
 
Anne Binder Classes:
Paste Papers
Sat, Jan 19 from 12:30pm to 4:30pm. Cost for those who have never taken a paste paper class is $48. For those who have, it's the cost of supplies - $30.

Painted Backgrounds
Sat, Jan 26 from 12:30pm to 4:30pm. Cost for those who haven't taken this class WITH Anne is $48 and those who have, supplies - $30

Folks can email anbinder@michiana.org to register. There's only room for 6 for each class.
 
Happenings: 
Celebration of the Arts 2013
Annual Juried Spiritual Art Competition – www.thecelebrationofthearts.com – February 1 – 13, 2013 

WEBSITES TO ENJOY 
 





http://www.lauriedoctor.com/workshops/workshops.html

 

 
I enjoy sharing new websites that I have come across in our blog.  If you come across something that you think would interest the whole group, please email them to Ginny, Amber or Renee and we will get them on the blog for the next quarter. 
American Frame – Just a reminder that if you order from American Frame, please mention MCG, and they will give us a small stipend.


An artist is in a constant state of becoming."
Bob Dylan
 

 

UPCOMING GUILD EVENTS

 
At our Christmas meeting, we discussed what instructors we would like to have for 2014 and what we want to review during our meetings every month.  We made a list of our past instructors and some of our members took a month and an instructor to talk about and possibly demo on that day.  The instructors that have been chosen have impacted the art of that particular member and remains one to whom she goes back for inspiration.

January 5 – Regular meeting
February 2- Jo McPherson – Sherri Kiesel – Experiment with words on paper
March 2 – Diana Stamper - Reggie
April 6 - Open
May 4 – Sharon Esmont – Simple Binding
June 1 – Ginny VanderHey – Brush lettering – Reggie & Marijo Carney and Louise Grunewald
July 6 – Pat – Sharon Zeugin
August 3 – Maureen Trubac – Metals and Annual Picnic
September 7 – Maureen Trubac– Barbara Mann
October 5 – Lauren Matacio – Lisa Englebrecht
November 2 – Angie West – Versals and Thomas Ingmire
December 7 – Annual Christmas Get Together at the home of Angie West
Cut this part of the information in the newsletter out, and put it on your fridge.

ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP
Annual dues of $15 are due in July. Our annual dues have not changed in many years and are put to good use for supplies for our make it/take it meetings, annual raffle in August, and, at the end of the year, we give to local charities. Please remember to send your dues to the MCG post office box as soon as possible.


OFFICERS
Ginny VanderHey, President 574/262-1345 gvanderhey@hotmail.com
Sharon Esmont, Vice President 574/272-5481 Sesmont@aol.com
Maureen Trubac, Treasurer 574/272–0733 maureentrubac@hotmail.com
Amber Schindler, Secretary 574/360-9128 ambermschindler@gmail.com
Jo McPherson, Study Group Chairperson, jobakestwo@centurylink.net
Amber Schindler & Renee Tuveson – Blog Coordinators

If ever you would like to add to the newsletter/blog, please contact one of the officers, and we will get that information to Amber and Renee. Something you have done or have seen would be welcomed into our information.

What great thing would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?

Robert Schuller

 

It always seems impossible until it’s done.

Nelson Mandela

 

About the St. John's Bible presentation from Jo McPherson:


The highlight of our 20th anniversary celebration was Robert Hohl, Reference & Instruction Librarian at St. Mary's College.  He spoke about the making of the St. John's Bible, which was commissioned by the Benedictine monks at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, at the suggestion of Donald Jackson, one of the foremost calligraphers in the world today.


He touched on bibles, all hand written of course, from past centuries and how they influenced this modern bible; the choosing of tools (goose quills), calfskin vellum, and paints, hand ground as they also were from ancient times thru the centuries.

 
He also described how illuminations were created and why gold was chosen for its reflective properties. There are many of these illuminations throughout the books, as well as many "special treatments" for significant verses, most of which are widely known.

 
Mr. Hohl brought the copy of one of the books the library has, for our better understanding.  It is quite beautiful.  If you would like to visit the library to examine these books more closely, you may call (574) 284-5280 for more information.

 
You may also visit the St. John's Abbey and University Collegeville, Minnesota, where the original, hand calligraphed copy is on permanent exhibit.  Or you may go online @ saintjohnsbible.org.

 
Whichever way you choose, you will be delighted with the beauty and marvelous craftsmanship and artistic abilities which went into the making of this Bible.

 
 
 

No comments:

Post a Comment