Iyana Leveque -- Sphere of Conditionality

Iyana's Sphere Looks Like the Ball Out of the Big-Bang Theory



Iyana Leveque "Sphere of Conditonality"


The first time I came upon Iyana's title "Sphere of Conditionality". Hmm, Too Abstract but deep and I didn't really pay attention much to her piece. However this month , I was listening to a Particle Physics lecture, and  the Big-Bang Theory on how the Universe  was being discussed.  There was a lot of photos and videos accompanying the talk. All of sudden one of the photos reminded me of Ilyana’s piece, the colors with a yellow bright spot in the middle encircled by black-blue rings exploding into orange-golden
rays of light particles.

When I saw again Iyana’s piece again I took a photo of it. I took a lot of photos of Kalligraphia 13  since the exhibition's opening.  Later on  after attending the demonstration I go to the sixth floor to get shots of the pieces.

 Iyana's piece made me write something in my journal.

KABOOM

            when the  Universe

            began

Marks

            came out

            so did the

           Letters

    author: en

.

I usually count my syllables as I write to follow the 15 or 17 rules for a haiku. However, I wrote the above lines spontaneously without any thought on the number of syllables  and guess what a haiku came out-- 15 syllables all together.

What are the spheres of conditionality? Are they conditions for a sphere? Or conditions became a sphere of endless loops? Try to think about the title?

In many spiritual retreats I attend , the retreat master usually emphasizes Divine Love as a sample of a Love without conditions. The reason human love fails because humans put so many conditions on a relationship. Human beings are not perfect and they cannot fulfill all the conditions placed by another human being.

Bill Joel's song "Just The Way You Are" does not put conditions on the person he loves because he loves her just the way she is without changing anything about her.

Below is a wonderful quotation to love another person unconditionally.
“Nothing you become will disappoint me; I have no preconception that I'd like to see you be or do. I have no desire to forsee you, only to discover you. You can't disappoint me”
― Mary Haskell

  

Jane Brenner's Elected Silence

In a Presidential Election Year, Jane Brenner Elects Silence for a Change at Kalligraphia 13



Jane Brenner Elected Silence



Jane Brenner is former Editor of the journal Alphabet & she likes Literature as well as calligraphy.

Her piece contains as she describes the verbal eccentricities and the "Sprung Rhythm" of
Gerald Manley Hopkins and  music written by Francois Couperin, French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist

ELECTED Silence, sing to me 
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.”
  - Gerard Manley Hopkins

Although I compose music, I'm not familiar with Francois Couperin works. Thanks Jane for introducing  the  Couperin's music.

The first poem I'd read by Hopkins  years years ago was  "Spring_Fall Margaret Are you
Grieving?"
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Hopkins poetic structure is known as "Running Rhythm" based on repeating group of two to three syllables, with the stressed syllable falling in the same place on each repetition. Hopkins called this structure "running rhythm" or "sprung rhythm"

Don't despair if you are a writer or a poet who is not published or doesn't get known during your lifetime. Like Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins was an obscure poet during his lifetime with only a few poems that were published but both Dickinson and Hopkins  were "ahead of their time."  Hopkins friends were responsible for publishing poems and making them  known to a wider audience.

This question has been asked often:  does one hear a tree fall when nobody is in the forest? Does one  hear one hand clapping? This is silence. Does one think beauty is wasted if a gorgeous flower blooms alone in a desert?

Even when no one reads your poems or writings ,are you still a poet or an author? If  you leave your thoughts behind in a manuscript, eventually your silence will be heard like Gerard Manley Hopkins.
"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”
― Ansel Adams

One of my favorite songs that has silence in it is "I loved you once in Silence" in Camelot expressing  hidden love.

Martha Dahlen's Declaration of Dependence

Martha Dahlen Expresses a Universal Truth at Kalligraphia 13 : A Declaration of Dependence on  Water


Martha Dahlen "Declaration of Dependence"

I don't know anything about Martha nor have met her in person .  I chose her piece because it looks simple but the content is profound. It's also goes against the grain on the  "Declaration of Independence".

Thanks Martha for representing the pointed pen style. I've read that there's some 'bad blood' that exists between the broad-edge pen and pointed pen artists. Why? I don't understand it? It's like what's more important your left or right eye? Left or right  hand? Left or right leg? My answer is : BOTH. We need both pointed and broad pens style to get contrast.

I used to  stay my Aunt Carmen's home in my younger years. Her husband Uncle Maning was the Steel Mills president and he took the AIM (Asian Institute of Management) MBA training; AIM  has the reputation as being the best management training  in Asia. I'm usually curious about anything so I checked out his binders to learn what the scope was . One of the exercises for top management was this : If you were stranded in an enclosed environment whose resources can be turned off or removed anytime, choose only three items and rank them by importance in order to survive since no help is coming for one week .  The lists had more 100 items which included lots of luxurious things like cars, helicopter, radios, books, lounging chairs, tables,music cds, tv, nuggets of gold, fancy designer clothes, cigars , flashlight, life savers, candles, matches, movies, magazines, diamonds, million dollar check, cash, etc and not-so-glamorous stuff like  gallons of water and oxygen tanks.

If you chose all the fancy things like the cash, million dollar check ,cars, gold  instead of oxygen tanks , you'll be dead in a few minutes after oxygen is sucked out of the enclosed  environment.  This was an exercise to teach priority and importance of things. The three best answers by rank: oxygen tanks, gallons of water and food.

Reasons to Choose : Oxygen tanks and gallons of water

• In 10 seconds if  your brain is cut off from oxygen, you will be unconscious. The body will go into hypoxia and then anoxia. Within 4 to six minutes without oxygen, the person dies(exception for those divers who train their lungs to save oxygen but they will collapse later).
• A day without water is enough to make a person weak. After three days without water, a person can die since a human body is approximately 75% water and it needs water for normal functions of the body circulation.
• It's good to have food but it has been proven-- people can survive without food for a month if they drink water and  breathe oxygen.

Martha's "Declaration of  Dependence"  hits the mark what is important in our daily existence. I attended a Motivational Seminar and I still remember Zig Ziglar's quote: 
"Money isn't the most important thing in life, but it's reasonably close to oxygen on the 'gotta have it' scale."  Zig knows oxygen is up there to sustain life.
 I hope readers are aware of the need to conserve  and use water wisely.  Although our planet is surrounded by water,  majority are salty oceans & seas.  It is fresh water we need to drink and in some states and countries, water   has become a critical issue.

To have fresh oxygen, we need to plant trees. For without plants, Carbon dioxide will be hovering  in the air. Plants take in C02 and release oxygen for humans  to breathe.

Be a nature conservation activist for the future.

Claude Dieterich & Jean Larcher - Two Frenchmen - Two Masters

Two Calligraphers & Lettering Artists of  Verona, I  Mean Paris ,  Display at Kalligraphia 13





Claude Dieterich "I Speak With My Hands"

  Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of  Verona"  is a popular play that I can't help but refer to it.  However, equally huge in scope in the lettering arts are two world class masters from France whose works have been published in several books and whose names are internationally recognized.

The Olympics are happening in London, England and you may assume England ranks number one in terms of tourist visitors but statistics show tourists prefer France as its number one European country to visit  throughout history.  France is known for its romantic language,music, cuisine, fashion,  arts and bohemian life. Louvre is considered the "mother of all museums".  Paris is never boring; it is always dramatic,mysterious, and brimming with romantic illusions & passages.  And so are their artists. Two of them are sharing their artistry at Kalligraphia 13.




Jean Larcher "Senatus Populesque Romanus"

  French teachers who are known for their strict and disciplined ways usually bring out the best in their students. "Etudiante"  or student as Claude  calls me made realize that all those "Etudes" pieces that you'd pratice for your piano,guitar or violin lessons are part of your studies to learn music.

Fortunately both Claude Dieterich   & Jean Larcher have their own websites. Rather than talk about how beautiful, elegant and terrific their artistry are - why don't you check out their websites.

To fall in love with Paris again, I recommend viewing  Woody Allen's screenplay  Midnight in Paris . I saw this movie without knowing any background about the film while I was on a 13-hour  Air France flight  on my 2011 October vacation.

To put you in an enchanting mood and live in a life of pink listen to "La Vie En Rose".

Joanna Witzel - Takes Two to Tango- Joy & Woe

Joanna's "Love-Passion-Dreams" - Mankind's Sweetest Joy, Wildest Woe- is LOVE




Joanna Witzel "LOVE-PASSION-DREAMS"

 Still continuing on the two thread's previous topic:

Through Pearl Bailey, Joanna who teaches mathematics  tells us again through her Kalligraphia 13 piece "Love-Passion-Dreams" what is most important in life- LOVE.

La joie la plus douce, la plus sauvage malheur, c’est l’amour: the sweetest joy,the wildest woe is love.
 
When Black History month is celebrated, one of the persons mentioned is Pearl Bailey . In 1970  she was known as the "Ambassador of Love" at the United Nations. During her time period, it was difficult for black actors and singers  to get a role but she did get important roles because she was  a terrific singer  known for her 'sultry singing'.

Images & a  word serve as an anchor point to jumpstart your writing. Thanks Joanna for getting a quote from Pearl Bailey  because it took me to the world of  Music, Broadway, Theater, Film, Black History. Pearl was also in the film "Porgy & Bess" based on the musical composition of the celebrated brothers George & Ira Gershwin. Bailey won a Tony for  "Hello Dolly" & an Emmy for a tv show special.

The popular idiom "It takes two to tango"  was also Pearl Bailey's hit  song "Takes Two to Tango" in 1950.

See what an image  in Kalligraphia 13 does? It takes you everywhere so that's how I select a piece to write in this blog  if it inspires and triggers me to write.

Want to feel alive. Read another Pearl  Bailey's quote :
“A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.”

Diane Amarotico - Matilde Urrutia - A Neruda Love Sonnet

Diane Amarotico uses Italic for English Version & Uncials for Spanish Version to Interpret Pablo Neruda's Love Sonnet to Matilde Urrutia .



Diane Amarotico "Matilde Urrutia"



I love the way Diane used both the English version written in Italic and Spanish version written in  Uncials to  share with the viewers Neruda's love poem to the love of his life.

Have you ever heard of Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto?  Trivia learning. That's the real name of Pablo Neruda who chose his alias or pen name after the Czech poet Jan Neruda.

 Pablo Neruda  the Chilean poet & a Nobel Laureate Literature winner wrote love poems to his paramour Matilde Urrutia, a singer. Before Matilde became Neruda's third wife, they had a secret affair in Santiago. The love poems to Matilde became the  "100 Love Sonnets". Neruda delayed the publication of his sonnets to spare the feelings of his second wife.
When I first read Pablo Neruda  odes to several objects , I was hooked as a Neruda fan. He wrote odes to onion, socks, tomato, dictionary and other ordinary objects, I sense his depth, rhythm, passion, sensuosness how he used words to slice the meanings into a garden of pleasures.   Neruda love poems touch the reader's heart,soul and burn the marrow of your bones. For lovers, Neruda's love poetry sizzles.

Here's the content of Diane Amarotico's piece "Matilde Urrutia" by Pablo Neruda

Matilde Urrutia, I’m leaving you here

all I had, all I didn’t have,
all I am, all I am not.
My love is a child crying,
reluctant to leave your arms,
I leave it to you forever–
you are my chosen one.

You are my chosen one,
more tempered by winds
than thin trees in the south,
a hazel in August;
for me you are as delicious
as a great bakery.
You have an earth heart
but your hands are from heaven.

You are red and spicy,
you are white and salty
like pickled onions,
you are a laughing piano
with every human note;
and music runs over me
from your eyelashes and your hair.
I wallow in your gold shadow,
I’m enchanted by your ears
as though I had seen them before
in underwater coral.
In the sea for your nails’ sake,
I took on terrifying fish . . . .

Sometime when we’ve stopped being,
stopped coming and going,
under seven blankets of dust
and the dry feet of death,
we’ll be close again, love,
curious and puzzled.
Our different feathers,
our bumbling eyes,
our feet which didn’t meet
and our printed kisses,
all will be back together,
but what good will it do us,
the closeness of a grave?
Let life not separate us:
and who cares about death?

 If you'd not seen the movie "Il Postino" , please view it : it's  a story about a romantic postman &  Neruda  while he was an exile in small fishing town in Italy. Neruda helps the postman write poems to his lady.  The movie which was originally intended for a limited audience became an international hit.

Queen Elizabeth II & James Bond Parachute to Olympics Opening ; Envoy Sent to Kalligraphia 13

Queen Elizabeth & 007 Make A Wild Entrance to Olympics 2012 Opening; MBE Envoy Visits Kalligraphia 13 Opening Reception

If you'd seen the spectacular,educational, & amusing  opening of 2012 Summer Olympics, you'd seen James Bond aka 007 &  the 86 years young Queen Elizabeth  as a Bond Girl parachuting her way to the Olympic London grounds. Per media, the jump of Queen Elizabeth II out of an aircraft was the talk of the world for best performance in an Olympic role. That scenario is what this fortress of enchantment is all about  though they were played by stunt doubles.

But Queen  Lizzie  didn't forget to send an envoy or an ambassador to a San Francisco calligraphy event last June 16,2012. After all the most decorated name in the world of calligraphy is Elizabeth because Elizabeth is usually the name for Queens, princesses and royalty.

Who is the Queen's envoy who dropped in to check out the Friends of Calligraphy exhibition?

Michael Harvey spotted by another famous calligrapher & typographer Alan Blackman at Skylight Gallery Kalligraphia 13 opening reception in San Francisco June 16, 2012

 

Michael Harvey , letter carver,typographer, font designer, calligrapher, illustrator, book author is a Member of the Order of the British Empire(MBE) for his lettering Arts given by Queen Elizabeth II.



Michael Harvey sits beside Kalligraphia 13 logo creator Georgianna Greenwood holding Michael's Lettering book. At the back were visitors from Nova Scotia,Canada Alex & Evelyn. In-front is a delighted comic artist Loren Bondurant



Christine Colasurdo's Piece is Kalligraphia 13 --Mantra

If Kalligraphia 13 has a Mission Statement, Christine Colasurdo "Calligraphy Is At The Center of Everything" is IT!



Christine Colasurdo "Calligraphy is At The Center of Everything"

Christine is right. The history of lettering and calligraphy is also the history of civilization. Since there were no printing presses or computers on those early centuries as human beings evolved to become civilized, imagine if there were no scribes or calligraphers to write down  the contents in manuscripts. The Bible is the most published book in the entire world. Imagine if there were no scribes to write those pages to hand them over to our generation. Christine reminds the Bay Area and the world "Calligraphy is At the Center of Everything". I say Amen to that!

A teacher earns a student's respect when he/she is a skillful teacher but when he/she is kind,warm,wonderful,honorable, the teacher not only earns admiration from the student but also a student's affection. Some teachers earn our admiration but not our affection. Christine Colasurdo earns both my admiration and affection.  The Fort Mason students were brokenhearted when she left  San Francisco to return to Oregon.

At Fort Mason, she taught students Italic, Brush Italic & Uncials. What I remember most from her class was creating Weathergrams originally propelled by Reed's  professor Lloyd Reynolds made from a grocery brown bag. I was inspired to write short poems(10 words or less) on the brown paper and hang weathergrams outside my  garden and tree. Long before it was politically correct to be 'green', Lloyd was already advocating how to be a green activist.

Aside from being an author of the  remarkable book "Return to  Spirit Lake", she's a passionate  endorser for calligraphy.  Wow! According to reviews , she's there up with the best together with my favorite nature writers Edward Abbey, Henry Thoreau, & John Muir. She was at NPR remembering about  Spirit Lake.

You can download her KQED Perspective on Calligraphy  under "Beautiful Writing". She's also a passionate lover of nature not only by writing articles but  also  she volunteers for activities involving nature in her community.

SF Giants' Fan Displays 2010 SF Giants World Series Championship Design at Kalligraphia 13

October Is In Love with the Impossible at Kalligraphia 13 (  Click Title to hear Frank Sinatra &  Gene Kelly Sing and Dance "Take Me Out to the Ballgame")

Elizabeth Nisperos  SF Giants' World Series 2010 Logo. Big S covers Giants,Series, Champs a playform design deforming Roman Caps

Oracle Consultant Alex & wife Evelyn from Nova Scotia,Canada read the label of Giants' diaplay

Recently, Giants fans have been branded  as  best fans in the Baseball Universe by SF Giants players  for rocking the ballot boxes  and skyrocketing their favorite baseplayers  into starting positions at the All Stars Baseball break.: Don’t forget the SF Bay Area has Silicon Valley, high-tech expertise (Google,Youtube,Facebook,Twitter, Apple, etc) and millions of fanatics following their games.

Fan taking video of the  Giants' display

The intense fanaticism of the Giants fans votes  caused tremors and indignations from other teams. Baseball Commissioner Selig admits voting for your favorite player ‘is part of the process’.   The selected players (Cain,Cabrera,Sandoval,Posey) proved the fans got it right. The SF Giants players were indeed the stars in the lead roles in  the  2012  All-Star-Baseball show on July 10.

An example of Giants’ Fanaticism  in a quiet way  is by  using an ancient lost art and in an unhurried fashion is to display her design on Kalligraphia 13 Exhibition. 

 Friends of Calligraphy member  Elizabeth Nisperos believes impossible things are happening to the Giants even though it’s only July with the Universe playing its tricks just for the fun of it. Instead of high-tech gadgets, she used the low-tech pencil ,pen, paper and colors to design by  an original logo honoring the Giants 2010 World Series Championship. The piece’s title “October Is In Love with the Impossible” came from a prose poem she wrote chronicling the Giants’ underdog role and the impossible task to win the World Series. The poem ranked number one for two months as the most popular article at the Patch's website.  The poem’s form arose after taking a poetry workshop under award-winning poet Gary Young “The Sentence As A Poetic Form.” and  from Pulitzer Prize winner poet Robert Hass .poem "Human Wishes".

Lettering Artist & Teacher Liesbet Boudens of Brugge, Belgium holds the SF Giants logo created at her workshop

The playful black, orange, and gold logo Giants World Series piece came into existence by  deforming the ‘serious’ Roman Capitals  during  a workshop taught by Liesbet Boudens who comes from a famous clan of lettering artists in Brugge, Belgium.

“October Is In Love with the Impossible”  is on display at the Triennal Exhibition Kalligraphia 13  at the San Francisco Main Library, Skylight Gallery , Sixth Floor,The Marjorie G & Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center . The Friends of the Library and  the Friends of Calligraphy are the show’s sponsors for the 98 artists from around the globe.. The exhibit is from June 16 to August 26, 2012. Esteemed calligrapher Georgianna Greenwood , a Reed College graduate  created the “Kalligraphia 13” logo . Reed is the college where Steve Jobs studied calligraphy.

Sharing the display wall with the SF Giants “October Is In Love with the Impossible”  

are :

• Calligraphy teacher  Antonia Smith, “Forgetfulness” a Billy Collins’ poem;


Raoul Martinez 'Sleep'


• Raoul Martinez, Shakespeare's  MacBeth “Sleep” a combination of Blackletter and Copperplate scripts

Igael
Gurin Malous "I have Found What My Soul Loves/Safekeeping"

• Igael Gurin Malous, a Belgian-born artist from LA.”I Have Found What My Soul Loves/Safekeeping“a bleeding heart with a Hebrew text.

The unexpected mapping of  pieces  placed by the exhibit staff resulted in unexpected meanings and connections for  the Giants. Smith’s Forgetfulness reminds us not to forget it has been 52 years since the SF Giants won the World Series. Martinez’ Sleep concurs that the Giants were ‘sleepers’. A ‘sleeper’ is  like a movie you didn’t expect to be a boxoffice hit or a book that wasn’t expected to be a bestseller. Malous’ image of a Bleeding Heart is a good example of  the popular word “Torture” on Giants' way to the World Series.

World-class Calligrapher & Typographer Alan Blackman said “I like the Giants World Series design.” Blackman, a  designer of Adobe’s Galahad font has his own piece, “Checkmate:Amen.” Initially when the Giants’ poem appeared, renowned French Calligrapher Claude Dieterich demoed the poem’s title in Italic. Dieterich who’s currently in Peru submitted “I Speak With My Hands.”

The opening  reception of the exhibit was on June 16. Visitors from the Bay Area filled the entire 6^th Floor.Guests from other countries such as Michael Harvey, a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his Lettering Arts given by Queen Elizabeth and Oracle Consultant from Nova Scotia, Canada Alex MacEachern and his wife Evelyn dropped by  the gallery.

Previously in Kalligraphia 12 , Nisperos’ entry “Professor Knuth Enters a Number” honored one of the century geniuses : Stanford professor Turing Prize Winner and Faraday Medal recipient Donald Knuth(Bill Gates once said if you had read all Professor Knuth’s books and understood them, send Bill a resume so he can you give a job).

Liesbet Boudens' Effect- Five Pieces in Kalligraphia 13



Anna Fong Lum "Love Generously"

 

Nowadays, you can look at calligraphy pieces tinged with watercolors and other media interpersed with calligraphy scripts, you can’t really tell immediately the name of the calligrapher.

Only a few calligraphers can say that they’ve a signature look like Alan Blackman’s Galahad; Liesbet Boudens has a signature look with her letterwork that is distinctly hers alone.

Liesbet Boudens comes from  a talented family of artists in Brugge, Belgium. Liesbet’s father Jef was a celebrated calligrapher in his time. Her mother Dymphna is an art teacher. Sister Joke is a calligrapher. Pieter letters on stone;  Jeroen letters in stained iron ,metal and stone to make sculptures; Kristoffel letters in stone and pebbles; and Liesbet creates her letters on paper, walls and canvas.

Liesbet Boudens' effect cannot be ignored. Five pieces in the current Exhibition of Kalligraphia 13 sprung out her workshop. She taught the class how to make letters that will give the students their  own look and not anybody else’s. Liesbet is an art teacher in Belgium, France and Netherlands.

Liesbet Boudens wins easily as  the workshop teacher  who influenced five lettering artists to exhibit their work done in her class.

In the Kalligraphia 13 catalogue:  :

Sarah Loesch Frank –“Dragonfly” – Sarah says, “This piece was inspired by last year’s Liesbet Boudens talk and class.”

Anna Fong Lum : “Love Generously”, Anna states, “Classwork in Liesbet Boudens’ workshop, August 2011 with the Sea Scribes Marina, CA.”

Georgianna Greenwood “Improvise”, Georgianna writes, “Most of the work on this piece was done during an enlightening weekend workshop in 2011 with Liesbet Boudens from Belgium in 2011.

Elizabeth Nisperos, “October is In Love With the Impossible”  Elizabeth writes,”At the Liesbet Boudens workshop. I deformed the roman capital letters to draw playful letters to form the 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Championship logo”

Ruth Korch “Hyacinths for the Soul” from Persian poet , 13^th Century “If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft/And from slenderstore/Two loaves to thee alone are left/Sell one and with the dole/Buy hyacinths to feed the soul.”

Ruth Korch "Hyacinths for the Soul"

Though Ruth didn’t say the piece was created at Liesbet Boudens’ workshop, the photos taken during Boudens class showed it was done at Boudens’ workshop.



Sarah Frank 'Dragonfly'



Georgianna Greenwood 'Improvise'



Elizabeth Nisperos 'October  Is In Love with the Impossible'

Judy Detrick's Simplicity for the 4th of July



Judy Detrick's piece at Kalligraphia 13 'Simplicity is the Final Achievement'


Judy Detrick's Simplicity exemplifies that 4th July  can be celebrated with simple things such as Timothy Matlack's Handcalligraphed "Declaration of Independence",  a song God Bless America by an immigrant Irving Berlin and Katherine Lee Bates' poem "America the Beautiful".
'

KALLIGRAPHIA 13

From June 16 to August 26, 2012 , give yourself a treat by viewing an ancient art form transported into the San Francisco Public Main Library of the Skylight Gallery, 6th Floor. Kalligraphia  13 shares the wonders & enchantment of  98 artists from  around the Planet  sharing letters of the old world to contemporary creations. You'll never know you might get an insight and become a billionaire like Steve Jobs. Just drop by for the fun of it. You've seen letters everyday everywhere but Kalligraphia 13 shares you an unusual way of looking at words and letter.