Life Lines Workshop with Pamela Paulsrud
Pamela Paulsrud arrived in San Antonio in time for our General Meeting on May 2. She presented a program centered on her two trips to the Middle East to share her Tree Whispers Installation in an amazing calligraphy event there. We were treated to images of an incredible variety of calligraphic art in many languages, as well as excerpts from several interviews with calligraphic artists from all over the world. We all came away ready to make art!
And then on Saturday and Sunday, those who were in the Life Lines workshop had an equally inspiring experience. We began with a full sheet of Arches text wove paper, roughly drew lines to divide it tic-tac-toe style into 9 spaces, and then filled the spaces with various exercises. Some were freehand writing exercises done with both dominant and non dominant hand, some were geometric images, made with a compass and then also a straight edge. Eventually, we tore the papers down in accordance with the golden rectangle proportions, and then continued to work on them, adding more circles, lines, and color, with a variety of tools and media. The end results will give us lots to work on for many creative days ahead.
Pamela was a wonderful teacher. She teaches a process, not a specific lettering type or project. Using the inspiration of the geometry of the universe, we were encouraged to see the world through new eyes, and to create art using what we had learned to see. We will continue to learn from this class for years to come.
