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Having a Son and Daughter-in-law with three little children in Alberta gave me a wonderful excuse to combine a visit with being a student at Red Deer College for the ABC 2000 Calligraphy Conference hosted by the lettering Arts Guild of Alberta, July 22-27.
An impressive group of teachers had consented to come - Annie Cicale, Ward Dunham, Sherri Kiesel, Suzanne Moore, Carol Pallesen, Peter Thornton, Mark Van Stone, and Diane von Arx.
The most difficult part of going to a conference is making a course selection. I chose to study with Susanne Moore for the week. A master craftsman, she led us through layering on a variety of surfaces to create interesting textures for backgrounds. She used acrylics, gouache, graphite and coloured pencils as well as resists, stencils, drawing and painting. There were so many choices and techniques our minds went into “overload”. It would have been helpful to have more time to spend on each different technique.
The second half of the week we covered “white on white” book exploration. The goal was to tell a story of either a journey, a transition, or a portrait in your life, all in white - and express that story without colour, words or symbols - a daunting task! The task included cutting, tearing, sewing, weaving, embossing, folding, and sanding to develop a progression of pages that “paints” a portrait or story. Suzanne’s course was not for the faint hearted.
The evening programs were handled by the different guilds each night, and were entertaining, stimulating and very enjoyable. There were classroom walks where we were treated to a glimpse of what other teachers were doing, and we had opportunity to take photographs.
On the final evening the Instructors each signed little hand-made autograph books. Every participant received a T-shirt and mug with the Conference logo.
All too soon the week ended and we were homeward bound. But it was a lovely Conference where we met many new friends and were challenged with beautiful lettering and imagery that brought delight, and a desire to continue to press on in a fulfilling skill.
Joan Gooderham
