Our first courses in Casa Verna!
What a fabulous year it has been! After many months of preparation, Casa Verna finally welcomed its first students in September. Amity, Ellen, and I were delighted to host 11 students and several of their partners in our house/art center in Umbria.
REPORT FROM RAPICCIANO
You’ve all read the stories about rebuilding a house in Italy or Provence. They often seem to be tales of disaster and distress. Not with us in Rapicciano. Our wonderful builder Narciso Piccioni (yes, you read it right: Narcissus the Dove) took us through the difficulties of restoring an ancient house with creativity and grace.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THESE LETTERS?
I am excited to announce that four new recorded courses have been added to the BrodyOnline teaching series. If you want to challenge yourself to create new and fascinating letterforms, these courses are for you. My “Wrong Letter” concept will push you outside your comfort zone and into a new zone of fun, play, and experiment.
OVER THE SHOULDER – Join for Free!
I open my portfolio and share with you some of the works I have made in the last few years. You can look over my shoulder, ask questions, and hear my thoughts on how my collages, wrong letter compositions, and other works on paper are created. And of course, there are always more ideas than I can bring to completion.
LIFE IS A COLLAGE
Sediments. Layers. Fragments. Calling up memories, revealing hidden ideas, conjuring a work of art out of experience. This is what we do every day in the search for meaning in life. Collage is my way of channeling all this energy into my art. I do not begin with an idea or even a theme. I begin with a piece of Chinese rice paper, a brush, and a stretched piece of Rives. Matter, not mind.
One touch, one stroke, one whisper
Inspiration can come from things so close that we hardly notice them. Weeding the garden, for example. The exquisite tuft of grass at the center of this triptych, dried to a crisp by the Italian sun, demanded my attention. The sun had transformed its colors to a concert of dusty reds, gray ochers, and brilliant blood orange.
Shaping Your Story
I am excited to announce that “Shaping Your Story” starts on September 5, 2022 on BrodyOnline. The course will run for four months, giving you the chance to go deeply into your story as you create a multi-faceted artist’s book.
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Very special performance of “A Brush with Silence.” As bombs thunder down on innocent people, 15 calligraphers will sit quietly in an exquisitely beautiful chapel in Bruges and write words of peace in 15 different scripts and languages. We will be joined by 11 calligraphers around the world, brought to our performance by Zoom link.
Free zoom session on Monday, 28 February at 8:00pm
All clothing is a social statement. So why not make it a social activity too? Here are the results of some fantastic collaborations with fellow calligraphers and students, showing the power of teamwork and the pleasure of creating art to wear. The first kimono on this virtual catwalk was created by the marvelous Veerle Missiaen and myself.
Kimono Collaborations
All clothing is a social statement. So why not make it a social activity too? Here are the results of some fantastic collaborations with fellow calligraphers and students, showing the power of teamwork and the pleasure of creating art to wear. The first kimono on this virtual catwalk was created by the marvelous Veerle Missiaen and myself.
The Blue Box
Pandora herself couldn't make such a mess. The Blue Box has to be opened slowly, but even so 35 years of calligraphic sketches explode onto the floor. I'm not sure how this started. The Blue Box arrived from Houston halfway through the 1980s filled with chocolate mint Girl scout cookies (used to be my favorites before the Belgians taught me what chocolate actually is), Hook 'em Horns coffee mugs and who knows what else.
UNRELIABLE DOCUMENTS
Most people go to a flea market looking for old furniture, vintage clothing, and classic LPs. Calligraphers may do the same, but when a table piled high with old documents comes into view, the fever strikes - hard. I tried to bargain, but there was no budging: 40 euro for a full volume of early 18th century legal documents in Latin.
Report from Rapicciano part 2
What do they say about dreams coming true? "It is a dangerous thing". The new studio is set up and ready to go. The frames are built and the kozo paper is stretched. A whole crate of Golden Liquid Acrylics is on the table. Two dozen brushes, new and used, wait patiently. The sun is shining and the espresso is doing its work. The perfect moment has arrived. But where is the idea?
Report from Rapicciano
Two months into our Italian adventure and I could already write a novel about all the unexpected, strange, wonderful and sometimes not so wonderful things that go on in the Umbrian hills. As I brushed off my rusty Italian and put the house in order, spring has turned into a scorching summer, and Nadine and I have begun to adapt ourselves to local rhythms and customs.
Thrones, Bones and Cobblestones
What do you do when a saint looses his shrine? And what if he was not much of a saint anyway? That was the dilemma I faced when I entered a competition to design a new shrine for a medieval saint - and won! This mystery man rested for more than seven centuries in a marvelous shrine of gold, enamel and jewels. But curatorial issues won out over ancient pieties and the shrine was moved to a new museum.
Recent Comments