How to Master the Art of Calligraphy

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  • Joanne Wasserman

    Artist/Owner, Wasserman Design

    http://www.wassermandesign.com  
    301-589-3444

    Joanne Wasserman has been professionally engaged in original art, custom art services, and graphic design since 1979, when she opened Wasserman Design in Washington, DC, as a studio business. Joanne was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic DesignCalligraphy, drawing, painting, and graphic design are bedrock art realms that Wasserman uses interchangeably to explore diverse subjects material and create original formations of content and imagery. Her intention for every work of art is the same: to communicate what is most intensely meaningful about the circumstances which shape a subject's identity.Over the years, Wasserman has produced a singular body of works for business clients and individuals whose interests are focused on serious issues of life in today's world. Her testimonial art honors statesmen and leaders for their career achievements and dedication to public service. Recently, two exemplary works of calligraphy and illumination were composed for Senator John Warner, of Virginia, and Former Secretary of State Colin Powell. The Atlantic Council of the United States commissioned both of these works of art. Wasserman's mural painting for the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing is a visual tribute to the school's educational mission across the entire field of nursing practice; the mural was named after an alumnus: The Leona Bowman Carpenter Center for Community Health Nursing.Other works include several drawings and watercolors that were made to express the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's advocacy on behalf of all countries in which landmines have been used against innocent civilians, causing the destruction of lives, homelands and national economies.Wasserman's interests in current events, American history, and the development of writing systems and art traditions of peoples throughout the world are frequent catalysts for her choice of topics; moreover, through her work she cares to express the endearing aspects of living that are all around us. Change Agents of Culture is an ongoing series of 27 works that address creativity and invention in American society from the late 19th through 20th centuries. The first seventeen of these calligraphy-paintings were exhibited at the Embassy of Japan's Information and Culture Center, in Washington, DC, where the artist gave a public talk about writing systems in the world, entitled, PictureWritingThen & Now.

  • How to Master the Art of Calligraphy

    Calligraphy is the art form of writing beautifully. The writing system of Western world history is presented through the Chancery Cursive Script, the 15th Century, formal, book hand, invented by Italian professional scribes. Viewers can increase their manual skills as well an artistic insights during the time in which they practice the writing of an 'italic alphabet' using a pen, hand-dipped in ink, on pages that are ruled, also, by hand.

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    Tags:

    Writing

    ,

    Pen

    ,

    Nib

    ,

    Cursive

    ,

    Chancery

    ,

    Italian

    ,

    Calligraphy

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  • Transcripts

    Joanne Wasserman: Hi! I am Joanne Wasserman and I have a company named Wasserman Design. I am a calligrapher and an artist and today and I am going teach you how to write as a calligrapher, a particular script called Chancery Cursive. It is a wonderful script that was born in the Renaissance in Italy around the 15th century, late 14th century and the alphabet letters were modeled after 9th-10th century, Carolingian letter forms.

    We are going to learn this script today and there are only a few materials that you need to write. Beginning with the paper, this is a layout bond paper. This happens to be a Bristol Paper and this is the company where I bought it. But you could use a light weight layout or bond paper that is acceptable to pen and ink because they are our tools. We need a bucket of water, I have a little bowl of water, a bottle of ink and I am using Higgins Eternal Ink and all of these supplies you can get at your local art supply store.

    This is what the bottle looks like, it is very fluid. You need a pen and this is the pen with a pen holder together. These are some examples of pens that we call the nibs and this a pen holder which is what we put the pen into, so that we have a full writing instrument and you need a pencil, an eraser and a T-square and that's all.

    To give you a little idea about myself, I have an art studio business called Wasserman Design that I began in 1979 here in Washington DC. I create works of art -- original works of painting, calligraphy and drawing. So, let us get started with the next step which is the ruling of the page.

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