Volume 22 Number 2 Autumn departments 2. Letterbox 4. The Editor s Corner 5. Briefly Noted : Recent Projects 8. Cover Artists 50.

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1 $14.50

2 Volume 22 Number 2 Autumn departments 2. Letterbox 4. The Editor s Corner 5. Briefly Noted : Recent Projects 8. Cover Artists 50. Reviews 38 features 12. Whaler s Journals by Holly Cohen-Roochvarg 26. New Directions in Japanese Calligraphy by Christine Flint Sato 38. Woman s Work / Women s Work: Sue Hufton Describes a Pair of Books by Sue Hufton An Overdue Revival: the Typeface Epigrammata by Jerry Kelly 50. Letters from Paul Standard to his Niece by Trudi Cohen 50 1

3 Briefly Noted: Recent Projects lettering a soybean The Iowa Soybean Association s 2007 Soy on Parade provided me with the novel opportunity to do calligraphy on a 4 x 4 x 6 foot fiberglass soybean. Twenty painted soybean sculptures were exhibited at the Iowa State Capitol, venues throughout the state, and the 2007 Iowa State Fair, with proceeds from their auction providing scholarships in Agriculture Education. Loving to cook, and a consumer of soy foods, I chose edible soy products as a theme. The considerations of lettering on an outdoor sculpture were daunting, albeit exciting. Golden Acrylic Paints Tech Support became a lifesaver, guiding me through prep, painting and sealing as well as choosing media specifically tested for my purposes. Having lived near soybeans my whole life I ve loved how mature plants turn from rich green to an earthy gold, becoming so profuse that they crowd together and all but eliminate the rich, black Iowa furrows. Stacks of golden Neuland lettering on a black background created a similar overall texture and become a metaphor for this jeweled landscape. The Process: The fiberglass was lightly sanded, wiped with solvent, and painted 5

4 From the journal of Harriet Allen, who accompanied her husband, Captain Daniel Allen, on the whaling expedition of the bark Merlin, All these echoes from the far off shores which come floating to us in our little world here, a mere speck in mid Ocean have a vague, shadowy meaning. Can it be they are living realities? Is the great heart of the world still throbbing with its unrest? by Holly Cohen-Roochvarg I helped rescue a whale! begins an entry in my journal of Autumn 2005 from Long Beach, New York. With the help of four other beachcombers and a high tide, we were able to get the 12-foot stranded yearling back in the water where he raised his flukes and swam safely over the sandbar before disappearing into the sea. I would never be the same. By the following week I had finished Moby Dick, joined conservation groups, and made plans to visit a gray whale sanctuary in Mexico. I was determined to learn all I could about whales. I couldn t avoid the awful history of their slaughter and near extinction brought about by human beings in the days of whaling. As these majestic creatures captured my imagination, my journal pages were filled with sketches of whales, biological data, and reflections on the symbolism of whales in different cultures. A journal is a place where private passions take physical shape. When you read a handwritten journal, the experience is a direct encounter with the author, more intimate than a printed account.there is immediacy to the moment, a tactile quality to the experience, because the 12 letter arts review 22:2

5 1850 Warren W. Baker, journal kept aboard ship Corinthian of New Bedford, Mass., ; and ship Leonidas of Westport, Mass., Image courtesy of The New Bedford Whaling Museum 13

6 New directions in Japanese calligraphy a small survey of Kyoto-based independent and semi-independent calligraphers by Christine Flint Sato While researching this article I googled Japanese calligraphy and sho, the Japanese for calligraphy as art, and found a variety of websites.* Japanese universities advertise sho courses, calligraphers exhibit their sho and introduce their calligraphy schools, calligrapher-designers advertise their businesses. A few sites are in both Japanese and English, some of the Japanese calligraphers are based outside Japan. Sho is receiving unprecedented exposure. For Westerners, the characteristic brush marks of the Chinese characters, or kanji in Japanese, are perhaps not so exotic as they used to be. For Japanese calligraphers, the internet has provided opportunities of reaching a public beyond their tight calligraphy circles, enabling more of them to become independent or semi-independent. In this article I introduce a few of these calligraphers who work in more abstract styles and are based around Kyoto. Traditionally, calligraphy was practiced as an art of writing for communication purposes. During the early 20th century most calligraphers came to see the calligraphic line as the essence of their aesthetic, opening the way for an abstract calligraphy based neither on legibility or even kanji. * In this article I use the word calligraphy to mean Japanese calligraphy; sho means calligraphy practiced as an art. ** In this article all names follow Japanese style, surname first. After the Second World War this principle was further developed as calligraphers pushed the boundaries of their art. In particular, the avantgarde experimented with it both as visual abstract expression and as a means for personal spiritual growth. Their activities soon attracted the interest of the Abstract Expressionists in the United States and the Informel artists in Europe. These westerners, in their turn, influenced the calligraphers in their explorations. Within the avant-garde there were two main movements. The Keiseikai, headed by Ueda Sokyu,** maintained that sho was a contemporary art; although based on the tradition of calligraphy, it could also include work which did not derive from characters. The term Bokusho ( / images in ink) was coined to cover this latter work. On the other hand, Morita Shiryu and his group, the Bokujinkai, were more Zen-inspired and insisted that sho should use a kanji as the locus ( / Ba) of writing. This basic distinction is evident in the work of contemporary abstract calligraphers. With the development of this new approach to calligraphy, forums for the growing number of calligraphers and their students were needed. Over the decades following the Second World War, large calligraphy organizations were established and flourished. Calligraphy was admitted as a section in the official art salon exhibition Nitten in 1948, and in the same year Mainichi 26 letter arts review 22:2

7 1 ARINO SOSEN BIG BANG 27