How’s your handwriting? Gotten a little illegible since the Great Keyboard Takeover?
To the rescue: The ancient art of calligraphy. It’s at once harder and simpler than it looks.
Our guide for the one-day workshop on February 25 was Newburyport-based artist and author Susan Gaylord.
Susan is a kind and patient teacher. She gave each of us a blunt-tip Kuretake calligraphy pen, told us how to hold it and let us loose — on a series of straight lines. Then slanted straight lines. Then, when we felt especially emboldened, we made crossed lines!
It was getting a bit wild, but tackling our first letter “n” brought a hush of concentration to the room. Remember trying to learn to write? It was a lot like Miss Moron (yes, her real name, poor woman) standing over me in second grade all over again.
Susan demonstrating 
Susan explaining 
Susan’s library
Too bad we only had one day, but we packed a lot in. We got all the way to “d” (with stops for “a”s and “o”s along the way). It sounds hectic, but was anything but. It’s a very meditative practice, and takes simple repetition to get it in the right direction.
Susan was kind enough to bring a sample of her calligraphy books for us to look at. There’s a lot to learn here. We’ll be back for more.
RNAC Workshops 