Finding calligraphy, finding myself
Have you ever experienced love at first sight? Not with a person, but with a process?
A small sample of my current pen and marker collection.
I have. I fell hard for calligraphy one dark and rainy winter night here in Portland, when nothing else in my life made sense. It was November 2020. When I look back on that time now, more than three years later, I can see that I was primed for that moment years before.
I have been in love with pens and letters my whole life. I used to go to the print shop with my dad as a kid. He let me pick out a Le Pen each time to take home with me, in any color I wanted. He would also bring home unique erasers from his work travels, in fabulous 1980’s shapes, colors and scents. My favorite was a yellow light bulb eraser that had a tiny metal base that screwed on to the end.
Are you calligraphy curious?
A twist in my path
Later, I became an English major in college, and my love of letters and words flourished. I worked for the college newspaper, first as an editor then as a columnist. I journaled daily, wrote poetry (who didn’t write poetry in college?) and was published in the college literary magazine. I was on track for a career in writing, or so I thought.
My early writing years
I had a work-study job at the student newspaper for all four years I was in college. I started on the news team, where I laid out the front page for the weekly paper. I dabbled as a columnist and finally as a trainer for incoming writers.
Understandably, my advisor was very confused when I told him I wanted a letter of recommendation for a job at the National Wildlife Federation in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I had a passion for environmental justice, and I wanted to put that passion to work.
One day just before I graduated, I sat in his book-lined office and told him, “I want to be an environmental organizer.”
“Come again?” he said. “I thought you wanted to be a poet?”
He wrote me the letter, I got the job, and after graduation, I moved from Ohio to Michigan – a state where I had never been despite the proximity to where I grew up. Good thing I did, too. I met my partner there at that job and we are still together to this day.
20 years went by while I enjoyed muckraking as an organizer for pollution prevention projects, building sustainability programs in public facilities like libraries and health clinics. My most important work came more recently when I founded a racial equity program for a regional agency responsible for garbage and recycling.
Lost and found
Then two things happened that tossed me off this path:
1. Eye surgery in 2017 left me in chronic pain (more on that here); and
2. The pandemic.
Both events created a space for me to question my life, why I was on the path I was on and whether it was the one I wanted to continue. I had been taking art classes at night while working full-time. Because of this, I had an open mind when I saw a free online course on modern calligraphy called “Show Me Your Drills” by Becca Courtice of The Happy Ever Crafter. It was November 2020 and I was more than ready for a change.
The minute I put that brush pen to paper and learned that nearly the whole alphabet could be made from eight simple, graceful shapes, I was hooked. I finished the first course on drills, then signed up for her next courses on letters, words, majuscules, and flourishes.
It got me through that long, dark and frightening winter. I practiced calligraphy every night while watching TV, writing the words I heard. My sketchbook from that time is a jumble of phrases from the movies and shows I was watching at the time. It helped me feel connected - to myself and to the future. Both seemed so far out of reach.
My practice sheets from learning calligraphy: (left) learning basic strokes; (center) practice while watching TV; (right) learning pointed pen and ink. This process took more than a year. I took every class offered by Becca Courtice of The Happy Ever Crafter, then another by Lindsey Bugbee of The Postman’s Knock. See resources section below for more learning opportunities.
Breathing in, breathing out
Since then, I have learned pointed pen calligraphy, how to make my own ink, and how to create calligraphy digitally on an iPad. But I still use a simple brush pen every day when I set up my Bullet Journal in the morning, writing the day of the week at the top of the page, slowly and deliberately.
I was taught to breathe this way when practicing calligraphy:
Breathe in on the upstroke,
Breathe out on the downstroke.
This teaching reminds me of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s instructions on meditation: “Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.” This simple meditation has helped me in moments when I feel the world is spinning and I just need a moment to settle myself.
“Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.”
From Resting Poem by Thích Nhất Hạnh. How to Relax, page 14. Parallax Press, 2015.
Now, three years after I found calligraphy, I enjoy making calligraphy and watercolor illustrations for my shop and custom artwork for my clients. I also teach mindfulness and calligraphy workshops to share this simple and grounding practice with others.
I still have to remind myself to slow down, to take a deep breath, to become aware of the present moment. But I can honestly say that calligraphy helps me do all three.
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