Scrambled Egg Decorating 101

In this DIY culinary clip narrated by Joe Emminger, artist Julie Paschkis dishes up a delectable hand lettered recipe for a perfectly scrambled egg. One serving guaranteed to please the whole family! 

Disclaimer : No eggs were harmed in the making of this video.

The Artistic Arithmetic of Mr. Ellis

The four lines inscribed on the front cover of this handmade exercise book do well to characterize its role and purpose: 

Let every day produce some curious Lines

Which may advance thy Genius and thy pen

Let all thy Undertakings and designs

Tend to God's Glory and the good of men.

This exercise book once belonged to William Ellis, an artistic young student who was studying his arithmetic lessons. It was excavated in Exeter, England years ago and now sits in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum archives. Ellis began his book in 1729, and filled it with his calculations, measurements, flourishes and ornaments. He then hand painted the same three additional colors onto each page with great attention to detail. Many pages had colorful display headings with birds, flowers and medieval-looking creatures. His hand-lettering skills were capable, but "needs improvement" as any teacher might well suggest. Neatness was not his strongest suit.

Exercise books in Georgian England were commonly used by school children to practice lessons plans while perfecting their art and valued penmanship skills. These talents indicated you were a literate person of culture and good standing. All learning had great value and was considered virtuous. Creating beautifully illustrated lesson books with polished hand-lettering was intended to honor content, while building good character.

It's always interests me to see how the student of handmade and lettered books would often parody the layout of traditional books by creating large headings, and decorated initial caps to announce the title or text. They comprehended the principles of how we read. Although there appears to be no contents page, Ellis did add small page numbers to the upper right-hand corners of each page for ease of navigation. It's revealing to see how he tried to contain each topic to a single page which takes a certain degree of organizational skills, but his calculations would often spill onto the facing page or into the margins. His wonderful illustrations have a folk style charm, and the freshness of a skilled draftsman with a bent towards fantasy illustration. Especially true of the unicorn and the polka-dot sailing ship. In the heading for "Subtraction" seen below, he portrays the letter S as a dragon. 

   
Although there is no record of the age of William Ellis when he made this book, there is little doubt he was a young student. I hope he received high marks for his work and continued his artistic endeavors. I would love to have seen an entire alphabet of his initials with birds and flora. Are those real feet on the letter M? You can visit his entire book here which has slightly larger images.

Camp Stories, Illustrated

This past January I lost my adorable, fearless mother, Gladiola Flowers, at the age of 85. She had an unflappable and enthusiastic spirit for life. At the age of 83, she chose to legally change her name from the former Gladys (Rasmussen) Robinson, as she wanted to become a perennial. She defied death several times and spent sixteen long years in a nursing home, living a rich, full life after Multiple Sclerosis had left her a near quadriplegic. Thirty years earlier, she took up drawing as a means of expression and of reconciling the profound loss of her mobility. She drew beautiful macro studies from nature mostly—gathering flowers, ferns and leaves as her subjects. But it was a series of unusual charcoal drawings she produced during that same time which I find most remarkable. With little training, she worked diligently over the course of one month to complete a set of thirty-two drawings from happy childhood memories living in the Northwest during the Hard Times of the 1930s. She kept a daily journal about this personal work, which is in a style best described as naïve "outsider folk art". Finding this journal recently, was like buried treasure. With her wry wit and love of family, she wrote to flush out the details and recollections of her 8 year-old self. After reading it, I was reminded how exhausting, yet therapeutic it was for her, and how overjoyed she was to take the task on thirty years ago.

     Because of the local history her drawings represented, I first approached Jane Carlin, the Special Collections librarian at the University of Puget Sound Collins Library in Tacoma, with the idea of exhibiting my mother's work. Jane happily jumped on board, and encouraged me to include some of my own artwork in the exhibition. Though I admit I was a little reluctant to do so—over time, I came to think of it as an opportunity. Since I relish all of her colorful stories, I decided it would be fun to explore some new work, and add my own interpretations of them.

During Summer months, Glad's family of seven lived in a rustic one bedroom cabin they lovingly referred to as "Camp". It was built by my grandfather, Frank Rasmussen, and his brother Axcel in 1910, and located at Sunrise Beach, just Northwest of Tacoma, Washington, on the waters of Puget Sound. It had no plumbing or electricity, but a view of Mt. Rainier from the outhouse, and an artesian spring for fresh water and bathing. My grandmother was a true pioneer, and would bake bread in a wood-fired oven, sew quilts for the beds from old blankets, and can Summer fruits and vegetables, while my grandfather worked as a carpenter building houses and commuting by a small passenger boat. They faired better than most during the Depression, as they had fresh fish from the bay, and fresh milk, cheese and vegetables purchased from neighbors with cows and gardens. The five kids would swim and play on the beach all day, or hike in the woods all Summer long. Nearly every Sunday they shared their bounty with up to thirty friends and neighbors at a long table on their front porch. In this image above, Gladiola is the devil girl in the middle, being scolded by her devoutly Baptist father during the meal blessing, while my poor grandmother is hard at work in the kitchen.

The Garness Place where the kids would buy vegetables and fresh flowers for mom. 

A bird's eye view of the beach and homes. Their "Camp" house was on far right. 

Glady fishing with her father and pup, Spunky, with toy boat in tow. She later added the smiley face on herself, and a cigarette in her father's mouth. He never actually smoked.

Gladiola at age 84, wearing her faux feather boa and red hat.

My mothers' "Camp Stories" has been a gift in so many indescribable ways. There were few family photos of this time, as this was beyond means; only the one photo above of my mother at age 4. I know I will be unable to complete all of my planned work before this exhibition opens, but those I do, I will share once the show opens. I expect to continue with more work in later months, as there is a wealth of material I would like to explore in different media and print processes. I'm delighted to be doing more creative work once again, and looking forward to where it brings me next. 
     My poster above provides more details of the exhibition which opens on November 6th, or you can visit the UPS events calendar. I will be giving a talk about the exhibit on Saturday, November 16th at 2pm in the Collins Library, room 020. All are welcomed!

A Diary of Young Immigrants

Just a small post today as I am taking Letterology on the road this week which happens to be in the land of the slow internets lane.
     This image was found in a 2010 auction catalog so it long ago sold surely. The two page spread above from an 1875 diary, was created by young siblings Jonathan and Catharine King of Lancaster County, PA. Their diary consisted of 42 pages total, with 25 illustrated, and described their daily chores, school, and playtime. It appears to be made using ink or watercolor illustrations in the traditional manner of the elaborately decorated fraktur manuscripts of the Pennsylvania Dutch families at the time. Birds were common illustration theme on many frakturs. For a brief historical description and more images of frakturs, please refer to this earlier post. 

The barely legible text printed in green reads: 
     here on this pae (page?) i clame
     A spot to rite
     these wordz
     forget me not and 
     if you do forget
     these words Please
     Blot them out and me 
     (illegible: forget or regret?)

The Alphabet Man

Little is known about The Alphabet Man, but he is seen here proudly posing with one of his rustic twig alphabets somewhere in Southern Kentucky in the 1940s. Perhaps his name was just Mr. X. Below is another original twig work he assembled and mounted on a painted white board. All letters are original except the "H" which is a contemporary replacement. The board is 46 x 16".
:: @ Cottage + Camp via this American Folk Art dealer.