Who doesn’t have fond memories of camp? I think about it every time I go camping. And this looks like a lot of fun!

SAW, or Squam Art Workshops is located in central New Hampshire, just south of the White Mountains with visual arts and writing workshops for the creative spirit. There is a fall session approaching in mid-September, for a full list of available classes click here. Unfortunately all of the classes have closed, but there is always next year!

Cottages are scattered among shorefront pines and granite outcroppings. Each cabin is unique, but most have a working fireplace, a screened-in porch, and an antique ice box. This looks like heaven!

Finally after a few months, a new interview has arrived on LetterCult with John Solimine, the brains and hands behind Spike Press. His work is creative and inspiring and although I don’t like posting too many images, you can always view loads more at his website. And don’t forget to read the interview on LetterCult.

I love the long and narrow format posters, shown below. So beautiful especially with the kraft colored stock!

Is penmanship in the past? See an interesting video abourt cursive handwriting loses importance in schools. So sad. “Getting by” is mentioned when it comes to schoolling and really ticks me off. No child or person should be just “getting by” whether it has anything to do with penmanship or not. Terrible.

View the video here.

I’m always blown away by the penmanship I’ve seen on vintage cards and letters. It seems that everyone back then knew how to write beautifully and legibly. Not like some of the slop that I’ve seen today that isn’t cursive but is considered legible. Despicable, if I were writing my playmate of the month stats my turn offs would be sloppy handwriting, smoking and non-stop talkers.

Charles Demuth was an American talent who was born and remained in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Most known for his work, Figure No. 5, a great indicator of Pop Art, Demuth was also credited for developing a painting style known as Precisionism, where American landscapes were depicted in precise, sharply defined, geometrical forms.

Charles Demuth’s life spanned from the early 1880′s until he passed in 1935 due to complications of diabetes. His career was peppered with praise from the New York Times, several museums and the love, respect, and company of fellow artists Georgia O’Keefe, Arthur Dove, Charles Duncan and many more.

The 1920′s launched his art from still life watercolors into the theme of industrial America using oils.

“America doesn’t really care – still, if one is really an artist and at the same time an American, just this not caring, even though it drives one mad, can be artistic material.”

- written to Stieglitz in 1927

He took what was familiar and made it famous with a painting technique that is celebrated in museums today. Although heavily influenced by his time in New York and Paris, he remained true to his hometown which later exiled him when he became bedridden and cut-off from the art world.

When posed with the question should one move to New York City or another design-savvy city? I say stay true to who you are and express what is familiar and with what has made you who you are.

Sources / More Information

The Demuth Foundation

Wikipedia

Mark Harden’s Artchive

I love Pennsylvania, not so much for it’s frigid winters but the area in which I grew up was filled with picturesque landscapes, pennsylvania-german folk art, homegrown foods, and the ability to go to a large city within a few hours drive. I always wondered about any other artists that may have grown up in Pennsylvania and how they maintained their indstury connections while living in the “country.”

Today begins a new series where I will (do my best to) feature one new artist each and every month on artists who have chosen to live and work in this keystone state of ours. I hope you enjoy it and I will try to include as many designers as possible but this may be more fine art focused. If you have an suggestions or recommendations, feel free to send them over!

Photo by Mike Seigafuse

“How often we see design that has no meaning: stripes and swash of color splashed across pages for no reason whatsoever. Well, they are either meaningless or incredibly vulgar or criminal when done on purpose.”

Massimo Vignelli on design semantics in his downloadable PDF titled The Vignelli Canon.

A very well written article is now available over on the FontFeed (the blog of FontShop) about the various weights and styles that can come in any type family by Yves Peters. Styles, Weights, Widths; It’s All in The (Type) Family focuses on several things, one being the mention of difference between obliqued and italicized type:

While an oblique looks like a slanted version of the roman weight, an italic has a different design. Most notably the double-storey lowercase “a” and “g” turn into single-storey forms, although some designs preserve the double-storey “g”.

Don’t miss the handy list of typography-related abbreviations on Unzipped, something that can be useful!

I love when an article, book, blog post, podcast focuses on a designer and what they have gone through to get to where they are now. I especially like this article, Drawing Board to Desktop: A Designer’s Path on the New York Times where Michael Bierut remembers the days where his career began.

Like a chef, I brought my knives with me.

I didn’t begin my career in the way that Mr. Bierut did, but that is how my study in the field of design began. In tenth grade I opted to enroll in the Commercial Art program which was part of the Vo-Tech program in our county that allowed me to pursue a field of interest. We did paste-ups, color theory and much more. We dabbled on the computer but it wasn’t the sole tool that we relied on like today. I too, have my T-square (although it’s stored in a cabinet) and I still enjoy my sketch book to avoid a complete overload on my brain from the glow of the monitor. Great article, highly recommended reading!

Still, I wonder if we haven’t lost something in the process: the deliberation that comes with a slower pace, the attention to detail required when mistakes can’t be undone with the click of a mouse.

Who? What? Where?

Guerilla Girls is a fierce group of women exposing unfair treatment with facts, humor and … gorilla masks.

Guerrilla Girls, Inc., www.guerrillagirls.com, was established by two founding Guerrilla Girls and other members to continue the use of provocative text, visuals and humor in the service of feminism and social change. They have written several books and create projects about the art world, film, politics and pop culture. They travel the world, talking about the issues and their experiences as feminist masked avengers, reinventing the “f” word into the 21st century.

They may wear masks (and for good reasons) but their words and messages should not be taken any less seriously. For more information visit their website.

Thanks to FFFFOUND!

Meet the company who won the bid to print the invitations for the inauguration of President Elect, Barack Obama. Precise Continental, a 26-year old printing company has won the bid to produce one million gold and black engraved invitations. How exciting!

Courtesy of The New York Times.