Bookish Mary

Virtue : Behaviour showing high moral standards; a quality considered morally good or desirable in a person; a good or useful quality of a thing.   I wasn't looking for virtue when I found it while walking down Sussex Drive.  I looked up through the pouring rain and found it stuck to an office door.  So if you're looking for virtue and are unsure where to find it, it's located on the second floor of an office building on Sussex Drive in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  Good luck!  ILLUMINATION  I continue with the illumination class - only two more to go.  It has been a great experience and a very creative one.  Once finished and I start to think about different kinds of projects I want to incorporate these techniques into, I'm sure my imagination will take off.   This M, for moon, is a replica from a 1521 L'Arte Della Stampa, Ventiis per loannem Antonium.  A set of illuminated letters for manu...

I recently started a decorative lettering and illumination class at the local art school.  We have been decorating letters and wandering into the world of bestiary.   Practicing Decorated Letters  This letter started out as an M.  We decorated the background of this beautiful Canal paper from St. Armand's Paper, in Montreal.  I added a border and painted it and the letter with a gold calligraphy ink.   When I turned the letter upside down, it looked much better as a W.     The letter L was the second letter I decorated.  I used water colours and acrylic paint for the colours and a pigment pen for the decorative drawings on the top, bottom and sides.   We moved into hidden letters.  Here is my hidden b.  For this one I used an imitation gold leaf for the top background, acrylic bronze for the bottom and water colour for the parts in between.   This was a more contempo...

I met Jacob and his mom in the market enjoying the spring day and some ice cream.  He very kindly let me take this picture of his fabulous blue moustache.  It made my day.   NEW WORK: THIS WOMAN'S SOUL  In 1907 Dr. Duncan McDougall of the United States did a scientific study to identify the weight of a human soul. Although his results were inconclusive, due to a very small study group and weighing inconsistencies, his paper on this subject was published in 1907 stating the human soul weighed 21.3 grams. I am currently reading about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Life As A Work of Art by Rüddier Safranski. Goethe was an individual who talked about and believed in the internal world of a human, which I relate to the characteristics of the human soul. Anaiis Nin also talked about her internal world and called it her Spirit House. A quote by Audrey Hepburn on the soul: " The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode but the true beauty in a woman is ref...

Spring has arrived, on the calendar, anyway.  In the city, we are still experiencing the frothy flurries from Old Man Winter.  Mistress Spring has not made her big entrance, although she has seeped into the edges of some days with her warmth and beautiful sunshine.  I have taken up the call of the printing press and entered a class to learn printmaking.  These techniques will be a beautiful addition to my bookmaking.   NEW ARTIST BOOK: Symbiosis  This book has been influenced by the milkweed plant and the importance of its relationship to the monarch butterfly.   There is a symbiotic relationship between the Monarch butterfly and milkweed plant.   They share similar biological elements. In their life cycle, each has a pod which nurtures and transforms egg and seed to full maturation. Silken threads securely wrap the caterpillar in the Chrysalis allowing transformation to butterfly. The seeds of the milkweed are attached to sil...