EACH OF OUR HIGHLY-RESPECTED FACULTY HAVE DEDICATED DECADES OF EXPERIENCE AND PASSION FOR HAND WRITTEN LETTERFORMS. THEIR WORK DEEPLY EMBODIES AND DISPLAYS THE MERITS OF A STRONG FOUNDATION OF STUDY
Michael Sull is an IAMPETH master penman and author living in Mission, Kansas, United States. An expert on penmanship, he was Ronald Reagan's calligrapher after his Presidency and is known worldwide for his skill and teaching ability. He regularly teaches handwriting, calligraphy, and engrossing programs throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Considered America’s foremost living Spencerian penman, he is author of Spencerian Script and Ornamental Penmanship, Learning to Write Spencerian Script, and American Cursive Handwriting, and publishes various other educational materials focusing on pen writing. He also manufactures period style oblique dip pen equipment for use by penmen today.
Barbara Calzolari is an accomplished and talented Master Penwoman, living in Bologna, Italy. She has been working full-time as a professional, freelance calligrapher for over 15 years. She combines a passionate, technical and artistic approach to every style she learns--and generously shares both the practical and philosophical aspects of her knowledge with her students. She has been recognized by IAMPETH as a Master Penwoman and is fully accomplished in a wide array of pointed pen, broad pen and brush pen mediums.
Pat Blair has been a professional calligrapher for 29 years, and currently holds the position of Chief Calligrapher at The White House in Washington, DC. Her work has been published in Letter Arts Review, The Calligrapher’s Engagement Calendar, Scripsit, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Tabellae Insatae. Sharing and teaching what she loves is a high priority, and she teaches at the Loudoun Academy of the Arts in Virginia, and has been on the faculty of several International calligraphy conferences. Pat has served two years as President of the Washington Calligrapher’s Guild, been Chairperson of The Graceful Envelope Contest, and has been Co-Director of Letterforum, the 26th International Calligraphy Conference. Pat’s love of pointed pen lettering led her to her study of copperplate and spencerian letterforms. The International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting recently awarded her the honor “Master Penman” for her work in this area.
Giovanni has been a professional calligrapher, type designer and teacher since 1990. He is one of the founders of the first modern Italian Calligraphic Association and leads their specialized courses. He teaches calligraphy and type design at the New Design University. If you're not yet familiar with Giovanni and his work, you are in for a wonderful treat. He has dedicated his life to the formal study of traditional calligraphic letterforms and designed several digital fonts. He won the Art Director’s Club prize in 2002 for his type system Rialto DF. He is also skilled in chiseling letterforms in stone. Among his most accomplished students are Italian calligrapher Luca Barcelona and Italian Master Penwoman Barbara Calzolari. His work is immensely steeped in the tradition of historical lettering and richly imbued with his heart. Currently living in Austria, Giovanni was raised in Italy. He says “Stop writing with your mind…Write with your heart!”
Bio: Tom Kemp first saw an edged brush being used when he was sixteen years old, having started his calligraphic training four years earlier with an edged pen. It was a stunning moment, watching these huge, black, glossy, swelling strokes appearing effortlessly through the dust on an old blackboard. He realised then that he had been using the wrong tool! Something about the flexibility and precision of the brush entranced him and he rushed to the local library to study one of the very few copies available (at that time) of Edward Catich’s book, The Origin of the Serif. Several years later, he felt confident enough to start teaching the ‘Trajan' script which Catich had rediscovered, and even to try to improve on and refine his ideas, leading to Tom's own book, Formal Brush Writing, in 1999.
What followed was a long period of doubt about the entire modern calligraphic enterprise. He stopped formal writing and started using the brush to make ‘writing without language’, a kind of abstract painting which used all the knowledge he had gained about the use of tools, media and surfaces, and about how one's own body and mind work in conjunction with these three.
Five years ago, he began to learn another surprisingly calligraphic technique: making ceramic pots on a wheel. He now makes porcelain vessels as surfaces on which he continues to 'write' with an edged brush.
Gemma Black is an artist, teacher and calligraphic-designer from Tasmania, Australia. In 1991 Gemma received a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study in Europe. She is an Honoured Fellow and Fellow of the Calligraphy & Lettering Arts Society, UK. Gemma teaches for organisations throughout Australia and has also joined the faculty at international lettering-art conferences in Italy, Germany, the USA, Canada and the UK. Her work is housed in private and public collections including the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, the European Parliament, Letterform Archive San Francisco and Parliament House Canberra. Her area of expertise is calligraphic history, evolution of the western alphabet from the Roman period through to the 21st century. Gemma shares her passion and love for letterforms with enthusiasm and gusto!
