Event :: Book Talk with Amity Parks :: Stroke Sequence - My Ramblings through the Alphabet
Date :: Friday, October 14, 2016
Time :: 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
R.S.V.P. :: Click here to R.S.V.P.
Location :: San Francisco Center for the Book, 375 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco
Presented By :: The Friends of Calligraphy & San Francisco Center for the Book
A slide-show presentation by Amity Parks of her calligraphic journey, showing why and how calligraphy has inspired and played a part in her life.
About the Artist
Amity Parks was born in the early 60's in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Her family moved often when she was a child, and she learned early on that the world is a wide and wonderful place to explore. In 1979, her family moved to Bonn, Germany. She was a teenager, determined to be an artist, surrounded by the greatest art treasures in the world. For Christmas that year her brother gave her a book called Italic Handwriting for Young People. That book sparked a lifelong interest in calligraphy/letter arts and she taught myself as much as she could by looking at and copying from illuminated manuscripts and from Edward Johnston's book Writing, Illuminating and Lettering.
Parks graduated from Bonn American High School and returned to the States for her college years. She completed her BFA degree from the University of Tulsa (Oklahoma) in 1986 with an emphasis in ceramics, thanks to the guidance of her mentor and friend, Tom Manhart. Because of its reputation as a hotbed for contemporary ceramics, she headed to Montana for graduate school. She completed her MFA degree from the University of Montana in 1989. All these years later she is still happily living and raising sher family in beautiful Missoula.
Calligraphy took a back burner during the 'ceramic' years, but after graduation she felt compelled to go back to it. She signed up for a local continuing education class, her first formal calligraphy class, taught by Sally Sanders. Through that class she joined the Missoula Calligrapher's Guild, and began participating in as many workshops and classes as she could. She was so inspired after one particularly wonderful workshop taught by Peter Thornton, that she quit my job, determined to become a professional calligrapher. Two weeks later she was offered a job doing graphics for a local sign company (an offer too good to refuse) and again calligraphy went back to it's place as her hobby. She continued to study and attend workshops, and has been lucky enough to take classes from many great calligraphers. In addition to Sally and Peter, her teachers have included Carl Rohrs, Yves Leterme, Brody Neuenschwander, Denis Brown, Julian Waters, Sheila Waters, Martin Jackson, Mike Gold, Mike Kecseg, Yukimi Annand, Annie Cicale, Eleanor Winters, Nancy Culmone, Alan Blackman, Anne Cowie and John Stevens, among others.
In 2009, after a Carl Rohrs workshop, she began getting up early to work in the studio before going to work every day. Since then she has spent nearly every morning from 3:00am to 6:00am, honing her skills and creating art work. By attending conferences, private tutorials and through pilgrimages to Cheerio Calligraphy Retreats in North Carolina, to study with world reknowed artists, she continues to fuel her passion for the letter arts.
Today her efforts are focused on finding her own voice amongst all of those powerful influences, and on creating work that is uniquely hers.
Thank You
Amity Parks' participation in the Book Talk series is made possible by the generosity of the Raymond Family thru The Friends of Calligraphy.