Mediterranean Menu

Another place setting of my menu with a floral accent by Wylde.

Detail of the calligraphed menu and place card for the dinner party.

Raleigh, N.C. — I finished a commission of calligraphing menus and place cards for a client's Mediterranean-inspired dinner party. She sent me beautiful photographs of the pieces in situ at the dinner table. The hand-done menus and cards were greatly enhanced by Wylde's stunning floral accents and arrangements. 

View fullsize

Gag menu for my brother, one of the guests.

Since my brother was one of the guests of the party, I made a gag menu for him. Having grown up watching a lot of movies from the 1980's, the menu contained references to Revenge of the Nerds (a salad made from jock straps dressed in liquid heat) and one of our personal favorites, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (a boa with baby eels, broth of eyeballs, and chilled monkey's brain).

Hoarding Letters

Washington, D.C. — Lately I've been having a difficult time getting myself over to the post office to post my "A Letter a Day" letters, even though it's a mere 7-minute walk away. It must be the lingering winter, the snow, the grey skies that encourage this laziness.

I must say, though, one benefit of hoarding my letters is that I get to see the spectrum of colors in the letters I produce for the week. It's not an intentional thing, but somehow my mind subliminally chooses envelope and paper colors that complement one another. In this particular case, I chose colors that are very "springy". I must be really over the winter. After the snow we got yesterday, who wouldn't be.

Calligraphed envelopes of the blue-green spectrum

Illustrated envelopes with leaf and floral motifs

My Favorite Letters of 2014

Washington, D.C. — It's already March (!) and I'm over the 25% marker with my "A Letter A Day" project, a commitment of writing personal letters to family, friends, and Flourish Forum pen pals until the end of 2015. I'm really terrible at keeping resolutions or long-term personal goals, so this has been quite an accomplishment. Truthfully, I have never been so focused on anything like this before, so I'm excited to keep pushing forward, even if it means less leisure time, less sleep, less whatever it was I was doing before this.

In looking back at my previous letters, I thought it would be fun to post my favorite 5 of 2014. In writing letters, I try to "represent" the person that I'm writing to—in other words, do my best to capture his or her character, personality, or interests. It was difficult to choose 5 because each letter reminds me of something special about the people I write to, and I am truly grateful to have that opportunity to share my words with all the wonderful people around me.

The Shining Halloween card

October 31, 2014 — My sister is a horror-film aficionado, and we both love watching scary movies whenever we are at our parents' house. One of our all-time favorites is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. It was fitting to send her Halloween greetings with the iconic twins on the cover, and Jack Torrance's axe on the envelope. 

Knoll-inspired design

November 8, 2014 — A few years back, I became friends with a lovely architect over our shared interest in mid-century design and architecture. In writing her initials, I immediately thought of the historical Knoll logo and typeface. Not only was it fun to draw out her initials in a Knoll-style, but also to play with the translucence of the vellum envelope. The "KW" is actually on the front of the card, while her address is on the envelope.

Star-crossed lovers meeting for the first time: an idea that came to me in a dream.

November 11, 2014 — Nicole is one of the first pen pals from the Flourish Forum that I started doing letter exchanges. This was my first letter to Nicole, and for some reason, I woke up with this image in my head of a moonlight tryst between two people. I love the idea of treating the envelope as a film still, a story captured in one moment. The details are there, but the viewer has to fill in the gaps and figure out what that story is.

Kiki's Delivery Service envelope

November 21, 2014 — The great thing about this project is that it makes me aware of the people that I have lost touch with, and how I can reverse that by reaching out through letters. Instead of texting a happy birthday to my friend, I thought it would be more special to send a birthday letter with a scene from our favorite film, Kiki's Delivery Service, on the envelope. I love the single accent of red in the illustration. 

Kimono pattern-inspired envelope

December 3, 2014 — I love looking at patterns and textures in everyday objects. I had recently visited the Freer/Sackler and in their gift shop, there was a kimono with a pattern of undulating white waves against a mauve-ish background. When I started to address this envelope, I immediately thought of the kimono pattern but translated into gold ink on black. This has since become one of my favorite patterns and motifs to do on dark envelopes.

Custom-Made Wedding Ink

Washington, D.C. — I recently finished up a small wedding suite which included 26 invitations, with accompanying RSVP cards and envelopes. The invitation design included a monogram with the motif of clarinet (the groom) and percussion mallet (the bride), illustrated and produced each time by hand.

To add a bit of specialness to the invitations, I created custom-made Pearl Ex ink to complement their wedding colors of blue and white hydrangeas. With a vase of blue hydrangeas before me, I made several attempts at mixing light violets, blues, and micropearl Pearl Ex pigments to achieve the hydrangea ink. When I held the paper up to the light and the ink gave off a nice subtle sheen of periwinkle, I knew I finally got the right balance.

I don't know what it was, but I really enjoyed the Frankenstein-ish aspect of this process. It was very gratifying experimenting with different hues to create an entirely new color. It reminded me of trying to make new Crayola colors by overlaying one crayon color on top of the other, which usually didn't turn out as well on paper as it did in the mind.

The soft sheen of blue: the hydrangea ink on the wedding envelopes.

Stacks of Paper

Peer a bit closer: a single pencil, stacks of papers, and a pushed out chair.

Raleigh, N.C. — I visited CAM Raleigh to see Sarah Anne Johnson's Wonderland exhibition. One of her pieces, House on Fire, chronicles the disturbing experiences of her ill grandmother, who became an unknowing test subject in a CIA-sponsored psychiatrist's mind-control experiment.

Johnson cleverly uses a dollhouse to convey the twisted environment, with each room showcasing peculiarities of the psychiatrist's experiment. Her use of the dollhouse challenges what we normally expect to see and the associations we draw. Our warm and fuzzy childhood memories all give way to a feeling of dread as your eyes move voyeuristically room to room, bearing witness to the horror and perversity within. Miniaturized stacks of paper crowding a room and a single, lonely pencil on a table never seemed so ominous.

My brother jokingly commented that this must be what my office looks like.