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 I am a born artist and have a bachelor’s degree to prove it. That was the first thing working against me in the Pointed Pen workshop with Barbara Close, February 9 and 10, 2008. Second, I’m at a stage in my life where I can get away with mostly doing things I’m good at, which means I’m not used to being bad at anything. Third, I don’t take very well to instruction – even when I’ve signed up to be instructed. So imagine this certified artist and reluctant student sitting down to begin copperplate for the first time ever and not even knowing how to fit the nib into the holder. To her great credit, Barbara didn’t laugh but calmly showed me the proper way. But it got worse: I put pen to paper and was horrified at the crooked curves that stumbled out. Where was my artistic gene?
Humbled, I plodded through the workshop, thankful for Barbara Close’s gentle and very gracious guidance. What a teacher! What a wonderful combination of rigor, excellence – and rule-bending! First, Barbara made sure that we knew the principles and, like the best of teachers, demonstrated her own superb command of those principles. Then, to my great relief, she proceeded to show us different ways of bending the rules because let’s face it, copperplate is fine but that freewheeling contemporary version is a lot kinder to novices like me.
Apart from lettering, Barbara shared several other skills like how to make dot flowers, and elementary bookbinding. She was also very generous with words of encouragement and affirmation to everyone, stopping us every now and then to point out a participant’s beautiful work. I honestly didn’t think I’d have much use for pointed pen lettering before this workshop but Barbara was such an inspiring teacher that I’m determined to master both contemporary and traditional forms, and add them to my artistic vocabulary. Thank you, Barbara Close!!
Boatema Boateng
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