Join us for a special LIVE Zoom session
Tuesday, May 16, 5pm MDT
Where Mike will share new paper cut designs, how he made them, and downloads for you to cut by hand or with your cutting machine. Mike will also review new works on the latest Padlet.
This workshop series with Mike Gold focuses less on pen and ink and more on cutting and pasting. So, if you want to try something different, this might be just the thing for you as we focus on building cut paper and collage lettering-based compositions.
We will look at some of the principles and ideas that guided Picasso, Matisse and others to create contemporary calligraphic art. Collage was key to both Picasso and Matisse in developing their work and modernist visual vocabulary and we will use it here, too. The work of master calligraphers Hans-Joachim Burgert and Myrlin von Glahn will be also be examined and used as inspiration. Each of the exercises will explore non-traditional layout and design using letters as shapes, textures and design elements. Demonstrations and handouts will guide you through the work.
You will come away with:
- Four artworks that feature cut paper and collage (two of each).
- A better understanding of composition, layout and design.
- Knowledge of the supplies, tools and methods for creating letter-based cut paper and collage designs.
- Handouts that will provide images and text designed to guide you through the exercises and in post-workshop work.
- BONUS videos and inspirational Padlets of student work to refer to.
Session Recordings and Materials
You can access recordings, supply lists, and bonus materials within your Library after you register. Access has been extended indefinitely! Yay!
And a second Padlet has been created to share and review new works.
Skills covered
Calligraphy, cut paper, collage, layout and composition, painting with gouache, acrylic and color mixing.
Level of experience
Some calligraphy experience is helpful, although less experienced participants are welcome, too!
Questions? Concerns?
Please email [email protected]
About Mike
Mike Gold worked as a commercial lettering designer for over 35 years, mostly in the social expressions business. But his real passion is exploring the corridors of calligraphy that have been less traveled, the path where words and letters are design elements with which to play with line, shape and form, where creating a visual statement is more important than writing a readable text. In both his professional and personal art, Mike breaks traditional rules to create contemporary, non-traditional work.
Collaboration has been a feature of some of his personal work. He especially cherishes the work and teaching he did with Judy Melvin and his 25-year involvement with Scribes 8, a collaborative group based in New Mexico. Over the last 15 years or so Mike has worked mostly on his own, developing a practice that builds on the traditions of the past, influenced by art and artists of all kinds. Being a calligrapher in the 21st century, Mike has matured at a time when calligraphers are moving calligraphy in new directions, creating new traditions, just as all artists have done over time. He still make beautiful letters and write out texts, but also explores the abstract, the illegible and the conceptual.
Teaching calligraphy to inmates at a women’s prison is his most unusual teaching experience. His most unusual commission comes from Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, who reproduced one of Mike’s designs on a line of clothing. Mike has an M.A. in Visual Communications and has studied with many outstanding lettering and design masters over the years. Mike has taught around the country and at several international calligraphy conferences. His personal work has been featured in Letter Arts Review many times over the past 25-plus years. He is the author of Lines to Live By (available through John Neal, Bookseller), which is Mike's take on being a non-traditional calligrapher in the 21st century.
To see more of Mike’s work, please go to his website https://www.mikegold-letterarts.com or check him out on Instagram @goldie2452.