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Historical recollections for TCG
by PHYLLIS PETERSEN   August 2003

Okay, I am finally getting around to this. Sorry it took me so long. Here are some recollections I have. In some cases, I will not know specific dates; only general ones. I assumed when younger I would remember many details that my current colander mind has long forgotten.

First, my last name is misspelled often in the history as already written. No biggie usually, I don't even bother correcting people; but if it is gonna be a formal history, I would like to have it correct. PetersEn is the correct spelling, NOT PetersOn, so it is correctly spelled Phyllis Petersen.

I had many photographs of some of the early days of both CLAS and TCG. Many years ago, I sent them to Laurie Graybeal (Charlotte) for a history of CLAS that was being written at the time. I never got them back. I never saw any history that may (or may not) have ever been written. Whether Laurie still has those photos or whether they were passed along to some other CLAS officers, I do not know. I do know they included photos of many of our first TCG workshops. I do have some ‘leftovers’ that were not sent and I have taken photos of those and included them in this document. I will gladly give (most of) these photos to TCG if desired for the history. These are the last vestiges of photos that I have of those early days.

EARLIEST RECOLLECTIONS

CONTACT WITH CATE PARRISH / MICHAEL HUGHEY CLASSES - One day in (I believe) 1979, my phone rang. The caller introduced herself as Cate Parrish and stated that she had gotten my name from the Office of the Governor of North Carolina as the person who did their calligraphy. She had gathered a few names from other inquiries and wanted to gather some people who might be interested in a workshop to be given by Michael Hughey of Asheville, NC. Cate grew up in Asheville and one of her sisters had been a classmate of Michael’s. Michael had returned to live in NC after many years away (most recently California I believe). I also seem to remember (but if this is used, it should be confirmed by Michael) that he worked in California doing, among other things, movie titling.

Michael’s first workshop was a two (I think) day class on Uncial held at Sertoma. Except for Cate Parrish and Belinda Ferro, I don’t remember who else was in the class. I can however, squeeze a visual of the classroom and it seems to me that approximately 5-8 people were in attendance. I do remember a state of panic as the workshop was ending that second day. I was in my realm and LOVED it and did not want it to end. I was so thrilled to have found like minded people and others who understood my love of this medium. I know I shed a few tears at its ending.

Michael returned for a second workshop at some point and taught Roman Caps. The date totally escapes me but I do have a couple of photographs of this class that I kept. One shows Michael and 9 class attendees. So that class had a total attendance of 10 students (the 9 shown plus me who took the photo).

L to R / Standing: Belinda Ferro, Sherry McCulloch (Elizabethtown NC), Cate Parrish, Michael Hughey, unknown, Lynn Belvin, Unknown.

A second photo I have shows those same people around a table with Michael demonstrating. In that photo, Tim Johnson is among the group. At that time, Tim was minister of a church and was visiting the class; his duties at the church prevented him from attending the workshop I believe. Another male (visitor?) is shown in the same photo but I do not know who he is. He either came with Tim or was maybe the spouse of one of the attendees.

L to R / Seated: Jean Williams, Unknown, Robin Noel (later Robin Noel Britt)

FIRST MEETINGS - My memory is very fuzzy on the dates of our first meetings – 1979?. I do remember meeting at Cate’s home on several (2?) occasions to organize the local guild. At some point someone (Cate? Betty Simpson?) arranged for us to use the facilities at Sertoma Arts Center which was/is a city facility. By that time, interest had grown. We had our first ‘formal’ meeting at Sertoma and I do remember both Cate and I were thrilled at the turnout. If I had to guess, I would guess that 20 people were there, maybe more. It was the first time I met Tim Johnson; I remember that I sat beside him. I think Ellen Holding was at that first meeting as well. If she was not, she was at one of the next ones; I know I met her very early on. Ellen can be a quiet one-not quite as loud and boisterous as Tim or myself. ;oP````````

Dorothy Ellwood I think needs to be mentioned in our history. I am unsure of her title at Sertoma but whatever it was (Director? ), she was a major factor in encouraging the guild and other activities that our fledgling group had. She arranged and coordinated all of our workshops at Sertoma. She was not a calligrapher but was so instrumental in supporting our ideas. She was a quiet lady with a lovely English accent who was an angel to this group of fledgling calligraphers. Our guild meetings for as long as she was there, were held at Sertoma without charge. The classrooms at Sertoma were ideal for our workshops, lots of light and huge windows with views of the nature surrounding the building. I know that later the city of Raleigh began charging for use of that facility and priced themselves out of the market as far as TCG was concerned; but in those heady days, we might not have existed had it not been for Sertoma and especially Dorothy Ellwood. Dorothy arranged shows for us onsite. I have photographs of one of them. She facilitated the workshops taking care of the nuts and bolts and the mundane. She contacted instructors and handled the money bits. It was superb to be part of those most wonderful days.

Bettie Simpson, a fledgling calligrapher as well as a part time employee at Sertoma, at some point (again date unknown) taught a paper making workshop at Sertoma. I remember we all brought blenders and just played all day. Bettie’s daughter had moved to Charlotte and had a stack of checkbooks with her Raleigh address on them. Sometime during the day, Bettie threw those into the blender along with other papers. Lo and behold, the letters from those checks did not disintegrate but sat on top of the papers made with them. So we all got lovely papers with teeny tiny letters floating all over the papers. I know I treasured all the papers made that day but those with the tiny floating letters most of all. We did not use a size in any of the papers that day so the paper was not ideal to be written on. However they made lovely background and accent papers. I used up all those papers in the intervening years. Oh how I wish I had saved a few of them. Oh yes, by the way, I tried a few times to recreate some papers using checks to get those same floating tiny letters. It never worked. I assume the printing processes used by the companies that furnished checks changed and it never worked that same way again. What can I say, except it was a magic day of papermaking and the floating letters papers were a big part of the magic.

KATHLEEN - I only met Kathleen once. I do not remember her last name. Cate Parrish might. Kathleen was an older lady (in her 80’s? 90’s?) who attended one of the meetings at Cate’s home in our earliest days. When it came time to have our first meeting at Sertoma, Kathleen could not attend. Cate made a card (I have a photo) and some of us signed it, and Cate delivered it to her. This photo is blurry.

BOOKMARKS - I also have one photo remaining (the rest went in the group I gave to CLAS) of bookmarks many of us made and brought to (I think) that first meeting at Sertoma. This photo is very blurry (the best were sent to Laurie for the CLAS history).

LOCAL CLASSES - Belinda Ferro taught Foundational as a beginning class at Sertoma for many years. I taught an Italic class. It was billed as an advanced class one could only take ‘after’ taking Belinda’s class. I don’t (again) remember the dates but in both classes, I had 10-15 students.

FIRST SHOW/EXHIBIT AT SERTOMA - I have 9 photos of the pieces from this exhibit at Sertoma in 1983. There were approximately 20-25 pieces in the show. I don’t remember the other contributors. I did 8-9 of the pieces. I do recognize a couple pieces by Tim Johnson. Here are 4 of the photos.

HISTORY5

HISTORIC MILLBROOK AND VALENTINES – In 1982, as a fund raiser, the guild did basic valentine designs as cards and bookmarks. These were printed so the artwork was all in red. The papers used were some sort of (inexpensive) cardstock; some were on pink cardstock; others were gray. In addition, I also printed a Mother and Father valentines on my gocco printer.  I still have and can provide to you some of these valentines. I also have a trifold brochure about Historic Millbrook. Torn down by developers quite some time ago, it was at the corner of Millbrook and Spring Forest. We were provided a space in one of the businesses there; The Doll House, if I remember the name correctly. We charged a nominal fee of $1.00/each to personalize the valentines for those who wandered in. We had info about the guild available as well. We were not the main event but we were a very popular one! Someone took polaroids pics of me. Ye gads! I am scary looking in those photos!

HISTORY6 

The next photo is a sampling of some of the valentines we used and personalized. None of the ones shown have been personalized. They are simply the ‘forms.’

HISTORY 7

ARTPLOSURE - For 2-3 years, from the beginning of Artsplosure, I would take my writing board downtown and just sit and write to drum up interest for the guild. I had some type of brochure people could take if interested.  I don’t know if (and if, who) might have done this after I stopped. I know I did it for 2 years and I think I did it a 3^rd  year but I am not sure of that 3^rd year. I have one photo taken from behind by a passerby (who happened to be a friend of my parents).

HISTORY 8

Another thing I wrote at that time was a piece I have scanned and am including here. I still have the original, written on simple graph paper while people stood behind and beside me.

HISTORY 9

I also remember writing at some sort of battle reenactment where people were dressed up in uniforms with the ladies dressed in the finery of the period. I don’t remember much about this except that it was most likely arranged by Lynn Belvin. She was into geneology and reenactments. Writing outside presents it own limitations. Ink dries much faster so one cannot pull hairlines out of wet pools of ink, even slight breezes blow papers around so everything must be ‘nailed’ down, etc.  I seem to remember that the reenactment was held at Sertoma but I could be wrong about that. No pics of that.

THE LETTER OF THE LAW - I have both the original, pasted up artwork and 1 copy of the trifold brochure done for this ‘84 show. I wrote the headings and the sub-info was typed similar to the way I did the newsletters. This was, of course, long before the days when all of us had computers. The brochure:

History 10 

I entered 3 pieces in that show. All 3 sold. I never knew who bought them and wish I did. I also wish I had priced them higher! I only have one (very bad) photo that someone took of one of the three and I don’t even remember what the others looked like; nevermind what quotes were used, etc.

ROBERT WILLIAMS WORKSHOP - I remember taking Robert Williams workshop. I even still have some of the decorated and gilded letters I did in it.  I think that Walter Brown had something (a lot?) to do with bringing him to our area from Chicago. Thank you Walter! I have a Certificate of Achievement done by Robert that states that I earned 1.5 CEUs from North Carolina Central University, Durham NC, in Nov 1983. I think that is the only time I earned college credits for a calligraphy class/workshop. I am sure that Walter arranged that as well.

EARLY WORKSHOPS - In the early 80’s I attended the national calligraphy conference held in Philadelphia PAIt was there I met Denys (which is actually a variation of the spelling of the name Denise but everyone calls her simply Deny) Taipale. She has since married Stan Knight (former President of SSI in England and author of “Historical Scripts” (not the full title but I don’t have it in front of me at present). So Denys is now known as Denys (Taipale) Knight. In addition, others whose work I admired at that conference and that I highly recommended come to Raleigh for workshops including Thomas Ingmire, Mark Van Stone, and the late, great Dick Beasley. I also attended Sheila Water’s two week workshop held at her home where everyone camped in tents in her large acreage backyard. That is quite a story in itself. I am glad to say that all eventually came to Raleigh and taught workshops here.

DENYS TAIPALE (KNIGHT) - Denys taught two workshops at Sertoma in December 1982. In the weekend workshop, she did a series of broad edged brush strokes with variegated gouache colors. This was the basis for doing broad edged brush Roman Caps. After doing those, she gave that work to me (for being her hostess). Later, after the workshop, I wrote into the spaces of that piece all the info of things we did in that class including participants names, home locations, quotes and verses we used, topics (italic handwriting, flourished italic caps, etc) we covered, where we ate Saturday night dinner, and references to some silly things. I still have that piece matted and framed. There were 22 students. It is quite an historical record of that one workshop. Wish I had done something similar for all the others I have attended over the years. I would be glad to share this (and other early things I have from others) at a guild meeting sometime. Below is a photo of Tim and Deny and on the next page is a photo of that piece with Denys’ brush strokes and my additions to it.

History11

Denys is a person full of energy and every minute was full of information. That is one of the things I loved about her in Philadelphia and why I wanted her to come and teach in Raleigh. She was also quite a taskmaster. She gave homework every night (even on the Saturday night when we all went out to dinner together!). She is the only instructor I ever had who did that. I will have to admit, even as hard as it was for some who were tired and who had families vying for their attention in the evenings, we covered a LOT more because of that. I could not wiggle out of homework as some could because I was her hostess. Her workshops were packed jammed and we all ended up with lots of pieces, most finished. A few were of the this-can-be-finished-later-but-never-are variety. On this page is a photo of one of our homework assignments. The middle is written in pencil and a bit difficult to photograph and read. I think you can make it out however.

During Denys’ weeklong workshop, one homework assignment had to do with a long poem titled “Clooney The Clown.” We each drew a verse from a hat and were to write out our verse (in any manner and size we chose) and do a collage using magazine pages for some type of drawing to accompany our verse. The assignment did not allow us to cut things out of a magazine (such as a clown) and use that. We had to create a clown (if that is what we wanted to do) out of torn pieces of paper. Nothing could be cut; it all was to be torn. I have photographs of each page that was created and they are included on the next two pages. Some of them are quite creative and inventive. I think all of us, at whatever level of expertise, were quite taken with the variety and creativity shown by each person. I can identify who did some of the pages but I don’t remember which person did each of them. 

This is the end of my recollections of those earliest days. If we could track down those photographs I sent for the CLAS history, we would have better photos than the ones included here. Also, we would have a more complete history. I know that photos from some of Peter’s earliest workshops in Raleigh are included among those photographs.

If you have any questions, of course, please feel free to ask. I look forward to reading the final history and the memories of others involved in those early days. Thanks for taking this on Ken. I appreciate your time and efforts in coordinating this project. 

Phyllis Presnell Petersen
scribe55@nc.rr.com
484 Lennox Drive
Fayetteville NC 28303
910 867-0772