spring has sprung!

The other day, while rooting through boxes of old photos looking for vintage pictures from high school to post for my facebook friends, I came across this:


It's a vintage sheaf of xeroxed calligraphy from back in the old days, when Dave and I worked with a ragtag bunch of our compadres at a hole in the wall print shop in San Francisco, owned by Dave's former brother in law.

This portfolio of sorts belongs to an old and dear friend of mine who has since gone on to become a successful graphic designer and artist.

These were some of her first efforts at calligraphy and design for customers at the shop, and I think they have a certain sweetness and innocence to them...these days any 3rd grader can put together a pretty professional looking flyer for a grocery store on their home computer, but back then, setting type was an expensive proposition, so hand lettering was certainly a cheaper and more creative option.

But I think my favorite sample in the lot was a hand lettered original poem that I've never forgotten all these years later. It's really the perfect poem for today, the first day of spring:

I sat seeking inspiration

and someone must have told

because the day put on a show for me

at first nearly deafening me with

the sudden outcry of watercolor

(still dripping in its newness)

then its perfume brushed me,

weaving around knees

slithering through toes

as I inhaled a breath of song

(and I must say it did tempt me)

but

I think it was the blue flavor

of the wind juice,

harmonious on my tongue

that made me decide

to eat spring.

~

Diane Fassler, 1975

cheers!