My Reggie Year

This past weekend began the first of 6 weekends in a year-long workshop. 26 Seeds taught by Reggie Ezell. I'm both excited and nervous about this course. As calligraphers or lettering artists, there is no standard course here in the USA. We either learn on our own or through guilds, we take classes from master penmen and calligraphers. Some of the classes offer basic lettering instructions or variations of letter forms. Some classes are more artsy and don't involve lettering at all. We pick up our knowledge rather piecemeal. Sometimes learning to run before we thoroughly understand learning to crawl. The Reggie class is a back to basics, but also a chance for continuity with a logical progression.

I hope I can keep up. There's a ton of information to digest and an amazing amount of talent among the 22 students. There's an avalanche of homework. I'll do what I can. I have to remind myself I'm not in competition with anyone. It doesn't matter what rung of the experience ladder I'm on. Middle. Bottom. This course is a chance to push me in ways I've never been stretched. To learn and to hone my skills. To go back to school and learn the reasons why we do things the way we do. I'm old enough, now.