President’s Message / Legacies III International Conference

President’s Message - Ruth Rutledge

The world continues to be in a pandemic challenged by the Covid-19 virus, yet our members have remained committed, flexible and willing to share knowledge. To keep safe and socially distanced, our Executive and General meetings have been held via the Zoom app. With all the constraints, we remain a strong group of 76 members but are all in agreement that we miss being able to talk, meet and create together in person. Members have stepped up every month to provide stimulating and interesting programmes at our general meetings. Zoom allows these to be recorded and our members appreciate being able view them at a later time. My job has been made easier with the talents of Diana Carwithen, Barbara Qualley and Debbie Craig. They were able to learn the mystery of online communication to enable all of us to participate! Our Galleria may have been even better seeing the monthly challenge up close on our screens. We are so lucky to have Betty Locke to happily and gently critique our artwork.

Workshops were offered by Judi Hopewell (Italic on our website), Violet Smythe (Bensgothic), Marilyn Lundstrom and Betty Locke (Elegant Copperplate), and Suzie Beringer (Captivating Capitals). We enjoyed producing our Letter Crafting exhibition this year at Portals, the Cowichan Valley Arts Council venue, in April 2021. It too was socially distanced but it felt great to have the opportunity to show our calligraphy to the public. I thank our industrious and creative Executive who keep WCCV humming even though the year has been challenging. Too, I thank our members, new and old, who enthusiastically embraced Zoom meetings and workshops and continue to offer their Galleria artwork.

- Ruth Rutledge

The registration corral is now open for the 40th Lettering Arts Conference! This year, Legacies III is going live to your studio! It is an offering of entirely virtual workshops, lectures, demos, miniclasses! We have it all. Although it required a lot of quick thinking outside the box to reverse gears and turn a traditionally in-person conference into a fully virtual conference, we know you're gonna love it! This is Angie Vangalis' third rodeo as a conference director, and Sandy Schaadt has been her faculty side-kick since the Fall of 2019. A lot changed since then to convert it from the onlocation conference hotels we visited in Dallas that weekend to your own computer screen! Here is the link: Legacies III | Legacies III (calligraphyconference.org) You can go there now to view the list of instructors we have contracted to teach, but check back, because the list is growing daily! The arrangement of the conference is explained, along with the fee and the amenities. And the first 300 Early Bird registrations get a rootin-tootin deluxe Swag Box. Delivered right to their front door step! We can’t wait to welcome you to Legacies III!