UPPERCASE #43

hand letter

43

for the C R E A T I V E and C U R I O U S

BO O K S

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK A multi-volume book series released in whimsical (nonalphabetical) order on all manner of intriguing and creative topics.

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43 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019

Sam Johnson-Clubb MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA

Ella Lama MANILA, PHILIPPINES

I’m an artist and printmaker working in Montreal. I studied printmaking at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, UK. For Lettering Love I wrote my response to the call from UPPERCASE in reverse (I’m left handed and have always been able to mirror/ back-to-front write). I transferred my hand lettering piece onto a sheet of lino, which I then carved, then printed through my baby press onto Kitakata paper. I used a small hand roller to distribute the relief ink on the plate before I began to print.

Lettering has always been more than an art form or skill to me. As a self-taught artist, I felt a deep sense of insecurity about putting my work out in the world. Are my forms correct? Do my marks make sense? Is my work good enough? That is, until I tried lettering. I conquered my fear of making and sharing my art by lettering quotes and phrases to motivate me to get up in the morning and do the work. Exploring letterforms and layouts helped me build my confidence and find my tribe, and eventually it became my gateway into illustration and entrepreneurship. Aside from the inspiration I derive from the words I draw, lettering has taught me that patience (in developing my skills) and resilience (in pursuing a creative life) will propel me forward just as much as natural talent or formal training will.

@sam_johnsonclubb

@ella_lama

ARE YOU NEW TO UPPERCASE MAGAZINE?

S T U D I O . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

EDITOR’S LET TER . . . . . . 3 SUBSCRIPTIONS . . . . . . . 7

Hands On: Making Community All Hands by Kendra Dosenbach Crave Workshops by Agnes Pierscieniak Hold Fast Studio School by Carrie Jones

SNIPPETS . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 U P P E R C A S E C I R C L E . . . . 10 E R R AT U M . . . . . . . . . . 11 R E C O L L E C T I O N . . . . . . . 12 N O T E D . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A B E C E D A R Y . . . . . . . . . 14

G A L L E R Y . . . . . . . . . . . 26

STITCH . . . . . . . . . . . .

Abecedary of Handwriting History by Correy Baldwin

Hand Lettering Submissions by Readers

Signature Quilts

by Linzee Kull McCray

B E G I N N I N G S . . . . . . . . . 16

C O V E R A R T I S T . . . . . . . . 40

CRAFT . . . . . . . . . . . .

Christy Batta

Making a Life

by Melanie Falick

Embracing Failure: A Path Toward your Unique Voice

by Maria Carluccio O R I G I N . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Markers Text by Correy Baldwin F R E S H . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Faye Guanipa Namasri Niumim

COLLECTION

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42

Inkwells

by Paula Montgomery P A R T I C I P AT E . . . . . . . . . 46

Handwriting Analysis

by UPPERCASE Readers D I S C O V E R . . . . . . . . . . 60

Sheldon Rose

by Kerrie More

LITTLE U

P O R T F O L I O . . . . . . . . . 68

Q+A with Lettering Artists Mary Kate McDevitt Alexandra Snowdon Kelly Klapstein Becca Clason David Grimes T Y P E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Showcard and Sign Painting

by Christopher Rouleau photos by Becca Gilgan

H O B B Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Graphomania

by Brendan Harrison SUBSCRIBER S T U D I O S . . . . . . . . . . . 112 C O V E T . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

C R E AT I V E C A R E E R . . . . . 92

Looking for Signs

by Andrea Jenkins

B U S I N E S S . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Ann Mahony The Forgery Sleuth

B O O K S . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Creative Hand-Lettered Brands

by Arianne Foulks

L E S S O N . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

L I B R A R Y . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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Learning Cursive Handwriting

by Finley Dresser

The UPPERCASE Encyclopedia of Inspiration

Little U, the offspring of UPPERCASE magazine, is an occasional publication for the young at heart.

(Think of it as a smaller and cuter version of UPPERCASE!) With childlike wonder, Little U explores making, designing, illustrating and living. Highlighting children’s books, surface pattern design, clothing and product design for young folk, and arts and crafts inspired by and/or made for children, this publication inspires and informs professional creatives and families alike. littleumag.com

TH A N K YO U UPPERCASE

201B – 908, 17th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2T 0A3 J A N I N E VA N G O O L

publisher, editor, designer janine@uppercasemagazine.com

Thank you to the many talented contributors, creative collaborators and loyal readers who submitted to this issue. uppercasemagazine.com/issue43

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I N S TA G R A M

CORREY BALDWIN

copyeditor CORE CONTRIBUTORS

Jane Audas Correy Baldwin Andrea D’Aquino Melanie Falick Arianne Foulks Joy Deneen Glen Dresser Brendan Harrison Andrea Jenkins Linzee Kull McCray Andrea Marván Kerrie More Emily Orpin Lydie Raschka Christopher Rouleau Laura Tarrish

@ S I O B H A N WAT T I L L U S T R AT I O N

@T HI S CO L L AG EL IFE

T H A N K YO U Thank you to everyone who submitted to the open calls for this issue. Even if you weren’t featured within these printed pages, your effort was noticed and appreciated!

UPPERCASE has the best readers in the world.

Printed in Canada by The Prolific Group.

Interior pages are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled Rolland Enviro 100. @KADMIUMDESIGNS

Give this magazine a long life!

The content is evergreen, so we hope you’ll revisit it over and over again. If you’re done with it, please pass it on to a friend or colleague who might enjoy our content, or cut up the pages and create some art.

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Make connections, nurture your creative spirit and grow your business!

The UPPERCASE Circle is a vibrant community hub.

One that is a valuable source of motivation, inspiration and encouragement for like-minded and kind-hearted creative people from around the world. Although the community is initially brought together by its support for and appreciation of UPPERCASE magazine, the Circle will enhance your experience of all things UPPERCASE while providing additional value to your creative life through conversation and sharing of knowledge.

• Connect with members of the UPPERCASE community—both near and far—who share your interests.

• Share your work with your peers, mentors and potential customers.

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• Future UPPERCASE Circle features in the works include live video conferences and video chats.

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Access to this community is FREE when you subscribe to UPPERCASE magazine. uppercasecircle.com

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INT

RIGUING

BITS AND

PIECES LEARN

COLLECTED DURING THE MAKING OF THIS ISSUE

THE CALLIGRAPHER’S BUSINESS HANDBOOK B Y M O L LY S U B E R T H O R P E The Calligrapher’s Business Handbook is a guide to best business practices and pricing strategies for calligraphers and lettering artists. Whether you’re starting out in creative freelancing, transitioning from a different profession or running a lettering business that just needs a boost, you will welcome the invaluable ideas in this handbook. My entire goal in writing The Calligrapher’s Business Handbook was to answer all the FAQs I’d heard from my students and peers over the years; to clarify misconceptions about the business side of hand lettering by creating a guide to the best practices and pricing strategies of successful, professional lettering artists. mollysuberthorpe.com

FINE ART

Bottled Feelings Bottled Feelings is an exhibit focused on the art of lettering and the feelings we carry but cannot say. This exhibit is fully funded by a Kickstarter that was created by Toronto hand lettering artist Doris Wai, owner of Love Lettering, who wanted to know, if she could create more with her love of lettering, could it create a conversation? A meaningful moment? With 189 backers and numerous anonymous submissions of bottled feelings, this is truly a collaborative project.

For exhibition dates and details, visit lovelettering.ca.

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THE XO PROJECT NIKI MALEK Niki Malek of Hey Lux will write your message in calligraphy and mail it on your behalf. “The XO project is dedicated to connecting humans through the lost art of crafting a message for paper and the joy of receiving an unexpected envelope in the mail,” she says. heylux.co

MAN’S BEST FRIEND

PERSONAL

HAIR OF THE DOG

BY MARK CONAHAN Found a hank of my Border Collie’s tail hair and made a brush. Dipped it in some homemade walnut ink and tried some letters. It’s part of a “poster a day” project I have been working on after seeing someone else’s efforts on the Internet. I’m using my own typeface designs, illustration, photography and letterpress printing, as well as hand lettering and calligraphy. antigravitypress.com

MEMORIES SETTING SAIL

BY MARDY SEARS

SKETCHBOOK LETTERS

BY JÜRGEN VERCAEMST I’m a classic-schooled calligrapher and studied with Brody Neuenschwander, Yves Leterme, the Boudens family, Peter Thornton and Carl Rohrs, but to name a few. I’ve been exploring the pencil all of my life and I love to draw letters. I’ve been teaching them home and abroad. These are some pictures of a Moleskine notebook that I’ve been keeping for a little less than 10 years. @jurgen_vercaemst

In December 2017 my sisters and I had to move our parents (who are in their 90s) to assisted living and had to clear out their home. A wooden ship project had been sitting on my father’s workbench for years unfinished.

For many years I had an idea to construct a boat “book” with my father’s memoirs on the sails. My parents lived on Cape Cod and our family goes way back to sea captains in the area. I worked on the project last week, working on the rigging and sails while on vacation with my sisters on the Cape. The sails are made of cotton paper that I made years ago and I sewed seams to create the larger sails, then wrote excerpts from his memoirs in pen and ink. I made it for my sister, but brought it to show my father and he loved it—he refuses to part with it! indiacloudhouse.com

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C I R C L E

Pincushion Exchange CREATIVE PROMPT

Circle

The previous issue of UPPERCASE included a study of the ordinary, the mundane and the everyday.

One small, pretty and useful thing that many of us use daily is a pincushion. It’s a simple place to park your pins and needles but it can actually be quite unique and special. The fabric, shape and embellishment offer infinite opportunities for creativity!

Their small size makes them inexpensive to make—and easy to mail! So I thought it would be fun to host a pincushion exchange here on the UPPERCASE Circle.

C h r i s t i n e To u f f l e t

We paired up dozens of Circle members in this Creative Prompt; here’s a small selection of what was made and given. See more in the online community.

Become a Circle member by subscribing to the magazine!

Kathryn Lissack

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Lela McKee Friel

Tr a c y D a w n Brewer

Amy Mundinger

“I loved this exchange and hope you will have more exchanges on Uppercase Circle. Brought me back to having a pen pal when I was a little girl!”

— AMY MUNDINGER

Jess Blackmore 10

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Diana Kelley

E R R A T U M

Dawn Pearcey VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

I used to paint only with watercolours, carefully drawing lines and filling in shapes with controlled washes. I would get so nervous about making mistakes my hands would tremble and sweat, and the fear of wasting paper and precise effort stopped me from exploring my creative self. My paintings had a stilted sameness that matched the anxiously contained days of my personal life. A need for certainty blocked the growth I could achieve in self and art through the making and experiencing of mistakes.

I decided to try many different mediums and concepts without fearing the lack of control and unknown outcome. I gessoed old cookbook pages, working into them with pencil, ink, acrylic, pastel, collaged papers and stencilled lettering. I incorporated ephemera and words from my old journals, giving voice to a submerged self. Peeling, scratching and sanding the layers became an outlet for the nervousness in my body, the paper a stand-in for my skin. My hands and creativity flourished.

Yet my inner critic still came knocking: you can’t mix those mediums, you can’t peel those edges, you can’t show your crazy self.

I worked in a frustrated state, believing my art to be a visible mess of conflicting styles, materials and emotions. But the markings were like scars that held both error and grace in the painted surface, and people began responding to my work in a way I hadn’t known before—with emotion.

Flexibility and self-trust open you up to spontaneity, but they also hold you steady when doubt arrives. I repeatedly asked other artists which mediums and processes they used, believing there would be one perfect answer for each question. Instead there were multiple answers and even more questions. What is perfect? What is a mistake? Who decides?

Peggy Dean PORTLAND, OREGON, USA

In studying the life around us—in nature, in buildings, in people and in otherwise overlooked details— urban sketching challenges us to see with fresh eyes.

Sketching on scene is a whole new way to record memories. Taking photos is lovely, but sitting down with a sketchbook on location gives us the power to record exactly what we see through our own eyes and allows us to connect with the energy within the handdrawn snapshot. Just as nature is imperfect, illustration finds the peak of its beauty in the imperfections through this art medium.

In fact, the more imperfect these pieces are, the more the eye is drawn to their character and what makes them unique. thepigeonletters.com

I’ve always loved rusted metal, chipped pottery, old wood, crackled paint, torn paper edges. There is textural soul and poetry in broken down surfaces—they are unfinished and complete at the same time. I varnish my work now, settling imperfections into the painting’s story and concluding my quest for a perfect ending. dawnpearcey.com

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RE C O L L E C T I O N

Sidney Bernstein 1 9 0 0 –1 9 9 6

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BY KAREN ROEHR

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his hand-lettered alphabet was created by my gramps Sidney Bernstein when he was 91.

Gramps created special hand-lettered birthday cards for me from ages 7 to 17 using whatever materials he had in his “studio” (his “sh—t room” in the apartment he shared with my granny—that’s what she called it. It was often a creative mess). The materials he used were: magic marker, paint, coloured tapes, construction paper, paint chips, metallic tape, cardboard and wire. My 12th birthday card’s wheel rotated and there was a $10 bill under it!

GRAMP’S GREETINGS

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Sid Bernstein worked for National Screen Services, lettering movie posters and films titles, for which he never received credit. A die-hard New Yorker, he retired when the company moved to California in 1969. Yet he managed to pick up other freelance jobs well into his 90s: barrels for the old Steak ’n Brew restaurant chain, logos, a hand-lettered “A” square for the AIDS quilt for a neighbour who lost a son to the illness.

He loved New York, its museums and culture. He was kind hearted and socially conscious and once refused to take a raise in pay unless everyone in the company got one. My grandmother marched herself into his boss’ office and insisted he put that raise in Sid’s paycheck. He adored my grandmother, to whom he was married for 66 years. He died less than five months after she did. These birthday cards and this alphabet remain dear to my heart.

N O T E D

Letters of Note ||| MARY ANNE LLOYD I received my BFA in graphic design but my love of design alongside my love of drawing, painting and anything created by hand eventually morphed into illustration. For over 25 years, I have maintained a career as a professional illustrator. Interested in both illustration and graphic design, I found a way to weave communication, hand-lettered typography and illustration concepts together. This handwritten letter was created during an artist residency at the Hewnoaks Artist Colony located in Maine. We had no connection with the outside world and this became my form of communication. maryannelloyd.com

||| SUE BLANCHARD I think of lettering as illustrations, and when I’m stuck creatively, I always start with drawing letters. I’m an illustrator and designer living in Los Angeles. My work is greatly inspired by both the urban setting of LA and my childhood in North Carolina. As a result, I live and create within two styles: one being playful, graphic storytelling illustrations and the other an homage to my love for vintage, rustic folk art. Both embody a warmth and uniqueness that makes my work both familiar and fresh. soobee.com

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BEGINNINGS

||| ARTICLE AND ILLUSTRATION BY

MARIA CARLUCCIO |||

T

aking risks is hard for anyone, but for creatives, it seems like there is a lot more there than meets the eye. Taking risks in your art will undoubtedly unleash a lot of struggles. The crazy thing is that the struggle is actually greatness in disguise. The ways we wrestle with our art—that is what gives it a sense of individuality. But the road to great art is a long one, and it requires us to examine the art we deem as “bad.” Sure, we intend to make awesome art going in, but the reality is that this journey will yield a whole lot more than we ever would expect.

This brings me to a specific dilemma that I encountered when I started teaching illustration to college students. As a teacher, I would ask my students to create “successful illustrations,” or “portfolio-worthy art,” but at the same time I would ask them to explore and experiment. It seemed many students really resisted experimenting, and I wondered, was I asking them to do two opposing things? This was when I realized that it is important to make art that makes use of what we are already comfortable doing, but we can’t stop there.

In order to develop a unique viewpoint, it’s also important to follow one’s own curiosities, wherever that might lead. This is where “failure” comes into play. Our failures inform us of who we are, providing important signposts along our creative paths—in other words, they help us discover our own way of processing the world.

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F R E S H

Faye Guanipa WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, USA

I am a freelancing artist and the owner/designer of a small stationery and paper goods company, Olive & Company. I work from my home studio in Worcester. My artwork is bright and colourful, and is inspired by a vintage and mid-century aesthetic. I love to paint and draw many subjects and take great delight in beautifully designed homewares and paper goods. I hope to expand my creative repertoire through more collaborations, licensing and larger brand name clients.

Some of my dream clients and collaborations would be with Anthropologie, Target, Oh Joy!, Hygge and West, and The House That Lars Built. I would love to see my work on fabric and clothing, home goods and wallpaper! fayeguanipa.com @fayeguanipadesign

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Namasri Niumim AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

I’m an illustrator from Bangkok Thailand. I’ve been living in Hong Kong for five years and recently I moved to Auckland, New Zealand. I enjoy illustrating plants, birds, floral motifs and scenes, I love travelling and get inspired by places where I’ve lived and that I’ve visited.

My dream clients are book publishers and my favourite magazines that I’ve dreamed to work for one day are UPPERCASE, Flow, Frankie, Penguin Books as well as greeting cards publishers. namasriniumim.cargo.site @namasriniumim

ALPHABET BY

NAMASRI NIUMIM

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C R E AT I V E B R I E F

Hand lettering is the art of drawing letters to express emotion, deliver style and communicate ideas.

It is illustrating letters.

How does hand lettering make words more impactful or inspiring? How can lettering create a mood or express emotion? How do you use hand lettering in your own creativity? We asked readers to hand-letter their answers!

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Cate Anevski PORTLAND, OREGON, USA

Both the written word and the art of illustration are ways to communicate your ideas from afar. The elements of both of those skills can feel like magical seeds, and there is nothing more elemental in writing than the alphabet.

By hand lettering our words, using fundamentals of art like composition and colour, we are able to communicate even more clearly our thoughts and the emotions that go along with them. @beeskneesindustries

GALLERY

Amy Cipolat TORONTO, ONTARIO, C ANADA

While I have sketched and enjoyed playing with letters for most of my life (my aged grandmother once referred to my birthday card envelope work as “graffiti� when I was a teenager), hand lettering as an art is a relatively new pursuit for me. I am thoroughly enjoying immersing myself in the practice, learning to balance precision with freedom as I define my style. What I most love about hand lettering is the character that it adds to the words that I create; I find that you can say more with it. Hand lettering boosts meaning. @waywithletters

Sara Elisa Verona

Lori Siebert

S CHIO, V ICENZ A , ITA LY

CINCINNATI, OHIO, USA

@saraelisaverona

@lorisiebert.studio

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Christy Batta

was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis back in 2011 when I was 23 and was experiencing a numb and tingling sensation on my skin that spread from my midsection to my whole body. I learned that this was caused by my immune system attacking the myelin coating on nerves in my brain and spine, which then makes the nerve signals cause all sorts of symptoms, from numbness and pain to mobility and cognitive issues.

Ever since, I’ve been on disease-modifying therapy drugs that have helped me keep the nerve damage from the disease stable, but I still live with day-to-day effects in the categories of fatigue and anxiety. I’ve learned that because of all the energy it takes for my body to run somewhat normally through the damaged or “frayed” nerves in my central nervous system, I need to be really smart about how I use my energy, because I can run out of energy faster than most people and when I run out it takes longer for me to bounce back. The anxiety comes from feeling so unsure about how my disease will behave over the years and how it will impact my life and loved ones.

Hand lettering came into my life around 2015.

I was working on a logo design project for a local friend (Amina Ahmad of Handmade Habitat) that ended up using hand lettering in the design. Amina and I realized we both were interested in practising hand lettering more but had a hard time doing it on our own. For me, it’s definitely challenging to commit to a hobby when I know it will often get pushed to the side by all the ordinary tasks that take up my energy first. But we decided to meet once a month to practise lettering together and hold each other accountable. We started inviting friends and the meetings grew into an informal club, now called the Unofficial Hand Lettering Society of Silver Spring (ssletters.com).

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A R T I S T

Making a habit out of hand lettering helped me keep up with it because it was not completely up to me or my disease whether I would letter or not. I know that even if it is just the one day a month we have a lettering meeting, I will have a chance to play. And having a community of letterers to play with helps motivate me even on my lowest, most worn-out days.

I have since learned how perfect hand lettering is for someone like me. Because the set-up and clean-up are so minimal, I feel like it doesn’t compete with other things I need to get done in my life. I can do it anytime and anywhere so the flexibility helps me make little tiny spaces in my day to do something quick and rewarding. For whatever energy it takes to do, it gives me back a lot of energy in terms of uplifting inspiration and releasing negative feelings and fear that I can express in my practice.

I tell people I make my inky, messy lettering for anyone who has been through something. I developed this lettering style during my 2017 100 Days of Health Stuffs project, when I shared hand-lettered Instagram stories about living with multiple sclerosis as a #100daychallenge. At the time, I had a lot of feelings to work through, because the health care political debates going on in the US caused me a lot of anxiety about my security in being able to access health care as a person with a pre-existing condition. Through this project, I learned that lettering helps me a great deal with observing and acknowledging the fears that often weigh me down. Even though making myself vulnerable by sharing can still be a difficult exercise for me, I do it so others going through similar challenges will be able to feel seen and not alone in their experiences.

HumanPlusKindCo.etsy.com @humanpluskindco

P PO OR RT TR RA A II T T B BY Y M MA AR RY Y G GA AR RD DE EL LL LA A P PH HO OT TO OG GR RA AP PH HY Y

C O V E R

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L E S S O N

My name is Finley E. Dresser and in 2019 I was in grade 3 at Sunnyside School. But why is this so important you may ask? Well it’s cause that’s where I learned how to do cursive handwriting. (And many other things.) My grade 3 teacher Ms. Salhab taught us how to do cursive. At first I thought it would be hard. (But fun.) I thought it would be hard because it would be like memorizing two different alphabets. (52 letters.) But in many ways it was easier than I thought. But my hand often got tired so that was kind of annoying. I was looking forward to the new letters. When we did a new letter I thought this isn’t too hard. To practice, and to not waste a lot of paper, we got out mini white boards and white board markers… on the smart board Ms. Salhab would put up the letter that we were going to learn. She would draw it out and we would copy how she did it. Whenever we finished our worksheet I felt accomplished… I did it yes! But then we kept on going. But that was only lowercase letters… that means 104 letters total! (Lowercase, uppercase, cursive lowercase and cursive uppercase!)

That’s a lot! But some letters are almost the same as the big uppercase version. I also had no idea that the lowercase f was so big and the g was so simple and fun. It was great learning how to do cursive.

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ST U D I O S

Mohammad Barrangi WAKEFIELD, WEST YORKSHIRE, UK

Mohammad Barrangi Fashtami is an illustrator and printmaker originally from Iran and based in the UK.

Sarah Bertochi MARLBORO, MASSACHUSETTS, USA

My name is Sarah Bertochi, or as my friends like to say, “Sarah B.” I am a surface pattern designer and printmaker. I block print and/or screen print my original designs on fabric, which are then cut/sewn into small accessories and handbags.

I am super proud of that fact that every aspect of my process is made by my own hand: I design the fabric pattern, print the fabric, and cut and sew each item myself.

I am acutely aware of doing my part (however small) to reduce my environmental impact. I do this by printing with water-based eco-friendly inks, using all natural materials, such as linen or cotton, and incorporating recycled fabrics for all my interior linings.

Barrangi’s work combines elements of Persian calligraphy, storytelling and text, and touches of humour. Using a unique creative process, with handmade traditional calligraphy pens and a blend of mark-marking styles, Barrangi creates small pieces and often expands these to largescale murals. He achieves this through an exploration of laser photocopying, calligraphy and collage. Fusing these elements in one process, he creates works that encompass a range of disparate visual motifs, each holding separate connotations of specific eras or cultures, but creating a unique, cross-cultural style in combination.

Barrangi regularly exhibits in the UK and internationally, and his work has been featured in multiple publications and festivals, and has garnered multiple prizes.

These include the Muestra del IV Premio International, Tragaluz; Pressing Matters; Shape Open 2018: Collective Influence; Illustrate 2018, Portugal; Art TSUM, Kiev; Ratata Festival, Macerata; the 6th Tokyo International Mini-Print Triennial; Bologna Illustrators Exhibition 2018; and Story Museum, Oxford. mobarrangi.com @mohammad.barrangi

My designs are aimed towards women who want to “Live Everyday Brilliant.” sarahbertochi.com @sarahbertochi

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C O V E T

PHOTOS AND STORY BY

ANDREA JENKINS

I

brake for fresh produce. Or, perhaps more aptly, I brake for hand-painted signs. Travelling north on Georgia’s Highway 80 recently, I spied one such specimen. PEACHES AT RED LIGHT, it announced, colossal in size, the poppy red letters a nonsensical mix of upper and lowercase forms. Before I could even get the words out of my mouth, my husband flicked the turn signal and gently steered the car towards the shoulder of the road. I hopped out, and waded through tall, papery weeds to photograph yet another hand-painted sign.

When I’m asked what I plan to do with all these photographs, the answer is always the same: I don’t know. I just know I like them, I’m drawn to them. Proof of their existence brings me joy and, in some cases, a strange sense of hope. Who has not been charmed by a hand-painted roadside sign advertising fresh produce? Peaches, apples, cherries, watermelon, tomatoes, ears of corn (and, if you live in the American South, boiled peanuts and Vidalia onions)—all nearly impossible to resist. But for me, the pull extends beyond the cheerful promise of the fresh and juicy to the sign itself—the colours of the paint, the materials used, the unintentional personality in the arrangement of letters and words, the unmistakable (imperfect) human touch. And it’s not just fresh produce signs, it’s hand-painted signs communicating anything. It’s not just the work of amateur sign makers, but the seasoned artistry of trained sign painters too. When I stumble onto a beautifully hand-painted sign, it feels a little bit like I’ve won something—the prize, a momentary connection with the handmade in a world mostly drowning in the convenience and economy of digital.

I live in the suburbs of a major southern city amidst a massive, tangled mess of big box stores, fast food chains and McMansions. I do not love it. But it’s where I live right now and I find myself on the perpetual lookout for evidence of the handmade—proof it exists even in the most monotone of places. At the top of a mental list I’ve been keeping is an old wooden sign about two miles from my house. It sits on an overgrown corner, the halfway point between one fast-food hub and another. In creamy yellow, uneven letters it reads, “local honey for sale.” A chunky arrow ambiguously points the way. Insignificant as it may seem, it’s a small daily beacon of hope, a reminder that the digitized signs of the world hold no candle to the warmth and vitality of hand-painted ones. Today, a hand-painted sign is like green growth that pushes up through the cracks of an impossible sea of concrete. You can’t help but notice it, respect it. You root for it, celebrate it. You may even find yourself pulling your car over on the side of the road to take a picture. Something for you to keep and remember, always.

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