Photograph by Tim Kao
Sunnyvale artist Carlene Fulton began learning the art of calligraphy 20 years ago.
By CRISTY SHAUCK
Twenty years ago, when coworkers asked Carlene Fulton to make the posters and signs at work, she thought, "I'd better learn how to do this right."
Fulton, a registered nurse who works at an oncology and hematology clinic two days a week, enrolled in a calligraphy class offered by the adult education system.
"I was hooked," says the Sunnyvale resident.
After completing intermediate courses, Fulton joined Friends of Calligraphy in San Francisco, then Pacific Scribes, a Bay Area organization which began in 1982 and includes calligraphy teachers among its members.
"I took workshops from them and attended international conferences," says Fulton, who is now membership chair for the 135 calligraphers of Pacific Scribes.
Art aficionados had a chance to view her work at the Visual Artists Association Summit at the Triton held on the grounds of the museum on the weekend of June 8-9. Organized to sponsor a greater awareness of art in the community, the summit featured artists of several media in a juried show.
In the beginning, the neophyte filled out certificates, name tags, place cards and wedding invitations. One of her first big corporate clients, an engineering society, comissioned her to write 500 certificates. Only a perfectionist could enjoy calligraphy. "I'll spend hours painstakingly writing a whole page of "A's" before I get one that I like to begin a quote," says Fulton.
"Anyone can do calligraphy, as long as they practice," she insists. "I rarely sit down and practice the alphabet. I write whole words to connect them. It's much easier to sit down and write a list of flowers: peony, rose, pansy, daisy. You get normal letter combinations that way."
In the last several years, Fulton has incorporated watercolor and collages into the background of works of art, showcasing her penmanship with famous quotations. Her first art sale was a small quote on friendship.
The artist incorporates found objects like feathers, jewelry, ribbons into her creations. "A lot of papers that have unusual textures or inclusions in them like fiber or strands of fiber, straw, or bark lend themselves very nicely to collage," she explains. "I frequently combine papers and acrylic washes or write in an acrylic paint or acrylic ink over a watercolor wash background."
She will write with real 24-karat gold on her next piece, she says.
A participant of Open Studios this year, Fulton has exhibited at the Pajaro Valley Gallery, the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, the San Jose main library and the Santa Clara County Fair, where she has won second and third place ribbons.
Her favorite quotes:
"Life is like an onion. You peel off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep." --Carl Sandburg
"In life as in the dance, Grace glides on blistered feet." --Alice Abrams.
Fulton's warning to would-be scribes: "The classes to get started are reasonable, but it's very insidious. You have to have every new toy and you soon find that writing on bond typing paper doesn't do it. You wind up paying $5 a sheet for the good stuff and spending a lot of money for things that you thought would be a cheap way to get into art."
The expense must be worth it, at least to her. "I love it," she adds.
"It's been my biggest source of joy in the last eight years. I like making things pretty. I love to see hand-done invitations."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 19, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.