ruth.venner's photostream  

Artist calligrapher currently living on Macleay Island in Moreton Bay, but have lived in many beautiful places including Mapleton in the Blackall Ranges (Sunshine Coast Hinterland), Hervey Bay, the Whitsundays and Uki and Pumpenbil in the magical Mount Warning caldera in northern NSW.
Adelaide SA was where I began my calligraphic journey, and I had a studio in the prestigious Jam Factory there. My influences are both Western and Eastern - Donald Jackson was my first teacher in 1984, and Dr Lawrence Chan has been my friend and mentor since 1988. Through him I have visited China on three occasions and met many artists and calligraphers particularly in the school of Wu Changshou (1844 - 1927) whose museum in Anji has always been included in our itinerary.
I am however basically self-taught, or as my friend Vida says 'auto-didact'. One of the best things that I ever wrote about myself was for the Contemporary Craft Exhibition at the Festival Theatre in Adelaide in 1988:-

"Calligraphy is much more than just beautiful writing. When my interest in calligraphy began I had no idea how it would ensnare me and open my eyes to so many things - how it would inspire me, make me despair, make me love the truths it showed me......
Fate took a hand and events saw me working for myself as a calligrapher and teaching in late 1982, early 1983, at a time when I was really searching for a teacher myself. I still am.....
I just wonder where I am now and where I am going, and why, but I do think that as I am working with words, I have to believe that I really have something to say. And I just have to keep going, striving, searching and hoping that I will be able to fulfil the potential that is mine"

Nothing has changed.

FOR MORE PHOTOS of my work (taken by Melanie Cook 'Wiccked' and displayed on flickr at a time when my web presence was almost negligible - my thanks go to her) click on
www.flickr.com/search/?q=ruth.venner&w=68676385@N00