Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023 - 9:48 a.m.

There’s the international calligraphy conference like the one I attended a talk at a few years ago when we were in the Pacific NW. I’ve been waiting for it to come close again and next year it’s in Iowa. But it would cost $2100 plus airfare expenses, so I probably can’t do it. I perhaps could if I did that instead of Wales, maybe, but those are two very different trips and I don’t know that I’d want to sacrifice Wales for whatever the calligraphy thing would end up being for me.

I had a brief moment of a vision, the kind of visual plus aspiration that serves as ambition for me. The moment I try to write it down, it sounds horrible and impossible. But it’s me, in a place, embodying some level of mastery and versatility and craft that I can’t seem to break down the steps to get there. What if I was actually good enough at anything to teach it? What if I knew things others don’t because I’ve made it my path to learn them? But that task is made of a thousand small ones and feels pointless and impossible by itself.

i took the jacket just now and tried to use some solarfast I had, and yeah, the image is decent and blue but also it didn’t clear the highlights well so that’s not a success either. I should probably put this one aside and start another. Before I waste a lot more materials on it.

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