quick visits...

I did a very very quick trip to Sydney this week to meet Yves Leterme... for the uninitiated (eg all you non-calligraphy peeps) Yves is a spectacular calligrapher - known for his gestural calligraphic works that hover between the fields of art, craft and design. Yves lives in Bruges (which seems to have waaay more than its fair share of talented calligraphers.... like {gulp} Brody Neuenschwander...)

Yves and I have only ever traded emails and fb notes and such like... as you'd expect given the geographic distances... so when I found out Yves was headed this way to teach a series of workshops we hatched a plan to find a couple of hours in his busy schedule to meet....

so we sat for an afternoon and mulled over the future of calligraphy - and I admired his wonderful works - then it was off to Chatswood for his slideshow presentation - and dinner with the Sydney calligraphy mob...

had to share this moment where Yves chuckled at my 'oh no.... not a dead duck'
(there's nothing like a BBQ duck in the window to reassure a vegetarian...
not only did I have the 'what to eat?' moment - I had to decide whether I would sit facing the tank of live fishies
or dead ducks... hmmmmm.... decisions, decisions )

Got to say - it's wonderful to meet people who you've only ever traded the odd note - and find that they are indeed completely delightful. Yves is not only a fabulhoot calligrapher, he's a generous, easy-going, modest, erudite (my goodness how many languages does this guy speak?), funny, calligraphic superhero. 

Thoroughly worth the 13hrs of driving up and back to Sydney....

oh here's more Yves related stuff:
  2009 blogpost interview on calligraffia... (this is actually how we 'met) 
Yves website & new blog

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