I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post (sorry!), but I have been busy with all kinds of things. One thing I've been trying to do is bring some order to the room I use as my studio. In the process, I came across an "illumination" that I got at an arts festival years ago, long before I started participating in festivals. I liked it so much, I framed it and hung it up in my studio. It's a take on illuminated manuscripts created by monks when they had to record scripture by hand. They would go way beyond the painstaking task of just writing page after page; they would also decorate the pages with illustrations related to the text they were copying. The most famous example of an illuminated manuscript, I believe, is the Book of Kells, located at Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland. We made a point of seeing the Book of Kells several years ago when we were in Ireland, and it was lovely. If you visit, you can only see two pages at a time. By that, I mean that the book is open in a display case, and every day, someone turns a page to display for that day. So, if you visit on Monday, then return on Thursday, you will see different pages. Anyway...my little discovery was a prayer for animals by Albert Schweitzer, which someone reproduced in calligraphy, then added charming little watercolor illustrations. It even has a gold-leaf looking "H" at the beginning. I don't know why I stashed it away and left it for so long, but I'm glad I found it, and I thought I would share it with you. I only wish that I had taken the picture of it before I framed it, because the reflection on the glass required me to take the photo at weird angle. I hope you like it:
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