Exciting News!

Hi Everyone,
I’m blessed to have some amazing– and amazingly talented– friends, and I wanted to share something that my friend Debbie Cole is doing this week. In case you don’t know Debbie, she’s a world-reknowned decorative painter, and founder of the Creative Innovations group on Facebook. Creative Innovations is a place where artistswho incorporate some form of painting with stamps, stencils, and innovative products can share their creations and encourage one other.

Each month Debbie picks a theme for Creative Innovations… I’m thrilled that this month she’s chosen Pen Patterned Art and is going to be focusing on Zenspirations! Each day Debbie is planning to blog about a different aspect of my work: today it is patterning, Wednesday will be lettering, Thursday Coloring, and Friday Dangling.

One of the things Debbie has planned is a special giveaway of Zenspirations books, stamps, cards and other goodies! So if you are interested in learning more about my work, and finding out about the give-away, please check out Debbie’s blog: http://debbiecole.com/zenspirations/.
And I have more exciting news to share– thirty years ago, when I was a young scribe living in Philadelphia, the Hunt Speedball Co. asked me to help edit the 21st Edition of the Speedball Textbook for Pen & Brush Lettering. This was a huge honor because the Speedball Textbook was my first calligraphy book. In 1991, when it was time for the 22nd Edition, I invited my friend Judy Kastin to work on the book with me, and found her help invaluable. 15 years ago we collaborated on the 23rd edition, and (drum roll please!) Speedball just gave us the go ahead to begin work on an expanded full color edition of the 24th Speedball Textbook, which will be released in 2015 to coincide with the 100th Anniversary of the book’s debut!In addition to some updated and new exemplars, the “Centennial Edition” will feature an expanded history section showcasing additional pages from older editions as well as all new artwork in the “Gallery” and “Logo & Design” sections, and much more!

Judy and I are working on an official ‘call-for-entries’ with more detailed information, which will be posted on the Speedball Art Products website (www.speedballart.com) sometime soon. I’ll also try to post a link on my Zenspirations by Joanne Fink Facebook page (www.facebook.com/Zenspirations) and on the blog.The Speedball Textbook book has always been a reflection of the lettering of its time; Judy and I look at this special Centennial Edition as the collective legacy of our generation of scribes. It will be a record of lettering today and, we hope, an invaluable resource for students of all ages and levels. If you or someone you know would like to receive a call-for-entry via e-mail, please e-mail [email protected] and we will add you to the list.

Stay Zenspired,

Joanne