Shaping a Landscape

turns out, you can always go home again

A ghost sign in St. Augustine, Florida

Greetings friends, and happy last day of March! I am once again waiting until the last day possible to send out this month’s newsletter - nothing like a self-imposed deadline to get my rear in gear!

It feels like I'm finally coming out of the other side of what I'm calling the "pet loss grief tunnel" - things are feeling slightly less foggy, and I'm a bit more present in my day to day life. It helps that the sun is starting to stay out longer these days, and every tree is blooming in the Pacific Northwest. I'm currently writing this from Seattle, where I'm spending the last weekend of March teaching a hand-painted signs workshop to a group of ten students. I'm grateful to be able to travel and share my trade with people who are thrilled to be learning it.

MEANDERING THOUGHTS

Earlier this year I made a trip to visit my parents in the town where I grew up - St. Augustine, Florida. (The nation’s oldest city! - a historic beach town on Florida’s northeast coast.) This trip reminded me of something I’ve wanted to bring up in this newsletter - the role of the sign painter in shaping the visual landscape of a town.

About two years ago on a trip to St. Augustine, my parents suggested that I go and visit their local sign shop (since I'm now a bona fide sign painter myself) and have a chat with the owner, Darrel Galles. Being business owners themselves, my parents had known Darrel for a long time and had him make their signs over the years. (As soon as I walked in the door, Darrel mentioned he remembered me coming into his shop when I was about 5 years old!)

Darrel's specialty was sandblasted wooden signs - you can get a sense of his design & layout style by looking at some of his work below - it fit perfectly in the historic sections of town, and he got a LOT of work over the years, since he was essentially the best sign maker in town. I’m using the term sign-maker here because painting was only one part of his process. And one of the reasons Darrel stayed relevant and working over the years was that he also used vinyl when it became necessary to do so. (NE Florida still hasn’t quite caught up when it comes to the resurgence in popularity of hand-painted signs.) But even when using vinyl, Darrel’s signs had beautiful layout and stayed true to his design sensibilities.

Every sign I saw in his portfolio was like a trip down memory lane - so many spots I remembered from my childhood. It got me thinking - before I was aware of this trade, or knew anything about sign painting - one guy in town was hand making all of these beautiful signs. ONE SINGLE PERSON essentially shaped the entire visual landscape of my hometown. That truly blew my mind. Now think about all of the small towns across the country that had one or two sign painters, making their mark, and how many people just kind of go about their day without realizing what’s going on behind the scenes!

I know it's something that really is a given - when I drive around Portland and see signs that I've painted, or my peers have painted, I feel a sense of pride, and logically I understand this concept. But there was something about learning who the sign painter was who affected my core childhood memories that really smacked me in the face, and made me appreciate smaller-town sign painters who have been doing this for decades.

I've included a few photos below of Darrel's studio - it was a quick impromptu visit, and now I wish I had gotten more pictures and asked so many more questions! But Darrell and his wife were lovely, and he generously gifted me SO many reference books, and a set of his old brushes. He's since retired and shut up shop, and I hope he's enjoying his well deserved time off!

Darrel’s studio: a sand blasted sign on the exterior, and an interior shot of his woodworking area

I took some quick shots of signs from his photo portfolio (look at how the surface gild on Bagels GLOWS!) - and The Great Ballpark Frank was the first carved sign he made early in his career

On the left is a shot of St. Augustine’s historic St. George Street - you can see how Darrel’s signs have shaped the entire look of the street. On the right is a framed piece that he had hanging in his studio (a great marketing tool) - this is just a fraction of the signs he’s made over the years.

IN THE STUDIO

There’s a curious phenomenon that happens every Spring - as the natural world begins to awaken, so do business owners and their need for new signage! It’s always funny to me how many projects that have been put on the back-burner get “re-ignited” during this time of year. It can be a challenge for me to maintain a steady pace, and not get too overwhelmed by this busy feeling (sometimes it can feel like an avalanche of work tbh), but it always works out, and I am grateful to have wonderful clients who want to work with me! And I often find that this feeling is almost entirely mental - once I get in the studio or on site, the work always goes more quickly than I imagine it will.

Spring also marks the start of my teaching season - I’m in the thick of it next month, and I’m noticing myself becoming more comfortable and confident in my role of “teacher” - although it feels more akin to being a conduit - passing knowledge of the craft to another person, rather than a hierarchical structure. All of the upcoming workshops that still have space left are listed at the end of this newsletter, if you are ever interested in joining me!

WHAT I’M LOOKING AT

I bought myself these two INCREDIBLE Taschen books late last year and have been thumbing through them recently. They've already inspired some design and illustration work that I’m doing for a local cafe, and they’re just SO beautiful to look at:

Somewhat related, a client recently came to me with vintage cocktail napkins as inspiration for new signage. We ended up using the scalloped borders as a starting off point to create some really cute decorative panels to accompany lettering on their windows:

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION

And now for a round up of workshops and events!

This Saturday, April 5th from 5-8 PM I’ll be at World Famous Original & Upstairs Basement (4831 SE Division) for the group show, Flowers on the Wall - curated by my studio-mate Rachel Murray!

The Her Formation Show at the Arts Council of Lake Oswego is up through April 11th - Morgan Ritter has curated an absolutely gorgeous show, and I highly recommend going to see it! AND I will be teaching a one day brush lettering class at their space on April 19th - if you’re local to Lake Oswego please join us!

On Wednesday evenings from April 30 - May 21 (6:30 - 9:30 PM) I’ll be at Wildcraft to teach a four week Sign Painting class. I love spreading this workshop out over four weeks, it seems to let students sit more fully with the material and process - and there are plenty of spots still open!

I’ll be back at Outlet PDX teaching Hand Lettering & Sign Painting for RISO workshops on both May 3rd and September 20th - these are one day workshops focused on lettering techniques for RISO printing. FYI they do require that you’ve taken their RISO basics workshop beforehand - which is also such a fun class!

And lastly, on Saturday June 28th, 10 AM - 4 PM, I will be teaching another Gold Leaf Gilding workshop at Wildcraft. The first workshop went so well we decided to add another one for summer - come join me and learn about surface gilding!

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Thank you everyone for being here, for reading, and for supporting my work. Please feel free to reply with your thoughts, ideas and suggestions on what you’d like to see in upcoming newsletters! Thank you for being in community with me.

And if you’d like to book me for a future sign, design project or private workshop, please reach out - I’d love to collaborate with you!

Until next time :)