Gloria's Hand Generated Type Phrase #45, June 30, 2015

Oops... I forgot to post this yesterday.

Fiona Apple is among my very top favorite singer/songwriter/musicians out there and has been since she released her first record nearly... gulp... 20 years ago!!!

I LOVE the song and the record entitled Extraordinary Machine, and it struck me that it would make a great hand generated type phrase, so here it is! One of my favorites so far.

Gloria's Daily Hand Generated Type #44 (versions 1 and 2): Another Beatles Song Title

One thing that is really cool about this project is that I will never run out of phrases! They are infinite!

I really enjoyed doing this one because I was able to incorporate elements of what the words are actually saying.

I did two versions. I think I like Version 2 the best because it almost looks like vinyl, the kind that albums were (and are now again) made of!

Gloria's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase #43

For my partner, Paul Sabuco, in honor of his favorite Beatles song.

By the way, I'm now calling these "Hand Generated Type" phrases. I am drawing everything by hand on the computer using Adobe Illustrator. It seemed like the best way to name them. I suppose... :)

Gloria's Daily HLP #42

The Shed Zeppelin show last night was spectacular! Inspired, I created today's design using the title and lyrics of Zep's "Dazed and Confused." I did one version with a lyric line placed on the letters of the title and a second version without. I like the second version best, but I like the idea of the first version better. The execution just wasn't quite "it."

Gloria's Daily HLP #41

My friend Ian Shepherd has a new band called Shed Zeppelin. They are so GREAT!!! They play jazz/lounge versions of Led Zeppelin tunes and have a female singer, Jill, who is stunning and mesmerizing! They inspired me to design a fun logo... just for fun. :)

They are playing TONIGHT at the Cowboy Monkey, by the way! I'll be there!

Gloria's Daily HLP #40

How is it possible that it's been 40 days since I began this project? Tonight I started on today's HLP very late, and I really didn't feel like doing it. It's not one of my best, but I still spent a few hours on it because I made the commitment to myself to do one of these every day. There have been days when I couldn't do or finish one, but I've always gotten myself caught up. I am happy that I'm keeping a promise I made to myself. :)

This is the key to inner peace:

Gloria's Daily HLP #39

This phrase is one of great importance, I believe.

Gloria's Daily HLP #38

I like coming across meaningful quotes and phrases, especially positive ones and ones that say a lot in very few words. My Hand Lettered Phrase for today is one such quote, by a spiritual teacher (I'd never heard of her before today) known as Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati.

To me this is one of the many ways to describe meditation.

Gloria's Daily HLP #37

I love animals of all kinds. I love cats and grew up with cats. I don't think I've ever been without a feline family member! Each one is unique. My cat Stella is the QUEEN of the household. Zeba, on the other hand, is skittish and meek but has a slight mean streak, especially with regard to the QUEEN. I've had many others with quite varied personalities. One thing about many of these cats is that the capacity to become a Zen master is definitely within them. My cats Boo, Salvatore, and Maxine were all total Zen masters. This phrase is dedicated to all cats, but especially to these three.

Gloria's Daily HLP #36: A Pema Chödrön Quote

Pema Chödrön is one of my primary teachers along my spiritual path. I read books and listen to recordings of her live talks given at retreats regularly, along with those of Jack Kornfield, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Tara Brach, and a couple of others. They are my teachers, and I learn from them every single day. I also meditate, and I need to get back into my practice of meditating every single day. But meanwhile, listening to these wise teachers and applying what I can of their teachings to my life and meditation has helped me immensely in this life.

Today's daily hand lettered phrase is a Pema Chödrön quote. I think her actual quote is:

"You are the sky. Everything else... it's just the weather."

I changed it ever so slightly. I don't think she would mind.

Namaste.

Gloria's Daily Hand Lettered Phrase #35

My interest in Tibetan Buddhism, my meditation practice, and my love of the way the Sanskrit version of this mantra looks... all of these contributed to my attempt to hand letter both. I'm pretty happy with it.

I recently shared all of these designs with one of my teachers, wondering whether they should be called "hand lettered" or "hand generated type" because I'm doing almost everything on the computer (only a few of these have I drawn first on paper). However, I AM creating each and every letter. I am NOT taking existing fonts and outlining the text and then making changes. I am drawing, using Adobe Illustrator, every letter (unless I note otherwise at the bottom). I didn't know if "hand lettered" meant that it was done using tradition tools such as pen and paper.

Anyway, I wanted to make it clear, publicly, that these are my creations, my designs, my lettering. I am spending several hours every day on these, and I felt a little hurt when my teacher told me that these are "type manipulations," and that hand lettering means I drew each letter... He suggested that I call them "type meditations."

I think there was probably a miscommunication on my part; nevertheless, I was disappointed that he apparently hadn't looked closely enough at one or more of them to see that they are indeed NOT type manipulations. On the other hand, I suppose it means they are pretty good—good enough to fool the eye. Do I use references? Absolutely. But I do NOT just place text on one layer and trace! I use it for ideas and for learning how to change the line widths appropriately, add certain embellishments, etc. And a lot of it is done with no reference at all. So there's that.

Okay, enough ranting and whining. It's just that his opinion matters a lot to me. I wrote him back to explain, but he hasn't replied in several days. Oh well. Let it go.


On to my hand lettered phrase #35!

Gloria's Daily HLP #34

My, how the days are flying by. I can't believe I've done 34 of these... one each day for over a month!

I am feeling a little like I'm beginning to slip into a rut, but I'm going to resolve to keep going. Here is #34.

Gloria's Daily HLP #33

So simple, yet so true. It's really all you can do!

Gloria's Daily HLP #32 (Pink Floyd song title)

It was just a Pink Floyd kind of day...

Gloria's Daily HLP #31: Title of a very special book

My father is Bruno Nettl. He is probably THE most famous living ethnomusicologist in the world. He is 85 and still working—writing, editing, advising, and more. He basically pioneered the field of ethnomusicology, taking it from being a very small, little known area of academia to a subject that is now taught in a huge percentage of colleges and universities around the globe.

He is loved, respected, and admired by colleagues, students, and others in the field. If a person is studying ethnomusicology—anywhere in the world—they will know who he is. For his 85th birthday, a party was thrown in his honor and included family, friends, and former students colleagues, etc., many of whom traveled great distances to be there. He was presented with a book of essays about ethnomusicology in his honor. It was published this year by Rowman & Littlefield. This is the cover:

My mother's artwork appears on the cover—a beautifully striking collage of an abstract cityscape. The title of the book is This Thing Called Music: Essays in Honor of Bruno Nettl, and the editors are Victoria Lindsay Levine and Philip V. Bohlman, both former students and close friends of my dad.

The dedication reads:

For Bruno Nettl

teacher, colleague, friend

on the occasion of his eighty-fifth birthday

My dad asked if I would do one of my daily hand lettered phrases using the title of this book as the phrase, so here it is. For you, Dad!

Gloria's Daily HLP #30

Wow! I can't believe I've been doing these for a month. I only wish I were getting faster a little more than gradually! But I really do love creating these.

Today's is another lyric. My favorite Lana Del Rey song at the moment is "Bel Air." It is so beautiful. This is the first line from the chorus.

Gloria's Daily HLP #29, June 15, 2015: Some of my song lyrics

Song lyrics provide an endless supply of great phrases for this project. This lyric line happens to be from a song I wrote, recorded, published, and still play at live shows. The song is called, "Matters."

You can purchase it on Amazon (the entire record, CHARM, is available for digital download purchase, but you can purchase songs separately as well!).

You can also purchase it on CD Baby and other online stores. Just google G. Lee & Jet Blonde and you will have several options. (I used to go by "G. Lee" in the music world.)

Anyway, "Matters" happens to be one of my favorite songs from the CHARM record, so I hope you will also give it a listen (Amazon will let you listen to samples).

Okay, enough about that. Here is the simple line from the song that repeats many times!

Here are the lyrics for the entire song. Let's see if I can remember them accurately!

MATTERS
by Gloria Roubal, a.k.a. G. Lee

Come and see what I may reveal

If  you will let me

Come and hear when I ask you for it all

Come and see what I will display

In all my modesty

Come to me when I am broken

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

To me

I am reeling

From all my anticipation

I am helpless when confronted with your

Emancipation

I see you with me

Honestly I do

I see you loving me

If only I could see right through

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

To me

Are you indifferent about these words

Are you ambivalent about all you heard

Do I matter to you in the manner you do to me

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

You're all that matters

To me

Gloria's Daily HLP #28: Elvis Costello Song Lyrics

I love song lyrics. I love to try to interpret them. I love to write them! I love intelligent, witty lyrics, and I love simple, basic lyrics. I love lyrics that make me laugh and ones that make me cry... or ones that make me think. I love lyrics that move me in some way.

Elvis Costello is a brilliant musician, songwriter, and lyricist. One of his best known songs, "Alison," has the lyric, "My aim is true." Here is my visual interpretation of it, in hand generated type.

Gloria's Daily Hand Generated Type Phrase #27, June 13, 2015

I created this one with absolutely no references. Straight to Illustrator. It's still pretty amateurish, but I like it. I'm just glad I'm keeping my promise to myself and doing one of these every day! I'm learning something from each one, and I'm getting a little faster, I think.

Today's phrase was something I heard somebody say today. Of course it does NOT apply when thinking about destructive things like smoking! :)

Gloria's Daily HLP #26

I'm on a roll!

Gloria's Daily HLP #25 (for David Lynch fans)

Here is today's Hand Generated Type Phrase (#25). I'm a huge David Lynch fan, so I created this project using the title of his full-length movie, FIRE WALK WITH ME, which is a prequel that came out after the Twin Peaks series was over. The mood should be eerie and dark, so I hope I achieved that.

Gloria's Daily HLP #24

I find this to be a very poignant phrase, and I believe it's true.

Gloria's Daily Hand Lettered Phrase #23

Let's go fly a kite...

Gloria's Daily HLP #22: A Favorite Subject

You know, the greeting card industry has contributed to the invention of hundreds of special days of the year. Most of them are silly. Some are pretty cool.

I stumbled upon National Donut Day somewhere online, and personally, I thought, "Ick." Donuts, while I might eat one every few years, are just not worthy of having a day of the year celebrated in their honor! Dough fried in oil—even with chocolate icing or filling—is basically what they are. Not on my list of foods that are good for anything. Many would argue this point. However... I decided that if donuts had a "day," then surely there must be a day devoted to chocolate. Maybe even a day devoted to dark chocolate! I looked it up. National Chocolate Day is indeed a special day, and this year it will be on October 28. Perfect subject for my daily hand lettered phrase!

(Side note: I call these hand lettered phrases, and I hope I'm using the term "hand lettered" in a correct way. I supposed the precise term is "hand generated type," so if anyone thinks I'm misrepresenting my work, please let me know and I will change it to "hand generated." Thanks!)

An Exercise and a Tribute to Jessica Hische

Sometimes it's best to copy work of an artist you admire. That's what I did here. Please read the note that is on the image itself which will explain what I mean!

Gloria's Daily HLP #20 - Witty and nerdy?

I don't know how this idea came to me... ahem...

Gloria's Daily HLP #19

Inspired by music...always. My musical partner and I have been performing, on rare occasion, a song by the LA band X entitled, "Come Back to Me." It's a very sad song (see all lyrics at bottom of this post), and the line, "Tears make a river of diamonds in the dark," has always struck me as brilliant.

Sarah Borges, a very overlooked and incredible singer/songwriter, recorded a cover of this song; in fact, she entitled her debut record, "Diamonds in the Dark." It's actually her version of the song that we play. Anyway, we resurrected the song after not having played it for months, and we played it tonight at a show. It inspired me to create my daily phrase:

COME BACK TO ME
by X, also covered by Sarah Borges

Gifts and flowers lay upon the ledge

Of pink silk above your face

Tears make a river of diamonds in the dark

Our daddy breaks down at the funeral home

Flies and relations make annoying sounds

We sit or wander round the room

Ribbons are folded on the rose bouquets

And I hear a voice that sounds so much like yours

Please, please, come back to me

I cry and talk to you through the bathroom wall

Oh, please, come back to me

Playing in Cleveland on a Wednesday night

Recovering from the night before

Well I'm broken, and I'm cryin' in the ladies room

The opening band is banging out their song

Please, please, come back to me

I cry and talk to you through the bathroom wall

Oh, please, come back to me

I made a shrine for you on the kitchen wall

With flowers and Florida souvenirs

You were walking in the house last night

I knew it was you from the space in your steps

Please, please, come back to me

I cry and talk to you through the bathroom wall

Oh, please, come back to me

Gloria's Daily HLP #18—Weird is Good!

I don't remember where I saw this phrase, and it was worded slightly differently, but I really like it!

Gloria's Daily HLP #17

I'm really enjoying adding effects to these phrases.

Here is #17:

Gloria's Daily HLP #16: Fiona Apple Lyrics

I love me some Fiona Apple! She is probably my favorite female musician ever. I decided to use a line from her song, "Valentine," which is on her most recent record (now around 3 years old, I think). It was the first song I heard from that record, and I fell in love with it instantly. So today's Daily HLP is a lyric line from "Valentine."

Daily Hand Lettered Phrase #15... under water

The only reason this ended up as an "underwater scene" is that I wanted to use an element of the type I created for some part of the background. I used the loop in the letter B which ended up looking like a fish. And the rest is history. :)