Welcome to Escribiente

Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of the month, and we welcome guests and members of the public who have an interest in learning more abut the fine art of beautiful writing. Please see our Meetings page for full details and directions and download our Newsletters for reviews and photos from our workshops and programs.

 

Meetings

Monthly programs take place in two sessions from August through November, and from February through June. Check our Meetings page for more details on upcoming meetings.

Program: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 @ 6:30pm * Online via Zoom

Members are encouraged to log in @ 6:15pm for social time

The Buchstaben Artist Book

Presentation by Louise Grunewald

Buchstaben  means “letters” in German. In my presentation I will outline how I was inspired to create the book after my time at the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach, Germany. I wanted to pay tribute one of my lettering heroes, Rudolf Koch, so set out to develop my own version of his alphabet NEULAND. I converted the letters to printing plates in the Solarplate process, and printed the book on my etching press. It was a labor of love, and also the most involved effort of any book I have made. I will show the whole process in a slide show from start to finish.

About Louise: I can’t remember when I didn’t want to be an artist, and I also wanted to earn my living in the arts. That career has spanned many decades. After majoring in Fine Art in college, I continued my education with commercial art courses, and studied calligraphy wherever workshops could be found. I have been a high school art teacher, a traveling instructor on the calligraphy and art circuit (including at Ghost Ranch for many years, and at numerous conferences), a graphic designer, and commercial greeting card designer. It continues to be rewarding at this point in my life with studio work as a fine artist: painter, printmaker, calligrapher, and book artist. My “teaching gene” is satisfied by giving presentations such as this one, and writing articles for magazines such as Alphabet, Bound and Lettered, and others.

My work can be found in numerous private collections, and public ones such as The Klingspor Museum of Book and Letter Arts in Offenbach Germany (where Buchstaben now resides), the Harrison Collection of the San Francisco Public Library, the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, Bowdoin College Special Collections in Maine, the Natural History Institute in Prescott AZ, and the University of Arizona Special Collections in Tucson.

Members receive email notices for all programs and workshops.

Live Zoom meetings are open to members only. The Zoom replay will be available for a limited time to members after the meeting. An edited replay may be posted to our YouTube channel after editing, provided permission is granted from the presenter.

Upcoming events – please check your email for more details!

View previous programs from 2025–2026 Meetings Archive page.

For more details and upcoming programs, please see our Meetings page...

 

Latest Newsletter

Back issues are available for download on our Newsletter page.

Download PDFSpring 2025–1 (June)

Download Print Resolution PDF (24MB)
(can also right-click and select Download Linked File)

Edited by Lynda Lawrence.

  • Escribiente 2025 Spring Workshop review:
    Nancy Hays Hills, review by Heidi Markham
  • Photo Gallery: Nancy Hays Hills workshop
  • 2025 Poets Picnic at the Open Space Visitor Center
  • Photo Gallery: 2025 Weathergrams
  • Photo Gallery: 2025 Chapbook illustrations
  • Valentines for Meals on Wheels (February 2025)
  • Photo Gallery: 2025 Quote Swap (Theme: Courage)
  • Creating a Calligraphy Night Light Lithophane in 3D, by Trish Meyer
  • Review of recent programs & meetups & more!
  • Pilot Parallel Pen Cliff Notes
  • 2025 NM State Fair entry rules
  • Cover art: Angie Vangalis

 

New Mexico State Fair – September 2025

Escribiente exhibit every year at the State Fair at Expo New Mexico in the Creative Arts Building.

All skill levels welcome. Exhibit entries are open to all New Mexico residents.

See our Exhibits page for more info.

See the Winter 2024-3 Newsletter for a photo gallery of the 2024 exhibit.

montage

Escribiente members exhibit each year at the New Mexico State Fair in the Creative Arts Building during the show.

 

Weathergrams Installation

Open Space Visitor Center, 6500 Coors Blvd. NW, Albuquerque NM

In conjunction with local poets, each year Escribiente members calligraph dozens of Weathergrams that are hung on trees around the Open Space Visitor Center grounds as a temporary art installation.

Images from 2025 installation are included in the June 2025 Newsletter.

Images from 2024 installation are included in the June 2024 Newsletter.

Images from 2023 installation are included in the July 2023 Newsletter.

In conjunction with LIBROS Book Arts group, our members provide original artwork that is included in a handmade poetry chapbook. Illustrations for the 2022 chapbook (some are shown below) was provided by Esther Feske, Elizabeth McKee, Caryl McHarney, and Trish Meyer.

All proceeds from the Poets’ Picnic event benefit Open Space Alliance, a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote public awareness and conservation of Open Space lands.

If you haven’t been to the Open Space Visitor Center on Coors Blvd NW, check out their website.