Myrna Rosen

Myrna created this for a request for an annual calligraphy calendar with a prompt about colors. Rather than using colors to express the work, she wrote different names of colors in a relaxed capitals hand.

Myrna created this for a request for an annual calligraphy calendar with a prompt about colors. Rather than using colors to express the work, she wrote different names of colors in a relaxed capitals hand.

This piece hangs in Myrna’s living room

Myrna made this piece as a commission with a #2 pencil that she sharpened into the size of a C nib.

This piece was created as an invitation to a religious event.

A piece made for commission. As Myrna reflected on this piece, she commented that, “it’s very engineered.”  This piece was made with gauche, 23 carrot gold and gum ammoniac.

An exploration on blackletter made with watercolor in a calligraphy class.

One of Myrna’s favorite pieces of literature as she continues to teach calligraphy even into her eighties.

A piece showcasing a Myrna’s italic/blackletter hand

A piece that is made up of many layers (3-4) with a pointed pen and gauche

This was intended to be a process piece for a larger piece of the same text, but it turned out to be a lovely piece on its own and is now framed in Myrna’s house.

This is a favorite of Myrna’s work. It is a composition of different names of flowers that correlate to each letter of the alphabet. This work was published in the book, Florilege.

A commissioned work made for the Carnegie Mellon University Music Departement. The word ‘Music’ was hand drawn by Myrna and then filled in.

Another stamp composition created by Myrna with carved out eraser stamps and ink

A playful piece myrna created out of a stamp hand-carved out of an eraser

A piece made for a theatre performance

A commissioned work of a “love letter” from a parent to a child.

A commission work Myrna did with a C nib and gauche.

This piece is a gift to her husband Jack, on there 22nd anniversary. Myrna recalls that day there was a blizzard that kept her from going out to buy him a present. So she made this piece as a gift instead. This is one of two nearly identical pieces in different colors. It now hangs framed in their dining room. This piece was also one of many that Myrna has entered into an exhibit.

A personal exercise of English Roundhand capitals. This piece was penned during the time that Myrna Rosen apprenticed under Arnold Bank.

This ‘Thank you’ letter is one of countless letters and envelopes Myrna was commissioned for, before she took even one calligraphy class. This invitation thanked attendees of her niece’s Bat Mitzvah. Myrna still has a unused package of these invitations.

Myrna designed, penned, and carved a stamp as a commission for the local radio station, WQED. The piece was used to title a video production. Myrna was given total creative freedom over the “flavor” and execution, as she tells it.

This is one of Myrna’s favorite pieces: a product of a experimental session. Created with a brush on toothy paper, she describes the challenge of mixing just the right moisture of ink and water to achieve the scratchy effect. Myrna has used this piece for greeting cards, and part of her official portfolio pieces.

Myrna created the invitations to her high school reunion of the class of 1955. Myrna uses a fun green background as negative space to define the modern roman capital letters of the school, TAHS.

On a beach vacation with her family, Myrna describes sitting up to the lunch bar with only three colors and “playing”. Myrna fondly remembers this as an ideal location to experiment with type.

This piece captures a biblical passage from Genesis 1:1-5, describing God’s creation of the heavens and the earth. Myrna has crafted visual breaks in the passage with the word “GOD”, where the italic capitals are emphasized. This was submitted to a show, and later reproduced as a set of greeting cards.

A man commissioned Myrna to write this shakespearian sonnet, Kiss Me Kate, as a present for his marriage proposal. The body of text is written in Secretary, the hand Myrna Rosen is most well known for.