Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Good Bye to an Amazing Talent















As a young art director in the mid eighties, I was very fortunate to hire calligrapher Raphael Boguslav for a lettering project. My brief encounter with him, which included a visit to his studio, an impromptu piano solo, and a lunch he prepared for us from his garden, left a powerful impression on me. His dedication to exploring every possible combination of forms, paper, inks, and pens followed me for the next 25 years and influenced how I have arrived at answers for my own projects. A true renaissance man, Raphael was hit while riding his scooter in Newport recently and died shortly after. Take five minutes to watch the video/interview and I promise you'll be inspired, shown here. Raphael was a dear friend of my friend, Pat Hegnauer, and the clock you see at the end of the video was a gift to her. His site can be found here.



3 comments:

  1. I so enjoyed the video and was stunned to see so many familiar logos and and such on his site.

    What a talent and such a loss!

    Thanks Alyn!

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  2. What a tragic loss. I was not familiar with his work but after viewing the video, I want to learn more :)

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  3. Alyn, my heart melts at the loss of this wonderful artist of caligraphy. My parents also studied at the Art Students League in NYC in the early 50's. I will check with them to see if they remember him! (They had such a large circle of artist friends in those days, it's quite possible). I hope there are others to carry on the fine art of lettering and caligraphy, I hope he left many students to fill those shoes. Thanks for this post.

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