As a calligraphy teacher: I started out self-taught in the early 80’s and soon realized that on my own, I wasn’t going to be able to get to the level of excellence I wanted. I joined the Dallas Calligraphy Guild, which was like strapping on booster rockets, enabling me to learn a variety of hands through classes and workshops. Eventually I became president of the guild and even better, workshop chairman, which meant choosing the instructors we would invite to come to Dallas and teach us, such as Queen Elizabeth’s calligrapher! I taught classes for several years until the pain of post-polio syndrome forced me to stop. But now that document cameras have been invented, I can demonstrate letter forms from my scooter and teach again!
My clients include ExxonMobil, the Dallas Cowboys, Ross Perot, Chanel, and many brides (whose wedding invitations I have addressed). It’s a joy to be able to bring to class projects I’m working on so I can explain my work as a professional calligrapher.
As a worldview and apologetics teacher (for the Building Confident Christians class): Ray and I have been on staff with Probe Ministries since college (1975): Probe helps people think biblically about a wide range of topics. I have the privilege of writing and speaking on some of those topics from a biblical perspective, informed by four decades of Bible study and teaching the Word. Probe’s website (Probe.org) is my “third child”; I created its first iteration and have uploaded 1800+ articles and email answers as a resource for anyone in the world who speaks English and has an internet connection. So I know what’s on our website(!), and it’s these articles which our students read in preparation for each class. The printed articles go into a notebook to become a valuable resource for years to come.