GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Artifacts

  • CNY! (five pack 21+on two seats+wedding greetings+dude)

    It’s fun to have two New Years, plus my sister is in town this year!

    As always, I must remind everyone about this series of schmalzy Petronas CNY ads. It’s the least that oil barons could do for the culture.

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    6/22/2025

    Fish and hook. As a fan of asymmetry, offset folds are exciting.

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    6/23/2025

    With my love of asymmetry, angled popups should have been an obvious progression, but I could never get them to work. At this point I also gave up on pairing the pop-up and the words as I raced through the exercises in the book.

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    6/24/2025

    Not exactly pop-ups, but I had fun exploring the splashy, bendy motif, and they played great with the big text.

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    6/26/25

    This stunt has an Art Deco feel to it.

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    6/28/25

    thank you!

    This was a thank you card for the Administrative Specialists in our division.

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    Cya next time!

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    PS—Chinese New Years

    The Lunar year is bit awkward. It’s nice to have a second calendar to enjoy, especially gastronomically, but these moments don’t fit great around the American workweek.

    It’s a more noticeable now, since my in-laws celebrate these festivities more than my parents. Before the pandemic, we would celebrate on weekends (a 2/7 chance of happening) while squeezing in eating the appropriate foods on the proper day.

    Just like celebrating birthdays!

    For a few years, work from home alleviated the complexity. We could visit the in-laws and with our laptops. I worked during the day, the girl did her distance education in the evening, and we celebrated during the breaks.

    Not ideal, as some Algerians once told me in Paris, an immigrant lives with their ass on two seats.

    —February 2022

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    PPS—Wedding Greetings

    Because of the pandemic, my mother-in-law did not return to China for her nephew’s wedding. Instead, we recorded a greeting for the event.

    Our first attempts included the kids, but that quickly proved impossible so they were shuffled into the bedroom to watch TV. We adults then tried to look happy (but not silly) in front of an iPad as my mother-in-law wished all the best for the happy couple.

    Good lord. It still took multiple takes, several of which were ruined by laughter.

    Now I know why actors earn their fortunes. Pretending is a real, difficult skill. I see why traditional cultures view frown upon this vocation. If you can fake it on stage, can you be trusted at all?

    Of course, being a great actor is well rewarded in today’s modern world, a nice problem for a star! But I wonder if the traditional had it right—a professional fake must pay a heavy psychic tax.

    —February 2022, and congrats to the happy couple who welcomed their first kiddo last year!

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    PPPS—Dude

    Tom the Dancing Bug, by Ruben Bolling

    I saw this comic strip on an office door in a community college. Now that I have finally found it again, I need to put it somewhere semi-permanent.

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    PPPPS—Practice

    5/6/2025

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  • charlie

    It’s only been a few months since I made this piece and I’m not sure if I could do it again (it took so attempts to even get to this one!)

    Looking at it with fresh eyes, I also wonder if the h should have tied into the flourish of the C. Such combinations rarely work, but it hits every once in a while. One reason I take so many shots.

    The ink is a Noodlers Red-Black that was super dark, but watered down to this lovely burgundy.

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    I wandered into a game store and asked the salesman for suggestions now that kids have preferences that I can describe.

    I walked out with a couple of games that will be put in a big box of games that I’ve bought for the kids, to be slowly shared over birthdays and holidays.

    While driving home, I realized that we only got six more with her. Ten with him, before the nest is empty.

    They grow up so fast, hopefully that box will be empty by 2036.

    —January 2026

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  • Cats and Coffee (five pack 20+Sushi Go!+Dream Cakes+Cardline Animals)

    I’m writing this on the last day of the 2025, and I hope things are going well 35 days into the new year. The week between holidays are always a bit weird, but the world spins back to life with the coming Monday and it’s off to the chaos of another twelve months.

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    5/5/25

    forest pool eight stone wisps
    fly lumber today beyond genes
    fire chore smoke lake curfew

    The italics looks a little rough. I normally prefer going big, but small can also highlight areas for improvement.

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    6/15/25

    Cat on the balcony!

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    6/16/25

    We had fun floating a few Vikings in a pan.

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    It was fun shaping the numeral one with the letters. I gave this to a friend to celebrate his kid’s first birthday.

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    6/21/25

    Both figurative and architectural. Feels like this could be an entry into a real coffee shop, except that the door handle would slam into pedestrians walking past the store.

    Serves the right.

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    We just made some 3-2-1 cookies. They had a ton of fun shaping these butterballs in the molds.

    Washing all the stuff was a little less fun. But they were tasty.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Sushi Go!, Phil Walker-Harding, 2013

    Move over Dominion, this is my daughter’s new favorite game. Skip the buying, straight into drafting. Plus cute art!

    We’ve played this two player, though I suspect it’s better with more. Coincidentally, I’ve been playing Magic The Gathering online in their Arena program. One of the main ways to play that game is also drafting.

    Funny how card games are just a bundle of numbers and mechanics. Strip out the art and they all rhyme.

    Daddy’s favorite game is Magic. My favorite game is SUSHI GO!!!!

    —October 2021
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    PPS—Dream Cakes, Ravensburger, 2014

    When my daughter was younger, she would turn anything (non-stuffy) into cakes, so my sister gave us this game for Christmas.

    At first, the girl didn’t want to play the game competitively, but she quickly realized this game is all just luck. She still gets annoyed if her baby brother does well.

    Maybe this will be the gateway to teaching her to become a good loser. I’m not a competitive guy. Maybe it’s because I fear failure so much that I suppress myself. Avoiding goals sidesteps disappointment!

    Then again, I have simple goals. I always prefer slow and steady strategies. I’d rather lock up 2nd place than risk everything for a win. I enjoy being part of a well played game. I applaud a competitor’s brilliance, and I chuckle when lady luck stabs me in the spleen.

    There are many ways to game—maybe she’ll settle on just playing cooperative games. But the real world doesn’t always let you turn something into a “team game” when you’re behind. Sometimes you will lose, however small the stakes.

    If this boardgame starts that process where she can handle losing, then its a good start.

    —January 2022, Update: it turns out it was the boy who really hates competitive games. Aside from Snorta and Chess, he exclusively plays cooperative, often to the boredom of his sister.

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    PPPS—Cardline Animals, Info, year

    This isn’t a game, just a deck of cards with great art and an interesting concept.

    To be fair, publisher doesn’t pretend there is much of a game. It’s just placing animals in order of weight, length, or life expectancy. And it’s as compelling an experience as as it sounds on paper.

    But we’ve played with the cards a lot, and spent one afternoon placing all the cards against a long tape measure to see the real length of these animals.

    Except for the whale. They’re too long.

    —September 2021

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    PPPPS—Practice

    4/29/25

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  • The Beatitudes

    And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

    Matthew 5:3-12

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    I was just short on room to scribe it on a single one page, so this was stitched at the line break above “Rejoice…”. Fortunately, a light table and a computer made for an easy pairing. It also let me relocate the citation and signature to a better location. And take a second shot on the last those last four lines to correct a couple of mistakes.

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  • bravo

    Even a 9×12 sheet can’t fit a 3″ brush without ligatures and a pile of failures.

    At this point, it’s only remarkable when I’m satisfied after a few attempts.

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    Years ago, we bought a toy bird for the girl that records and repeats short snippets. The boy is now well past her age then, but two fresh batteries and it squawks again. They’re upstairs, talking, singing. and laughing at distorted tweets.

    In the other ear, Mama is on the phone, searching nutrition labels for high protein, high calorie foods to stem Grandpa’s weight loss. My mind searches for anything to thread these competing conversations across electronics, but I come up empty.

    Life isn’t tidy.

    —16 November 2025

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  • OPM.66 Not Young

    Having worked in small firms, I’ve always been the young guy. Even that time I went corporate, I ended up being the junior staff member on a major project.

    That’s fine. I learn more from the experienced folks.

    So it was a bit odd turning Owner and suddenly becoming an old guy. In the few cases where I’m younger, it was by a year or two, not decades.

    Middle age is odd. They say architects don’t blossom till they are fifty. That was forever away, now just three years out.

    I’ve gone through the stereotypical “now what” moment, but I’m also comfortably confident in my skills. There’s still plenty to explore, but I have much to share with the next generation.

    Maybe this OPM letter was a my way to share some notes along this journey.

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    Some Links

    Over the past few years I’ve fallen hard for calligraphy. It’s why this letter took a long hiatus. You can graph with the most simple of materials, but here are some things that stand out.

    The Pilot Parallel was my introduction to calligraphy. As a lefty, I had long thought it impossible, but once I got my hands on one of these pens, I just had to try (with the help of YouTube). It’s an inexpensive pen with none of the hassle of dip pens. If you’re not sure what size to get, go big with the 6.0mm.

    What to graph on? Anything will do, but normal printer paper will bleed, as will binder paper. The best value I found was acid-free sulfite paper from Blicks, which is usable on both sides.

    If you get deeper into the hobby, then splurge with the Brody Neuenschwander Handwritmic Ruling pen. I also enjoy the Dreaming Dogs ruling pens (especially for alternative shapes), but the Handwritmic has the best build quality with a nib that can handle a variety of scripts.

    LED light tables are super cheap now. Mine is just a non-name brand from Amazon. Print out guidelines on paper and now you won’t have to rule your sheets all the time.

    And finally books, books and more books.

    • Any edition of the Speedball Textbook is a good start (I’ve got 12, 16, and 20-25).
    • I’m fond of Arthur Baker’s Foundational Calligraphy Manual because he elucidates a technique of twisting the nib, which feels really weird until it’s natural. At this point I’ve picked up all of his books.
    • For good clear overview of scripts over history check out Julian Chazal’s Calligraphy a Complete Guide and David Harris’s Art of Calligraphy.
    • I also love Harris’s early book Calligraphy: Modern Masters, a survey of contemporary work around 1991.
    • A wild card, out-of-the-box gem is Scott Kim’s mind twisting Inversions.
    • And no list of books would be complete without grand matron Sheila Water’s epic Foundations of Calligraphy. I find this one intimidating—high standards are great, but for a hobby, fun comes first. But when you get serious, it’s a must-have.

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    Christmas Party at Amalgamated Wireless, Ashfield, New South Wales, 1937, Sam Hood

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    Goodbye

    Now it’s time to close out this project.

    If I was feeling frisky, I’d do a post mortem report of the OPM Letter with my four questions:

    1. Was the objective clear?
    2. What went wrong, how do we avoid it in the future?
    3. What went well, how do we keep it going?
    4. Did we miss any opportunities?

    But life isn’t always work, so I’ll let these questions linger. Instead, here is a parting gift, a collection of calligraphy, 100 Words on Design.

    Thanks again for reading this on-and-off newsletter.

    Please shoot me an email, I’d love to catch up.

    Cheers!
    Justus

  • Three weeks in (five pack nineteen+Exploration Peak+a turtle sandbox)

    At this pace, I’ll be a year behind, except that this new year has come with a new habit—less socialing, more zining. After I make a few zines, maybe I’ll get into the selling and distribution business.

    Or may not.

    Anyways, there will be less catching up of old Substack Notes.

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    4/13/25

    jump easy enter vector five
    galaxies between you and remembrance
    Georgia come back into life

    In my current calligraphy practice, I’ve been focusing on the letters more than choosing words, hence my reliance on word lists.

    These poetry hauls are fun opportunities to play with smaller scripts arranged on a page. I only have to pick five words to turn the given ten into a fifteen word poem.

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    4/20/25

    Celebrating Easter with the most destructive beast known to mankind.

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    5/25/25

    Celebrating my colleagues’ new lives. Yes, our team had babyx2 last summer!

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    5/28/25

    Gemini
    Annie has two many

    An inside joke with an online buddy who worked with a pair of cute twins at her old job.

    I’m not a fan of the astrological words, certainly not in the context of making 5WP’s. But I’m in a “collect them all” mood with all of the Inktober challenges.

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    6/1/25

    Vista, playing with folds inside folds.

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    I just listened to a podcast with a business professor who teaches about power. It was grating, until they had a discussion about the price of power.

    In so many words Jeffrey Pfeffer acknowledged—when you got power, power got you.

    I’ve seen this dynamic over the years. It’s why I’ve been fairly unambitious in my career. I do good work and this has stumbled me upwards, but I’ve never pressed for the next promotion because there is no free lunch in corporations.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Exploration Peak

    We went to the park with the kids. After the playground got busy, we hiked up the trail to the picnic structures on top of the hill. When we got there, the girl noticed that the benches had initials carved all over them.

    She asked why people would do this. I responded that people want to make their mark in this world, even if it means vandalizing our public property. Not particularly noble, but I get it.

    While hiking down the hill I thought of Bernard Tschumi’s follies. Of course, those big red structures are another stratosphere of architectural sophistication compared to picnic canopies.

    It made me nostalgic for college, with memories of famous architects. Gods in our eyes; just men making their mark in our world.

    —October 2021

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    PPS—The turtle sandbox

    The kids rediscovered the sandbox. A big green plastic turtle with a couple feet/stools and some toys. It’s a bittersweet object. We got it long ago, before the boy was a concept in our world.

    He’s now old enough to play with himself in this box. He appreciates the company, but he keeps himself contented moving sand around. Our daughter is still young enough to enjoy the moment, but lost patience after a while.

    Kids are fickle, but that means they can also come back to rediscover old joys, while we adults live at a much higher gear, too bored to watch children pushing sand. I rationally understand this is a vanishingly short moment, but my brain craves the high octane sugar buried in the telephone computer.

    In twenty years, I hope that I’ll remember the evening light, the sand in my feet, and the fading Vegas summer heat before the start of fall, not this aching addiction to a glowing screen.

    —October 2021

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    PPPS—Practice

    4/22/25

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  • alpha

    I wanted to start this NATO alphabet series with something simple. I was also testing some new paper. Smooth is nice, but it highlights fingerprints. Once they are used up, I’ll focus on the sulfite paper, because it’s cheaper and can be used on both sides.

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    Thanks to Hazel Burgess for suggesting that I try blind contour drawing. It’s a great exercise!

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    And thanks to Jozsef Abranko for the nudge to use my gouache to paint (duh!)

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    I had been constipated with drawing for two decades before generative AI became a thing in 2022. When computers can create perfection in seconds, imperfection is now proof of humanity.

    Nothing like a digital existential challenge to get moving. I picked up the pen again, meditating on my right hand shaping the letters of the alphabet, morning after morning. That cycle was replaced in 2024 by calligraphy, but I always wanted to properly close out this practice that awoke my spirit after such a long hiatus.

    I hope you enjoy these old sketches paired with new graphs and my new explorations in gouache.

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  • New Year! (five pack eighteen+Journey to the West+Cowboy Bebop+The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes)

    Starting the New Year marching through pieces from eight months ago, then again, it’s fun to explore the (recent) past.

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    4/1/2025

    Looking back, I should made a lot more of these backlit photos on the light tablet. I remember when light tables were big pieces of furniture. Now they are thin cheap LED’s powered by a USB-C cable.

    After making this piece, I realized that this prompt was likely inspired by the TV show Severance. So I made a popup based on that logo as well.

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    4/5/2025

    state dinner droned past six
    rain lust through parged age
    never duplicate time flowing away

    I spent a month playing with fractur script. Normally I use a 6.0mm nib, so it’s fun to drop down to the 2.4mm and fit more than a few words on a page.

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    4/7

    A simple slice, with the sliver tucked into its original cut.

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    4/10/2025

    A literal take on the Lego form as I was studying the 3+1 (above) versus 2+2 (below) folds.

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    4/18/2025

    Tigers hunt in the tall grass.

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    I’ve been on a good run of working ahead, so it’s been weird to write in the present tense when it isn’t Thanksgiving yet. Moving forward, I might drop this pretense until I’m back to being behind “schedule”.

    Cya next time!

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    PS—Journey to the West, CCTV, 1986

    After I recounted the story of the jade rabbit from chapter 95, my daughter wanted to watch the story. The episode adapted the novel well, hitting the key points while abridging and eliding non-critical aspects. The producers spun the story with a moral exhorting Piggy to behave, but otherwise followed the original.

    Indeed, they followed the spirit perfectly. The novel is itself an artful collection of folk tales, so this was a figuratively faithful translation into a new medium.

    Unfortunately, the production shows its age. The pacing is a little stilted and the budget is much less than one expects with modern fare. I imagine two audiences for this show—rewatching for nostalgia and for nerds to analyze how the novel was adapted to the television medium.

    I would fit the latter group, but having no fondness for live action TV, this series isn’t for me, definitely not for a 30 hour commitment.

    After completing the novel, I watched the final episode of the show. I love how they stayed faithful to the original story while closing it in its campy, endearing way. I see why this show has been replayed on TV every since year since its original broadcast. I watched a trailer of a 2011 take on the novel and the old practical effects of the original are vastly more appealing than cheap, outdated CGI.

    —October 2021

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    PPS—Cowboy Bebop, Netflix, 2021

    I don’t know how to remake a classic, except that this ain’t it. The production is of decent quality, though imperfect. John Cho is a little old. None of the actors hits their notes dead on.

    This adaptation is trapped in the uncanny valley of recreating the past (episode 1) and creating its own identity (episode 2). The first episode missed the mark (a damn near impossible task), and the second episode proved it was going in a direction that I wasn’t interested in.

    Vicious and Julia are barely characters in the original. He was (as the name implies) is a cruel force of nature. She’s mute lost object of desire. Making them human reduces their essence and costs us time in revisiting the main characters.

    To be fair, I might have given this series one more episode but after disliking the second I crawled the internet, found mixed removed and moved on. Why spend 8 hours on a mediocre echo when I could just revisit the original masterpiece again?

    —November 2021

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    PPPS—World’s Most Extraordinary homes, Netflix, 2017-2018

    My kids make little tent structures around the house so we thought they would enjoy checking out all these cool houses around the world.

    Yup, it was pretty awesome!

    Admittedly, when the revolution comes, these folks will be the first to fight the mob at their gates (unless their private security forces pushes the rabble towards easier targets).

    Class envy aside, the rapport between the hosts was fun and the houses were luxurious. Unsurprisingly, we preferred the smaller (often architect owned) structures. Financial constraints made for tighter designs that just felt right.

    The first season was sorted by geography (mountain, coast, etc.), while the second was by nation. Both were fun to watch and it’s a shame there aren’t any more seasons.

    —January 2022

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    PPPPS—Desk

    4/1/2025

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    PPPPPS—Practice

    4/16/2025

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  • 2025 in five seasons

    This year roughly followed the seasons, with one big break.

    Winter started with a monthly focus on new scripts—finally bearing down on Italics, Gothic, Copperplate, and Roman Capitals.

    We bought the boy Paul Jackson’s Cut and Fold Techniques for Pop-Up Designs which I promptly commandeered. It completely changed Spring as I cut and folded through all the designs in his book.

    Pop-ups are fun, but I hate photographing them, so I returned to the ruling pen in Summer, focusing on cursive. Splatters are addictive!

    Then a big break September with a week in the hospital. Not fun, but I’m grateful for the wonders of modern medicine.

    Autumn started with my recuperation through Inktober and then walking through the NATO alphabet. It officially became a challenge season when I dived into Callivember with the kids’ watercolor sets.

    The last weeks of this year are closing out in two directions.

    I’ve graduated from Crayola watercolor pans to a tube set of gouaches. OMG, I love opacity! Gouache works great on colored construction paper, and I’m now painting my hand, which pairs nicely with old hand sketches for the NATO alphabet series.

    With free release of Affinity, I also started making zines. We even purchased a color printer now that I discovered the existence and efficiency of tank printers. So now I need to publish some zines to justify this purchase!

    And for 2026? The good news is that I finally got traction on the 2024+2025 theme of “Catching Up”, plowing through my old blog drafts. I’m only halfway through those drafts and never got around to dormant home projects, but it’s time to move on.

    “Curation” is my word for 2026. Life is packed full of interesting things and I need to make some hard cuts—”if it’s not exciting or veggies, then NO!” Even more than the past few months, I hope to embrace the cult of done (or trashed).

    Aside from my “exciting” calligraphy, blog, and zine projects, I got the usual list of “veggies” that everybody else has with the new year—a never-ending list of home projects, controlling my diet (nutritional and digital), and creating a regular exercise routine.

    So yeah, goodbye to 2025 and here’s to a fresh start in a couple of days, just like every morning!