First meet Sandra Kramer, whose calligraphic masterpieces charm recipients and probably delight your mail carrier! A dental hygienist in practice in Kensington, but “retired” for now because of sheltering in place, she learned of AV from a couple of her senior patients. Sandra is a very active 72-year-old, whose last few months’ activities are worth enumerating! Weekly Zoom family visits, YMCA fitness and yoga and many health and Covid-19 classes, garden work, walking, cooking, a familiar recipe for life these days, but in addition she reports she has consumed 49 books—mostly audio! Sandra is from San Diego, graduated from UCSF, and as well as a clinical practice her professional life included teaching, lecturing, consulting here and in Germany, research and writing. Her marriage to Norm Owen, a fellow workaholic introvert educator” resulted in, she says, for “a match made in heaven.”
About the calligraphy? She was drawn to it in high school and explains that true calligraphy is a refined art with “reliably repeatable” elements. What she does is scripting—“unreliable and variable.” These envelopes are free flowing, and inspired! A large home office desk is where she sits, supplied with cups of pens of various tips, sizes, shapes and colors. Each card and envelope takes her about ten minutes, and she gives an hour or two a day, five days a week, to the project. Sandra is learning photo editing with her iPhone. “I am inspired by the wonderful photography by members Audre and Roger Newman and Nancy Rubin, featured on our blank cards. Their photos are from distant and exotic world travels as well as local explorations plus great creative shots from their own backyard.”