Lois McClelland | Portland Society For Calligraphy

– 1983

calligrapher, artist, teacher

“There are no mistakes, only beginnings.”

Lois’ Story

Lois McClelland–teacher, calligrapher, prober of mind and matter–died of cancer on August 29, 1983, in Portland, Oregon, leaving her family, friends and community with a rich heritage in letters, their origins, their content; in designing that is moving toward a fine art; and in the encouragement and freedom for her students to develop and discover new techniques and individual talents. Our feeling of loss is balanced by Lois’s inspiration and strong faith in each individual’s potential; therefore, we all must continue examining and reaching, because Lois was a master teacher.

Lois’s calligraphy began when she studied with Yvonne Bianco from 1965 to 1972, as well as studying one year later with Lloyd Reynolds at the Museum Art School. She began teaching at the School of Arts and Crafts Society (now Oregon School of Arts and Crafts, or OSAC) in 1966, where she taught children’s classes and beginning to advanced adult classes.

She was chair of the Book Arts department at OSAC, where she developed a three-year program of calligraphy classes and the related book arts. During her tenure, these classes, in conjunction with liberal arts classes, qualified a student for a B.A. in Crafts through OSAC’s program with Marylhurst College. She has also taught extensively in many other areas of the Pacific Northwest, as well as Utah and Hawaii.

Her work is found and recognized locally, nationally, and internationally, including one piece in the Lloyd Reynolds Collection at the Portland Art Museum. Mary Greeley, friend, colleague, and calligrapher, has written of Lois, “She believed in strong hard work in the fundamentals: study of letterforms, the shapes, the result. She was interested in the historical background and development of the letterforms, and most often used the historical forms as the starting point of study . . . She was just as skilled at teaching the ways of freedom once one had achieved the necessary discipline . . . She was a gentle, supportive teacher, always encouraging, pointing out differences, not mistakes.”

In Eugene, the Valley Calligraphy Guild began in 1976. Our mentor was Fran Strom, who taught us that knowledge comes from all directions, and we had visiting teachers often. In July, 1981, Lois came to Eugene for a three-day workshop, and this began an ongoing series of intermediate/advanced classes with this extraordinary teacher. We had a total of 29 workshops with her in lettering and design. Out of these classes came our booklets called Class Notes, in which students described and illustrated each day’s teaching. The first was published in spring 1982; the second was nearly completed when Lois died. She was working on it with us, with her generous spirit. She would come to Eugene on the bus, resting and studying as she traveled. She actually designed things as she rode–one wedding monogram took her “two bus-rides home” to complete.

Lois had her priorities straight: she cared first for her family and friends; then her teaching; then chocolate. After class most days, I’d drive her to the bus, stopping on the way for some decadent chocolate treat with classmates. She fought the cancer for two years, never slowing the teaching; it was as if she was in a hurry to give us all she could. She’d take a 20-minute nap at lunch; other than that, she was all business. She gave people what was needed: a hug, encouragement, crowd control (she could handle an unruly class like no other–she made you WANT to shut up and work). One day Fran and I were laughing out loud about something, and Lois said firmly, “Will Laurel and Hardy please sit down?” We did. And she gave us freedom. She’d say, “That’s not necessarily the direction I would choose, but keep on and let’s see where you go with it.” She told us to combine our knowledge of historical letterforms with personal, contemporary variations and a variety of tools, and, as she said, the possibilities are forever.

From The Valley Calligraphy Guild Newsletter May-August 2004 by Edie Roberts

Click Here to read an article about Lois from the December 1983 PSC Newsletter

Lois surrounded by her students. Circa 1983

In the 1980’s, Lois taught advanced classes to members of the Valley Calligraphy Guild in Eugene. Several of her students created two publications of “Class Notes,” which were notes and illustrations from Lois’ classes.

Lois’s attitude of love and respect for her own work, her calligraphy and her teaching, and her love and respect for the capabilities of her students and colleagues, set a tone that is important for all of us. We are aware of it, and we need to continue to incorporate it into our own lives. She gave us a spirit of excitement, reverence, and compassion for life and for work; we now need to carry that spirit forward and share it with the next generations. Lois is remembered as saying, “There are no mistakes, only beginnings.” Lois’s strength as a teacher, as an artist, and as a human being, especially as she waged her strong fight against physical odds, makes her indeed a special kind of artist.

By Lillian Pierce, from the Portland Soc Call Newsletter Sept-Dec 1983 issue