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“When I breathe in, I breathe in peace.
When I breathe out, I breathe out love.”
Letter artist Mike Gold.
Letter artist Mike Gold created this banner—inspired by the hymn “Meditation on Breathing” by Sarah Dan Jones—in 2024 as part of a set of five that hang in the lobby of his congregation, SouthWest UU Church in North Royalton, Ohio. The 5-foot by 16-inch banners feature hymn lyrics, quotes, and the congregation’s mission statement and are made with 140-pound cold press watercolor paper, gesso, acrylics, waterproof India ink, and, in one case, collage elements.
Gold created the banners as a gift for his congregation during a workshop he taught in Chicago in April 2024.
“It occurred to me that the wall just outside our sanctuary could use some visual interest, plus one of our Board members really wanted our mission statement posted someplace where all could see it,” he said. “The workshop provided the perfect opportunity to create the large-scale art for the church and provide examples for the students in the workshop. Four of the five banners are inspired by UU hymns I particularly liked, and one was devoted to our mission statement.”
Gold has a background in commercial lettering design but writes that his real passion is “exploring the corridors of calligraphy that have been less traveled, the path where words and letters are design elements with which to play with line, shape, and form, where creating a visual statement is more important than writing a readable text.”
Explore more of Gold’s work at mikegold-letterarts.com.
A close-up view of one of the banners by Mike Gold.