Marta Urban - Fraktur
Marta has held a fascination with art and hand lettering from an early age. At age 12, she taught herself calligraphy and later worked as a commercial artist while still in high school. Although not pursuing fine arts in college, she knew that her interest in hand lettering would continue to grow and evolve. In the early 1980's, during a familiar trip to the local art museum, she viewed her first fraktur and the desire to learn more about these illuminated documents was born. Being a self-taught artist her journey led her to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in the heart of "Pennsylvania Dutch" country. The artform proved to be a tailormade expression of her love of lettering, folk art and early Pennsylvania history. She has been creating frakturs since 1987 and still remains a one-person operation. Her appreciation of the art form and desire to create authentic folk art led her to the methods that are essentially the same as when the originals were made from 1750 to 1850. Traditional verses are chosen and the words inspire the layout and design. Her frakturs are made by hand one at a time, and include museum quality preservation and framing.
Email: fraktur@zoominternet.net Website: www.MartaUrban.com Address: PO Box 144, United, PA 15689
