Aug 23 - All about the PEACE Symbol**

Wednesday, August 23, 1972 - Page 236

LOCATION: Bethlehem, South Dakota

Here is the inspiration for the British designer, Gerald Holtom,
who created the Peace Symbol: The Third of May 1808,
an 1814 oil painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya

(10:30 AM 8/24/1972)
Got up at 9:30, about. Did some work today -- Tom & I loaded the cement blocks into the van, then he, me, Bruce & Joe drove down to the sewer to carry the blocks to the odoriferous tanks and place them on top. Each block weighed a hundred pounds, so we took our time. By the way, yesterday while sawing away on my alabaster, two guys from Pittsburgh showed up. I talked with them an hour or so. I also bought a gold chain from the Gift Shop.

Now -- back to Wednesday. We really had fun working, and we finished by lunch time. I continued work on my [alabaster] chain, broke it, gave up, and started working on the peace symbol pendant Sue wanted (she wanted to buy one of the wooden ones sold in the gift shop, but they're all gone so I made one out of alabaster).

The first Peace Symbol lapel badge (ceramic, 1958)
made for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

The internationally recognized Peace Symbol was designed by artist Gerald Holtom in 1958. It is a combination of the semaphore signals for N and D, standing for Nuclear Disarmament.

Semaphore symbol for letter N

Semaphore symbol for letter D

Here, Holtom explains how he first got the idea for this logo.

"I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goya's peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle around it."

Hmm. As you can see in the painting at the top, the peasant's hands actually appear up, not downward (No problem. Artistic license can never be revoked.)

It's all finished -- on the back it says "Sue Latka -- U.S. Grade A Gov't Inspected." [That's a joke based on my name, "Grady"]. Everyone was impressed at how well it came out. Bruce finished his cross, but broke a piece off the bottom while sanding it.

After dinner, Bruce & I went to the rock shop in the entrance bldg to get some emery cloth (we had to break into it through the window because it was locked) -- in the rock shop, collected by Jim Jorgenson, is a fantastic collection -- I drooled over the fossils, and Bruce had to pull me away. There were fantastic ammonites, nautiloids, shark's teeth, mammal teeth, coral, crinoid stems, snail shells, arrowheads and stone tools, agates and crystals.

There was a flood control meeting tonight in the Reception Center and lots of people showed up. Bruce, me & Joe got talking, and our discussion became very intellectually stimulating. Joe (Ed's brother) is very bright. He saw my artwork and is going to send me the books of the Famous Artists course. Far out. In the process of our discussion, lasting till 1:00 A.M., my story "The Typewriter" [end of page: continued in next entry]

TOMORROW: Not minding Lawrence of Arabia