it's only words

this calligraphy thing is capturing my attention still... 

I recently watched an interesting interview with the artist Yukimi Annand in which she suggested that while practicing the fundamental strokes of calligraphy: the up-curve and down-curve, ascending loop, and downward loop etc.  was essential, it was also important to practice creative use of letterforms at the same time

the thinking is if you practice the drills and gain mastery of the letters through that route alone you may well hinder your ability to do creative work with calligraphy and/or calligraphic marks later on

that makes a lot of sense to me as after decades of doing hand embroidery my stitches are always pretty well perfectly spaced and matched for size

 trying to do primitive style stitching is almost impossible for me and a long-held source of frustration

my daily practice for calligraphy already had me doing a mix of trials and drills as well as forays into more expressive work with letters but after watching the interview I am taking that dual aspect of learning much more seriously

the two images here are the latest examples of that...

the first began as a test of three pencil grades: HB, 2B and 4B

writing very small and using the same pressure for each example was an interesting way to see and experience their subtle differences

I then used one of the pencils and the same style of handwriting in a larger scale to "draw" a grassy hill and dip - the exaggeration of the upstrokes and downstrokes is such great fun and I hope over time those marks become more expressive and less about making a legible letter

the brush trials of that same week were to hold a fine brush (a size 1) perpendicular to the page and then make quick marks, curved and straight, barely letting the brush touch the page

"quick and light" ran through my head over and over

they were such fun!

keeping each somewhat tight, and lining them up the page of my sketchbook lent an air of Chinese calligraphy to the work that I was quite taken with, the motion becoming more and more comfortable with each one

muscle memory at work

as I was writing this a thought occurred to me - what if I held a word in my mind as I made each of these marks, and then recorded that word underneath? 

the result would be a unique representation of a word I held in my mind at a moment in time

an interesting thing with that is I could never duplicate it, the motion is simply too random and truthfully, I hope it stays that way as an ever-changing written language holds a strong appeal to me

a word is spoken in a certain time and place, and coupled with the characteristics of the inflection and volume used, add subtle layers of meaning, providing an individuality to the word that can hold even greater meaning than the standard definition

perhaps holding a word in my mind whilst making the marks in this way might allow for a written word to have those same influences and impacts?

there’s a lot in that idea I find incredibly intriguing

something else to ponder…

take care,

Jillayne