Daily calligraphy -- how it's going

It wasn't until the fourth or fifth day of my new daily art project that I realized: the choice of what I was going to write was just as much an artistic decision as what pen and what style of lettering to use.  I started out the year with the first lines of Ode to Joy, because I always use that text when I need to write something.  It's one of the few poems that I can recite substantial parts of in German, and I love the idea.  The next day I wrote from the Battle Hymn of the Republic; again, because I know the words to all the verses by heart I can do calligraphy even if I didn't bring a book along to copy from.

The third day I decided to copy from a book I had just finished reading -- and I highly recommend it: Educated by Tara Westover -- and realized that if I write from every book the day I finish reading it, I will have a journal of what I read for the whole year.

But what to write on the fourth day?  When I do calligraphy I like to write something meaningful and intriguing, because I'll be going slowly and focusing on the words as well as the drawing.  Song lyrics and hymns always work, probably because it's easier to remember the words of a poem if they're set to music.  So I wrote from a Christmas hymn, Joy to the World.

The fifth day I wrote from the Gettysburg Address, always a favorite.  The last time I remember doing this in calligraphy I miraculously got the whole thing to fit perfectly on a 6x8 card; this time I ran out of page before I ran out of address.

I promise not to bore you with any more of what I'm writing this year.  Insofar as I report on my progress, I'm going to talk about the drawing, not the text.  After two days of free-form writing -- nothing special, just my usual "arty writing," I decided I needed to be more adventurous and look for specific inspiration to emulate.  I'll show you that in my next post.

Ode to Joy, with a brush

Battle Hymn of the Republic, with a Micron brush pen

"Demo at Scottsdale 2018 6" --- Sold

Another demo painting.

"Demo at Scottsdale 2018 5" --- Sold

The holiday is over. Go back to work. I continue posting my out-of-date paintings. This one is my first demo on my workshop at the Scottsdale Artists School in December 2018. Since this is my second workshop of the year at SAS, so I call it demo 5.

I had a relatively long break in this holiday season. I didn't paint. I re-read "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau, and decide to practice his idea literally. I started to build a small off-grid habitat with my own hands. This holiday season marked the very early phase of this long term project.

Daily art for 2019

My daily art project for this year is going to be called "calligraphy" (literally, beautiful writing).  I can cite three important reasons for this decision.

First, for many years I have been influenced by Laurie Doctor, a wonderful teacher whom I have studied with several times (look here and here for posts about her).  Every time I think about what I learned from her I'm inspired.

Second, my dear friend Uta gave me a book about a year ago called Schriftspiele: Experimentelle Calligraphie.  I've looked at it a lot but never sat down to emulate and learn from it.  It's in German, so I'll have to brush up on my vocabulary if I want to read the text, but even without the explanation, what the artist (Denise Lach) is doing with her calligraphy is wonderful.

Denise Lach

Third, my art pal Bette told me a couple of months ago about an artist from Iran, Golnaz Fathi, who does calligraphic art.  The minute I saw her work I knew exactly what to do for daily art in 2019!

Golnaz Fathi

And that is: I want to write/draw/mark with ink in a sketchbook.  Sometimes it will resemble writing but it won't always be readable or legible.  I might want to use pens as well as brushes.  I might want to use paint as well as ink.  I might want to draw lines that don't contain letters.  But I hope that over time the daily sketches/drawings/writings/marks will start to develop their own cohesive character.

As Justice Potter Stewart famously said about obscenity, "I can't define it but I know it when I see it!"  That's what I say about my daily art intentions.  You gotta have a label, though, and calligraphy may be as close as I can get.

I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.

Happy New Year!

Do I tell you all frequently enough how much I love you?  I'm starting the tenth year of this blog and the reason I stick with it is because it's so gratifying to make contacts with so many internet friends around the world.  If not for you faithful followers, there would be no reason for me to blog, but with you out there reading, it's a never-ending conversation that enriches my life and, I hope, maybe enriches yours too.

Last week I posted about people having trouble leaving comments on my blog and received many responses -- some came to me by email because, guess what, people had trouble leaving comments on the blog.  I'm going to try to tweak my settings in the coming weeks to make that easier and may be asking you to be guinea pigs, but not now.

One of the commenters said that she hates it when you leave a comment on a blog and the writer never responds.  Perhaps I am guilty of that sin, because I don't reply to every comment.  I don't enjoy reading blogs where the comment sections are dialog: 
   Reader 1:  I liked this post
         Blogger:  Thanks for commenting!
   Reader 2:  I hated this post
         Blogger:  Thanks for commenting!
   Reader 3:  Your quilt looks wonderful.
         Blogger:  Thanks for commenting!
   Reader 4:  I also hated this post
         Blogger:  Thanks for commenting!

But I do read every word that you post, and I always respond to questions and debates that show up in the comments.  Mostly I do it in a new blog post -- because if you leave a comment, and I respond in the comment section, how are you going to find it?   Unless you keep it in your mind -- gee, Kathy owes me an answer -- and keep going back to see whether she has given you one yet -- you may never get my snappy comeback.  And other readers won't either.

A couple of those issues will show up in the next week or so, because you asked.  Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, I hope we can all have a good year ahead, full of art and full of friends.