New Project

In Letterform Anatomy today Joe gave us all rolls of tuppence to work on. This was awesome (especially he gave me two extras to take home!). I decided to do some free writing and I ended up with a sweet little story/poem/rhyme - don't ask where it came from, it just did. Here are photos of the scroll, and below that is the edited/completed text that I finished tonight.

_____________________________________________

A nightingale once said to me,

“in time, my dear,
wait and you will see,
your heart will shine,
as once before,
and while I can not promise
nevermore, for a while
at least, your tears shall be cured.”

As time went by, my head hung low, I waited for a sign to show. A little key to prove her right, to bring her prophesy to light. I went about my daily tasks, doing my best to stay unmasked. For the nightingale, she also said,

“I know my dear,
as you do tend, to keep
your life up in your head.
Your face, it shows
contentment yes, while
really what you feel’s a mess.
Restless, darling, as you
may be, I think it’s time for
them to see, what’s in your head,
upon your face, and only then
may you find grace.”

And so I took her words to heart, believing if I did my part, keeping my face (heart) honest and true, that someday, oh, I would find you. And thus I went about my days, relating to people in different ways, taking comfort in honesty, letting myself, well, just be.

Quickly, though, it did not come, a change, a shift, had begun. Where once my days, they had been cold, a bright new warmth I now did hold. No longer did I feel the need, to find myself part of a ‘we’. Content I was, truly this time, on my own, for I did find, the nightingale, her words were true,

“the most important company to find is you.”

It was then, and only then, that I saw you there. You came to me as in a dream, for now I was prepared, to love someone as once before, no longer was I scared. For the nightingale, taught me she, in order to find your care, that I must find, for myself, that which must be bared. And as my eyes, open now, found your pensive gaze, I heard her words, so clearly now, over once again,

“And once he comes,
for you will know,
as if the world did bend,
to bring you two together then,
and draw you hand to hand.
Your love will grow with strength, with hope,
and with honesty, for at this point,
you will have become
what you are meant to be.”

_____________________________________________

I think i'm going to keep working with this because I like the text and I think it'd be fun/good practice to write it out and sort of illuminate it. I'm going to keep working with the scroll because it's awesome, and I want to do really ornate initial letters and illuminated borders. I think it could be pretty awesome when I'm done - although I have very little idea how to do it all. Time to stick my nose back in those books about illuminated manuscripts...

Purple Calligraphy, Broken Nib

I have a bunch of pen nibs for doing calligraphy, but there's only one I really use often. It's really broken in and has the perfect amount of give - keeps nice thick strong lines unbroken, and while it's uphill is a little difficult, it's worth the struggle. I sat down today to do some writing, wanted to practice for a bit and then maybe do some free-writing in calligraphy, but my nib broke. So I watched Wife Swap instead, and started knitting a pot holder.

Narcolepsy

Call me a nerd but I love Ben Folds Five and I find that listening to his music is really awesome for writing of all kinds - calligraphy, term papers, whatever. I was listening to Reinhold Messner during class the other week and I was without something to write and so I decided to write out the lyrics to narcolepsy. So, I did that, and here it is - I folded it in class and drew some crappy stars and a moon with a gold pen that resisted the ink, which was cool. Nice little thing to do during class, better than just doing alphabets over and over - I want to get practiced with writing words, not just solo letters. Written with a flexible metal nib pen and sumi ink.

First Egg Tempera

I'm taking this FANTASTIC class this semester called The Contemporary Icon with Bob Baart. Throughout the semester we learn all the traditional techniques for making religious icons - we prepare our own sizing and gesso, prepare our own boards, make egg tempera from pigment and egg yolk, and we even get to work with gold leaf and learn various gilding/tooling techniques. I am a HUGE fan of religious icons - early christian art is one of my favorite things, and so I jumped at the opportunity to take the class.

For the past three weeks we've been preparing practice boards and learning how to make all the grounds, as well as stretching and coating paper for silverpoint drawings. This week we got to make our first batches of egg tempera and do a practice painting on a practice panel. We were given two images to chose from - a detail of draped cloth and this ball in a bowl, and limited to building our palette from three (really two) colors - ultramarine blue, umber, and white.

I have never been good at rendering, and I have never taken a formal painting class, and so I'm actually really really proud of this little painting. I know it kind of sucks, and yeah, the bowl is supposed to be white, but I think it's awesome. Probably only the second or third still life i've ever worked from. I can't wait to work on my final piece - this weekend I hope to finish developing the imagery so I can get down to it soon. Stay tuned for more awesome stuff from this class!