Thinking with Ink

I have been returning lately to the art of quotation, the heart of calligraphy and lettering design practice. Here are looks at a little fragment of wisdom from a book I read that wasn’t a self-help book but a collection of stories. This ladder could be your career, or your love life. The missing rung could be a missed opportunity, or a missed deadline, or a missed letter from someone you love. It could be a missing bit of faith in something greater, or a missing parent, or even the bus on the way to a job interview. And about the ladder? — who’s holding it anyway? I like quotes that give you some room to imagine.

When I find an inspirational quote that I like I can’t just do one version. I have to try quite a few, and see how the voices sound. How does ti change if it is all lowercase? What could be capitalized? What shape should it take? Freestyle brush writing is one of the hardest styles, because there is no manual that will tell you just exactly how it should look. It’s art: it’s abstract, dark and light and how things interlock. And most importantly, do you hear a voice coming through? Nothing tricky here, no ten different styles in one piece of illustrations or drop shadows, just the words offering a bit of quiet encouragement in the day.

Ingredients: One book, “God’s Gym,” by John Edgar Wideman. One brush, one ink, three papers, and a full wastebasket. Practice . . . . .

(Yes, the first line of this quote really was about love, isn’t nearly everything? This is love month after all. The wording is not a typo, it was written that way.)