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.