Essays & General Comments

Calligraphy Made Easy...Learn To Play Piano In An Hour... Lose 20 lbs. In A Week. We want so badly to believe it but deep in ourselves we know none of it is true. If it were we would all be thin, piano playing calligraphy masters. No matter how far we sink into our immediate gratification culture some things will never change at least not very soon. Babies still need months in the womb. Broken bones will still take a few weeks to heal. It still take 365 days to make a year and 60 minutes to make an hour.

Instant gratification is most certainly here, in the form of food, product and information. We can get anything we want, anytime, even if we can't afford it. Now firmly entrenched in the Information Age we can access information in a flash. Too bad so much of it is wrong.
Instant gratification does not exist when it comes to craftsmanship and skill. No matter which way you spin it, no matter how pretty you dress it up, Calligraphy is a skill and an art that requires patience and practise, study and dedication. Qualities in humans that are disappearing at a rapid rate.

Pen and paper are being replaced by digit and keyboard. Get over it. We are wasting unbelievable amounts of time and energy bemoaning the death of handwriting and the lack of interest in calligraphy. We are being heard loud and clear by those we wish to influence, that we are exasperated, angry and disappointed that more people don't want to be like us. That negativity only serves to drive prospective students away. Step Over It, move on. The LAST thing that lettering artists should be doing, is quibbling about, the validity of styles, the rights and wrongs of techniques and the means to attract new interest.

If Calligraphy is going to pass into obscurity then the best thing I can do is, teach whoever wants to learn and leave behind a prolific body of work, good bad or mediocre. Who will know the difference? I can only leave evidence that I practised this art to the best of my ability. I want my work to show that I was happy in it's process and it was worth the time and discipline I put in to gaining my level of proficiency. I was here. The world, our lives, our culture is changing. All we can do, is what we do, for as long as we are able, and be satisfied.