Brush Lettering, Pattern & Mysterious Codes
Two Workshops with Laurie Doctor

Stories were first transmitted orally, passed down by sound and gesture through time. Gesture became visual with the development of symbol: human marks on a tactile surface. These symbols became alphabets, representing sounds and images. Image comes from the same Latin root as imagine. Imago: 'likeness of something'. The shift from oral transmission to to visual representation signals a leap in human consciousness. When imaginaton is ignited, there are infinite possibilities for changing our language, our story, our image. In the context of visual writing systems, which are always evolving, we can uncover new alphabets, signs and marks.

In these workshops we will travel from Renaissance Italy, where the Italic hand was developed, into the present age. What will happen? Writing, brush lettering, and application of principles of proportion, unity and contrast, pattern and variation, figure and ground. These components are instrumental in the finding of a new alphabet. Using sumi ink, water color, graphite, the pointed brush and odd writing tools, we will create a book written in a mysterious code.

Date:

February 29 - March 4, 2001

Place:

Tampa, Florida