Scribbled Lives Week 30—Chart Your Course

“Mapping the Artist’s Mind: Modernism and Inscription” was the title of a two-day seminar exploring the work of David Jones (1895-1974), a British poet and painter. A contemporary of Eric Gill, Jones crafted inscriptions—painted speech. His creative letter shapes and compact spacing are distinctive. To traditional calligraphers, they possess a naive and rustic charm.

As a poet, he was interested in the performative impact of the spoken text. His intention was to focus on the letters as a painting and less on the meaning of the content. As a result, he often used texts written in Latin and Welsh so readers would not be distracted by their meaning.

I charted a course by composing a poem, translating it to Latin, and emulating David Jones’ inscriptional style. I used a broad-edge nib and gouache to build up letters as Jones did, but my unfamiliarity with his letter shapes resulted in a blobby mess. Instead, I charted my own course by drawing inspiration from his letters rather than slavishly copy. Graphite pencil on mystery paper.

“In dreams I journey to uncharted destinations. These unmapped realms are the places to explore.” Lily Yee-Sloan