Catching Idle Butterflies

The beauty of the written word

Before writing interested me, at eight, calligraphy grabbed hold of my artistic side. I loved how the letters flowed in various types of calligraphy. Be it the elaborate cursive of Copperplate, similar to what was used to write the Declaration of Independence, or the simultaneous intricacies and abruptness of German Gothic script, I couldn’t get enough of staring at it.

I started mimicking the styles our World Book encyclopedia showed under Calligraphy. Since I had no calligraphy pen set, I used pencil. On the thicker styles such as German script, I outlined the outer edges and colored them in. I used that book to practice so often, I broke the spine at that page so I no longer had to leaf through the pages.

When I received my first calligraphy set at twelve, practicing my calligraphy became much easier and quicker. I now had the proper tools.

I continued to practice it all through high school. I even received a few paying jobs for invitations, and my friends constantly approached me to write birthday cards, love notes, and the like.

I discovered in junior high I had incorporated the fancier scripts into my handwriting. I drove my teachers nuts, because every week I would completely change my handwriting style. One week I would write with block letters, the next I would write in a tiny, round and loopy script. Some even asked me who wrote my papers. I had to write several sentences in whatever handwriting I used at the time to prove I did it. After a while, though, I chose a style that I really liked and stuck with it.

Along came computers and fancy fonts. I quit my calligraphy because I now had hundreds if not thousands of fonts to choose from. Plus life intruded and I no longer had the time.

I realized last night I haven’t forgotten all I learned. I’ve been using one of my journals to write down my answers to the questions asked in Marlene Bagnull’s book, “Write His Answer.”

After doing one of the lessons, I stared at what I wrote, not at the words, but how I put them down. Though not perfect, they were consistent, as though I had concentrated as much on how they looked as what I wrote.

I’ve written before about how I like writing by hand more than typing on the screen. There’s a depth to writing by hand that can be missed by using a computer generated font. I can tell my mood at the time I wrote something by hand, and without reading a single word.

Mom bought me a book years ago about handwriting analysis. I read only part of it, but I was fascinated. You can tell a lot about a person’s personality as well as their moods by how they write. It can be as unique as a fingerprint, which is why still today our signatures have such legal import.

I did learn from someone a while back a few schools are no longer teaching cursive. They think with the proliferation of computers cursive is outdated and useless. The parent complained about this because their teenage son, never having learned cursive, didn’t have a signature, and couldn’t sign for his driver’s license. I even talked to a gal on this site when I first became a member about how excited she was to finally learn cursive – in high school! Even then, it wasn't something the school taught her. She had pursued learning it on her own.

I am heartened by one thing. Searching http://wikipedia.com for calligraphy I found this little piece:

Calligraphy continues to be applied today in graphic design, logo design, maps, menus, greeting cards, invitations, legal documents, diplomas, unfortunately forgery, poetry, bussiness cards, in hand made presentations, and numerous other places. Calligraphers find their "bread and butter" work in the addressing of calligraphic envelopes and invitations for weddings and large parties. Digital type design facilitates the making of calligraphic fonts by calligraphers, thousands are now in use particularly by greeting card companies such as Hallmark and American Greetings. Some important calligraphers of the twentieth century are Arthur Baker and Hermann Zapf.

In the late twentieth century some calligraphers broke free of the functional task of transcription and began to place more emphasis on expression than legibility. Written forms have become more abstract for these artists and are incorporated into works which have as much affinity to contemporary painting as to ancient manuscript writing. At the same time, the multi-million dollar Saint John's illuminated Bible project for the 21st century was conceived by Donald Jackson and is nearing completion. It is the most substantial illuminated Bible in 500 years executed with both ancient and modern tools and techniques. Notable calligraphers who have carried the calligraphic art into the twenty-first century include Donald Jackson, Thomas Ingmire, Hazel Dolby, Julian Waters, Sheila Waters, Denis Brown, and Brody Neuenschwander.

I do hope calligraphy and cursive doesn’t become a niche art, used only by artists, but by everyone who wants to express themselves through the act of writing by hand. It’s so versatile anyone can learn it, and at the same time, make it uniquely their own.