A year ago I was celebrating my 50th Birthday in China by climbing the Great Wall. I ended almost "dead" of exhaustion from my 10 mile climb. Yet a few days later i went to the main art market in Beijing looking for all things calligraphy. I had seen, and even bought, some great Chinese watercolor art on fabric, so amongst interesting oriental papers, I was also looking to buy some real silk "canvas". I was surprised to discover how rare it was even in China. Silk for artwork does not come cheap nor is it easy to find.
At home it took me almost another year to cut into and try out this scary, curious, precious material. What you see here is my first, and so far, my only try with silk. (No worries, I made an investment, and have yards of it left). The homework assignment from Reggie was drawn roman
caps, and I decided to combine them with pointed pen. Yes, believe it or not, I took the needle-like nib straight to the delicate fabric, and it worked almost like writing on butter would. Sensitive and smooth. No spreading, no catching threads on this sharpest of tools! Then I filled in
my romans and the green leafy decoration with tiny brush and watercolors, all the while taking advantage of what watercolors can do. As the matter of fact, the only medium used for this piece is watercolor. Including copperplate lettering.
As I "finished" the piece, it started to seriously rebuke me. I want more, it said. You can see through me, so show something through. Use me! So I cut another piece of silk, marked the area I wanted to show, and covered it entirely with broad edge pen romans, still in watercolor. As my tool
was full of ink this time, it bled a little, and letterforms came out somewhat distorted, but after all, it was to be a just a background.
So what you now see is two layers of silk placed on top of each other, playing with each other. Not much planning. After completing, I just ironed the two pieces of fabric to an absolute smooth surface. All crumpling just disappeared. The Chinese stamp with my name in Latin and Mandarin alphabet was custom made for me in Beijing, and gave the final touch.
Some weeks ago, while teaching a pointed pen class called Seastones at IAMPETH conference in Louisville, I donated this piece to the organization.
Exactly on my 51st birthday this July, a fellow calligrapher Jennifer Calvert Cathey from College Station, Texas generously purchased it at their auction.
This story is over, but not my adventures with silk, nor with Reggie's homework assignments. (2017)
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