Why Calligraphy; Why Now?

After my conversation with the two ‘new calligraphers’ last week, I started thinking about why anyone would even want to learn calligraphy in this day of high-speed internet, texting, tweeting, and yes – blogs.  After all, the computer is capable of turning out pages of perfect text that can be customized in any way the writer desires.  Can’t spell?  No problem.  Your computer can help with that.  Poor grammar?  Your computer can help with that too.  Want millions of colors?  They’re all right there at your command.  Can’t draw, but need an illustration?  There are millions of copyright-free pictures to be downloaded and added to your text.

With all this perfection available to nearly anyone, why on earth would anyone want to spend years learning calligraphy?

I think the desire to learn calligraphy, as with any other art form, stems from the deep-seated need within all of us to create something beautiful with our own hands.  The earliest calligraphers in the Western tradition lived austere lives of service, under the most extreme conditions,  working long days in unheated, poorly lit rooms.  Most of these monks could not read, yet they produced and illuminated some  of the most beautiful manuscripts the world has ever seen, using simple tools and pigments they made themselves, writing on hides they scraped and cured themselves.  Yes, they were working to illuminate the word of God, but I think they also felt the very human need to create something beautiful for it’s own sake.

As I write this, I’m sitting comfortably in my office with a cat draped across my bare feet – not exactly a position of deprivation!  When I finish this post I will close down the electronic marvel that allows me to communicate with the world, extricate my feet from underneath the cat, and trek the length of the house to my studio.  And there, with my own hands, and simple tools not very much changed from those the early scribes used, I will try to create a thing of beauty.