Posts by Mel Strawn
Is language, and in our sphere of interest, written language not a ‘reaching out’ and a ‘taking in’, an active force?
Usually employed to communicate with others–present or potential, its overt or subjective value is most often utilitarian, a nearly invisible, efficient means to an end, the conveyance of information. Beyond the many such manifestations it partially shapes, informs (literally) and transmits experiential value(s). In practice, in East and West, the forms taken by written/calligraphic language…
Read MoreWhat is the 5th Dimension of Calligraphy?
My own involvement in this special art has a haunting and evasive, sometimes very simple, undertone. Haunting because it is part of my mental life that includes much that is beyond or not part of everyday rational habits. It is more than an exotic Asian mystery and philosophy felt as a special mystique by many…
Read MoreA Sunday Drive with Saburo Hasegawa, an Asian American Pioneer of Abstract Calligraphy
I had promised to print a lithograph for Saburo and had told him – “anytime, the stone is prepared”. I had my own press and several lithographic stones on which
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