Quill Skill Newsletter
December 2006 / January 2007
New Year Greetings!
Please see my greeting design on the homepage, http://quillskill.com/ which plays on the idea of flow: fluency of ink and of the flux of life.
Ireland's President congratulates Denis Brown on Bursary Award
President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, welcomed and congratulated Crafts Council of Ireland Bursary winner, Denis Brown and second prize winner Joe Hogan, at the presidential residence, Áras an Uachtaráin, on December 13th at a small gathering. Denis Brown was awarded Euro14,000 to pursue his proposal to develop a portfolio of new work intended to attract architectural commissions.
Report on SOFA EXPO in Chicago in November
It was a privilege to exhibit at the major international SOFA expo in Chicago, November 9th- 12th, 2006. I was part of the Irish national Craft Gallery stand. It was the first time a national representation of the "best of irish" was presented at SOFA, by the National Craft Gallery and the Crafts Council of Ireland. My glass art was shown with 4 significant new works, which achieved a lot of close scrutiny (and plenty of 'ooh!'s), and my sales prices achieved record figures. Attendance at SOFA CHICAGO was estimated at 33,000 persons over the 3 days plus opening night.
New Work: glass-art slideshow online
Please take time to enjoy some recent and new works in glass at a new sub-domain of my site: http://glass.quillskill.com, including work that was shown at SOFA in Chicago.
2 month USA tour completed with many commendations
I spent September through November in USA, teaching workshops in many west coast locations & also in the mid-west. Highlights included being keynote speaker at Portland's AoCC (All of Oregon Calligraphy Conference), where I addressed over 200 enthusiastic participants who traveled from all around the state, and I projected my multi-media presentation onto three screens. Portland is famous as Lloyd Reynolds' home territory; although of course I previously knew the name and some writings of this legend of calligraphy's development in USA, I developed a better appreciation of his fundamental understanding and passion for the meaningfulness of calligraphy in a modern age. (It's easy to miss this aspect by judging only his calligraphy, which has been outshone by the better of subsequent generations). I thus took it as a compliment of very highest regard, that comments were made after my presentation, comparing my intellectual interrogation of the meanings in my own calligraphy to the ideals of Llyod Reynolds.
In South Bend, Indiana, I made my first public performance of large scale calligraphy to music, kindly appreciated by an enthusiastic full house; this was a preliminary trial towards the proposed performances with maestro cellist Rohan de Saram, (watch this space for more details of that enterprise).
Every place on my tour was infused with individual spirit, enterprise and talent, and I enjoyed teaching/sharing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Columbus (Ohio), Chicago, Portland (Oregon) and South Bend (Indiana) before returning to Chicago to participate in the major "SOFA" art Expo in November, (detailed above). My sincere thanks to all involved in the talented organization and behind-the-scenes passion that makes these tours possible!
New Acquisitions of Denis Brown in Newberry Library Chicago, and San Francisco Public Library.
A suite of my limited edition prints have been purchased by the San Francisco Public Library. The collection can be accessed by the public after signing in at the Book Arts & Special Collections department on the 6th Floor, where the Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy and Lettering is administered and curated by Susie Taylor. This collection also holds some of my original calligraphy from the 1990's.
In Chicago, the Newberry Library have also purchased a suite of my limited edition prints, funded by a private donor. This is the 'other' principal collection of contemporary calligraphy in USA (along with the San francisco Public Library), as well as having a fascinating collection of earlier material. Curator Paul Gehl points out, "The Newberry is one of the few major research libraries open to all, allowing calligraphers at all levels of expertise and experience to study original manuscript documents in many scripts and from many periods." The Newberry has also expressed interest to acquire a full set of original sketches and preparatory material for one of my edition prints, so as to document some details of my process and method. I have made an offer re. material relating to the development of my 'Manual Digital' edition, http://quillskill.com/prints/manualdigital.htm. This is now dependent on sponsorship from a private donor. Please contact me if you can assist in this matter, or if you are interested in the idea of acquiring preparatory sketches for work in other public or private collections.
Australia & Japan tours 2007
I will be teaching workshops in many cities in Australia in April-May 2007. Workshop and contact details have been posted at http://www.cecilia-letteringart.com/ALL/denisbrown_2007.html, and fuller descriptions of the themes are available from http://quillskill.com/workshops/workshops.htm
In Autumn, preparations are getting underway for me to teach in Japan once again. Contact the main Japanese Guilds/Networks for further information.
Keynote speaker at Island Magic Conference, Vancouver 2007
I have been invited to give the keynote lecture , as well as teach a 5 day class at "Island Magic", the 27th International Conference for Calligraphers, July 21 - 28, 2007, http://islandmagic2007.com. Thirty other international faculty have been listed for this event, so come join the party! Although I have taught at most of the international conferences of the past 10 years, and presented lectures at a couple, this is my first to present a keynote at such an event. The location is by all accounts exquisite, and bookings are already filling. My class at this conference will be called "Developing Expression in Calligraphy" and will be an adaptation of the workshop described in detail at my website: http://quillskill.com/workshops/capsexpression/capsexpression.htm
Educational Calligraphy DVD/CD-ROM update
Despite outstanding interest and enquiry, I have to regretfully inform that no progress has been made in this exciting enterprise, simply due to other commitments. Frankly, I'm itching for the time to focus again on this project, as I'm confident I can significantly outstep the standard of current educational product for all levels of calligrapher, in terms of depth of analysis, logic of argument, and clarity of portrayal, in video as well as printed accompaniment. However, other projects and commitments will keep me from this work for the time being.
Wishing all of you best Christmas Greetings and a stimulating and exciting year in 2007!
Denis Brown
August 2006
New Video online!
A promotional movie for the proposed multimedia performance of music and calligraphy by Rohan de Saram (cello), with live visual art by Denis Brown (calligraphy/mixed media). See it at: http://quillskill.com/FLV/choose_mov.html
It is also linked from the newly designed homepage http://quillskill.com/
National Craft Award goes to Calligrapher
Denis Brown was awarded the Crafts Council of Ireland's annual bursary.
The award of €14,000 will be used to develop large scale calligraphy works and to make a portfolio intended to attract architectural commissions, particularly targeted for public buildings in Ireland. Read the details at:
http://www.ccoi.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=154&Itemid=195
National Museum of Ireland acquire a Denis Brown
The National Museum of Ireland have acquired a work in glass for their permanent collection. The commission was based on an earlier piece which museum curators had seen on the Irish Crafts Council's 'Portfolio' CD-rom, and the new work now forms part of the National Craft Collection, co-funded by the Crafts Council of Ireland and the National Museum. The work will be considered for appropriate forthcoming exhibitions at the Museum's Collins Barracks location in Dublin, but in the meantime can be seen in the 'What's in Store' room, a storage room that is open to the public. See the new piece online at: http://www.quillskill.com/glass/redotter2.html
Letter Arts Review 2006
My work 'textin iz messin' has been selected as the cover image for Letter Arts Review magazine's Review 2006 to be published next year. But you can see it now and read full details at http://quillskill.com/expressive/txtin_messin.html The work playfully juxtaposes abbreviated text from ancient scribal traditions with modern SMS text messages.
New Workshop topics available
Shadowboxes: now available as an independent 2 day theme based on part of the 5 day Layering class: http://quillskill.com/workshops/layering/shadowbox.htm
The Layering class page has had some additions made to the materials list: http://quillskill.com/workshops/layering/layering.htm
The Celtic workshop pages have been updated, and a new one day introductory module has been added: http://quillskill.com/workshops/celtic/celtic.htm
Denis Brown at SOFA EXPO, Chicago
I will be exhibiting with the Irish Crafts Council at SOFA, the major international exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional art, November 10th -12th 2006. A range of new works in layered glass will be exhibited and made available for sale. This will be a rare opportunity to see some of my larger works in the USA.
http://sofaexpo.com/
New Works & New Edition Print
Although I have not had time to announce them by newsletter, new works have regularly been uploaded to the sales section of my site, http://quillskill.com/sales/sales.htm, and many can still be seen there, although most work is now sold.
I have a new limited edition artist print available, entitled Manual Digital. It plays on the original meaning of the word digital, as pertaining to the fingers. In this sense all handwritten calligraphy is digital.... manual digital, that is. Full info and images at: http://www.quillskill.com/prints/manualdigital.htm
2006 Lecture series
My 2006 multimedia presentation/lecture about my work, was launched in Germany in March, and subsequently at the CLAS AGM in London, which drew a record attendance at the prestigious British Library location. The presentation will be made in many US locations during my Fall tour.
http://quillskill.com/workshops/lecture.htm
Italic DVD- update
Unfortunately, I have had no time to develop the educational DVD on italic writing that I have previously announced. The project is shelved for now, but in due course I hope to find time to produce a range of educational products, teaching a selection of my workshop topics in an innovative and interactive DVD/CD-rom format.
February - March 2006
New Works uploaded this month
New works are now available for viewing and for sale. Many of these are smaller and more affordable works in layered glass, featuring 3 sheets of glass over a background image. Browse the online gallery of these small works at:
http://quillskill.com/new_smalls/sales.html
One of these works begins a new series exploring the linguistic phenomenon of SMS text abbreviation and compares it with medieval scribal abbreviation such as the Tyronian notes. Read my thoughts on this and see the work at:
http://quillskill.com/new_smalls/txtme.html
Also see other new works posted recently at:
http://quillskill.com/calligraphy/scribendi.html
http://quillskill.com/sales/al_frame.html
Calligraphy as Performance
I'm excited to make preliminary announcement of a dynamic collaboration:
A proposed multimedia performance of music and calligraphy by Rohan de Saram (cello), with live visual art by Denis Brown (calligraphy/mixed media). More details, plus a photo of me wielding a broom sized pen at: http://quillskill.com/calligraphy/performance.html
The page is also available from the "New Work" link in the QuillSkill menu frame (filed under >calligraphy>new work)
Interest in staging this event has already been expressed by the Scottish Sound Festival in Aberdeen in November, and we are keen to hear from others who may wish to stage or sponsor a performance. If you can help in any way please contact me.
China Review Article
The collaboration with Rohan de Saram has come from my first meeting with the maestro cellist at The Music of Ink event at the British Museum last summer, in which we each collaborated with a Chinese artist (but not with each other at that time). Helen Wang of the British Museum has reviewed that event in a recent edition of China Review with a few comments worth quoting. Chinese poet, Yang Lian spoke knowingly about traditions of poetry that certainly apply to our traditions of calligraphy also: When I first began to write poetry, one thing was crystal clear in my mind. If I could not find a creative link between the classical Chinese tradition and my own writing, then I would have to declare the tradition dead. There would be no "tradition", only a "past".
Helen Wang also reviewed the presentation I gave with Chinese artist Qu Lei Lei: Denis Brown and Qu Lei Lei are both visual artists. Their conversation considered some of the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western calligraphy. Denis is a Dublin based calligrapher who, after a rigorous training in Western calligraphy, is currently producing some of the most compelling calligraphy anywhere. For example, the barcode, which is a document legible to a computer, features in some recent work. He works with hard instruments: sharp pens on paper and vellum, and dentist's drill on layered glass. Likening the pen to a sword, he observed that within "swordsmanship" lies "wordsmanship". Qu Lei Lei is a London based artist, calligrapher and expert in tai chi. He is currently enjoying a solo exhibition of his work at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford- the first by any Chinese artist. Lei Lei gave an overview of the history of Chinese painting and calligraphy, before talking about his own work.
To read the full article you must get a copy of the China Review, issue 33, but Helen finishes with a more optimistic view on traditions than her opening quote by Yang Lian ...it is inspiring to be able to step out of our everyday life, and see how artists from different backgrounds explore and understand concepts of the traditional, and how they work with and develop those ideas as they create their own very contemporary new work. In this way, they are not only maintaining a tradition, they are also refreshing and renewing that tradition.
Workshops Update
I have updated my workshop schedule page, http://quillskill.com/workshops/workshop_sched.htm to list most of my bookings for 2006.
Denis Brown, 31 January 2006
December 2005 - January 2006
This is the first newsletter since Autumn, as I have been away from home most of the time since then, teaching many workshops across the United States, and also briefly in Norway. Exhibition commitments since my return home a few weeks ago have left me no time for website updates, although I was producing new works at a rapid rate! ...one or even 2 works per day at the busiest periods. However at that rate, I had to revisit older themes rather than spend time on new developments, so I choose not to publish these works at this time.
Seasons Greetings to you all! Please see my Christmas card online at http://www.quillskill.com/xmas/card.html
It becomes more difficult as years go by to yet again find something different to offer as a Christmas card, yet I still feel it's worth the effort. This year the design has a root in the philosophy of German calligrapher, Hans Joachim Burgert, whose ideas I have been reviewing in the context of my class on 'Polyrhythmic Calligraphy', (a new offering added to my workshop list recently: http://quillskill.com/workshops/rhythm/polyrhythmic.htm). However my means and my goals have been very different from Burgert's, this time involving 'digital calligraphy'. For me, that term means HANDwritten by fingers, (ie. digits; and thus the original 'manual digital', from Latin- manus=hand), but then the writing is also disturbed and transformed by algorithm, which adds the arithmetic and computational meanings we normally associate with the term 'digital'.
The featured 'new work' link this month also utilizes the artwork made for my Christmas card, but in an opportunistic yet creative turnaround of a mistake... see and read about it at http://quillskill.com/xmas/lamp.html
Note for Windows XP, service pack 2 users only: This and many other pages of my site use dynamic content for added enjoyment. It involves programming what Microsoft describe with alarming warnings as "active content that may harm your computer". Of course I have no interest whatsoever to do anything other than enhance your computer experience, so please be assured it is absolutely safe to allow the active content from the Quillskill site to run, and to disregard Microsoft's extremist warnings. Personally, on my own PCs I disable these warnings completely. If you wish to do that, under Internet Explorer's "tools" menu select "internet options" then click the "advanced" tab and scroll down to the security list. Click to place a tick in the 2nd box down: "Allow active content to run in files on my computer". While you are there I'd also recommend checking first box for "Allow active content to run from CD's to run on my computer" since if you ever use a professionally designed CD ROM it will almost certainly have active content. Then scroll up a little to the "Multimedia" list and un-check the first box for "Enable automatic Image Resizing". This feature shrinks all images larger than your screen to fit, with a significant loss in quality as well as size. I and other designers deliberately offer enlarged images that allow the user to scroll around to view details at high quality. (This aspect relates to the Quillskill website, and more again to the Denis Brown CD-Rom: http://quillskill.com/DBCD/cd-r.htm).
My little disclaimer: It is true that some active content, particularly from dubious and/or illegal websites, may be designed to harm your computer or generate spam advertising, but reputable sites have more respect for their visitors. Nonetheless, PC users should invest in antivirus and antispam software. Macintosh users are largely free of these concerns, so far.
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and holiday period, and may the New Year bring many opportunities and successes for each of us!
Denis Brown
Sept/October 2005
Here's some brief news of a few projects squeezed in between a busy schedule mostly taken up by workshop preparations and teaching.
Proposed TV Documentary about Denis Brown
Midas Productions, http://www.midasproductions.ie, are currently preparing a show reel to accompany a proposal to Irish national TV company, RTE. The proposed one hour documentary has a working title of 'The Swordsman from Dundrum' (!), referring to the town where I grew up and to the swordsmanship analogies I use for gestural/expressive writing. I produced titling for this proposal which you can see at:
http://quillskill.com/calligraphy/swordsman_dun.htm and is also the 'New Work" link from my top-frame menu for this month.
Other New works recently posted:
http://quillskill.com/glass/otterspath.htm
http://quillskill.com/glass/inkblood.htm
http://quillskill.com/sales/redcrab.htm
http://quillskill.com/glass/square1.htm
July/August 2005
Teaching trips for workshops in Australia, UK, and USA have taken up most of my time recently, hence this is the first newsletter since June. Thanks to those who have written the excellent reviews from some of these workshops which were posted to the Cyberscribes group, http://www.calligraph.com/cyberscribes. Educational aspects of calligraphy become an increasingly important part of my work, and I find this helps me clarify and concentrate my intentions while making and explaining my own art.
New Work produced for Legacies 2005
Now is the time of the annual US calligraphy conference, this year in Dallas TX ; Legacies 2005. Just this week I've produced a work for the faculty exhibition at Legacies, and this is posted as my "New Work" for the coming month. See it at http://www.quillskill.com/sales/crab_col.htm. Make sure to click the image to load a larger than life size image that reveals a lot more of the fine details. (PC Internet Explorer v.6 users will find that their browser will automatically shrink large images to fit the screen, however in instances like this on thee Quill Skill site, this is NOT what you want... if individually re-sizing images to the full size becomes tiresome, you can turn off Automatic image resizing permanently: from the "tools" menu select "Internet Options", then click the "Advanced" tab and scroll down to "Multimedia" and un-check the box for "Enable Automatic Image Resizing")
Denis Brown CD-ROM update
I'm pleased to announce the release of version 2.5 of my CD-Rom, sWordsmanship, The Calligraphic Art of Denis Brown. The new version includes various works from 2005 among the chapters; a new chapter, 'The Barcode Series', (works inspired by the idea that barcodes could be seen as digital manuscripts); and a new illustrated feature 'Contemporary Calligraphy' in the Essays section, (this will also be published in the CLAS August special edition mentioned below). Finally two new video clips have been added, previewing work in progress from my forthcoming Italic Masterclass DVD. The cost remains the same, at US$40 including postage worldwide. If you haven't already got an earlier version, these updates make the new version better value than ever. Order online at http://www.quillskill.com/DBCD/cd-r.htm with credit card payment accepted via the PayPal system.
Ink on the screen
Denis Brown CD-Rom Review published in Fourth Door Review magazine, Number 7 The Blue Pollen Issue.
This four page review is unusual in that it is from outside of the sheltered calligraphic arena and sits within the broader field of the Arts. In a well considered review, the author thinks it paradoxical to find a calligrapher communicating via CD-rom, in a digital age when 'a new chapter in writing is being inaugurated, a chapter whose contents include the radical reduction of fingers holding and directing pens and pencils for the shaping of words'.
However, he continues '...far from stepping into a profession to maintain a tradition, and perhaps because he was growing up and living in the fast changing eighties Ireland, Brown has partially turned calligraphy inside out, taking it in whole new directions.
'It feels appropriate then, that a calligrapher who has invested heavily in both subversion and experimentation of the craft, should use the CD-ROM format as a media by which to convey some of the different elements to his work.'
After a discussion of the content, the author comments on the nature of hypertext and digital communication in conclusion. He laments the lack of tactile qualities in that are inherent in hand made works: 'images disappear into the democratic flatness of the computerised rendering'. Of course, this kind of dialogue is not new to digital reproduction. Even in printed form, we continually lament that subtleties of original works fail to be reproduced; as always there is no substitute for viewing original works 'in the flesh'. Beyond this again even manuscript writing has been acutely criticized at various points in history, most notably by Socrates, since it loses the self-presence of the spoken word. Ironically however, we could not know of Socrates' views, if his disciple Plato had not written it down for posterity, in 'The Phaedo'. Essentially, what we are involved in as humans is the art of communication, and our tools & media include e-mail as well as ink, writing as well as speech, and personality as well as empathy. I would not like to be without any of these, and for me personally, a digital image projected in luminous pixels on my 23" Apple flat panel screen can, on occasion, get my juices flowing as much as gold on vellum. (Technically, 'illumination' in this context of a liquid crystal display or LCD, is more directly descriptive than in the context of medieval manuscripts, where light is reflected but not generated and colour mixing is subtractive rather than additive).
Nonetheless, the reviewer certainly managed to get a feel for the original art reproduced on my CD-ROM, since his final words, after mentioning the 'great promises held out for electronic pens, and for "tablet" screens', are :'Denis Brown's CD-ROM, while taking us on a tour of some ground breaking experiments in interfacing the two worlds, is a vivid reminder of how great and remaining the distance is between electronicing hand originated writing and the art and skill of calligraphy'.
I'm sure we all agree.
Review by Oliver Lowenstein, Fourth Door Review, Number 7, The Blue Pollen Issue. Info at http://www.fourthdoor.co.uk/
CLAS August Special Edition
Members of the UK Calligraphy & Lettering Arts Society, CLAS, will soon receive the August special edition guest designed by David McGrail and myself, and featuring a variety of our work and articles. This full colour special edition will not be available from other sources, the only way to get a copy is to become a member. (This is a condition deriving from CLAS' status as a registered charity). Membership details at http://www.clas.co.uk/
Denis Brown
June 2005
Traveling to teach workshops has taken up much of my time in the past month, however I have posted one new work relating to my Barcode series, using my own words & involving a development of my layering process. I have to admit I'm really proud of it, since it involves a new dynamic for me regarding "fluency" of ink flow.
The concept derives from observance that the ubiquitous barcode has a relationship to the manuscript book of the middle ages. Both are made of patterns of black & white lines and are legible documents, (the former to a digital scanner). The barcode can almost be seen as a digital calligraphy, although devoid of any spiritual dimension! My pattern of black & white stripes here takes inspiration from the barcode yet aims to bring a sense of spirituality and aesthetics to what is normally cold and commercial.
See it and read more at http://www.quillskill.com/sales/musicofink.htm
Workshop news
My class on "Layered Calligraphy" at Legacies, this year's conference in Dallas TX is fully booked with a wait list, however, those of you who are keen on this topic, (& there appear to be many!), may still have a chance if you are quick about it- I teach the same topic at Camp Cheerio in North Carolina in Fall. (Editor's note, June 10th: This workshop is now also full with a short wait list.) Details at http://www.calligraphycentre.com/fall2005.html. Enquiries to tetascribe@triad.rr.com
Press feature:
Beyond beauty: Contemporary calligraphy scratching out a new image
By ANDREW S. HUGHES
Staff Writer, South Bend Tribune, Indiana, USA, May 22, 2005
'Denis Brown practices "calligraphy with attitude," a new form of an old craft that seeks to make calligraphy contemporary and an art in its own right. Brown also is adept at traditional calligraphy, and has created works inspired by Irish medieval illuminated manuscripts.'
In the past, calligraphy has meant "beautiful writing."
In the hands of contemporary practitioners such as Denis Brown, however, it's an art form that combines visual images with text. The text can be legible or not, depending upon the calligrapher's vision for the work.
"It's almost like a painting, where letters are the brush strokes," Brown says of calligraphy by telephone from a lecture tour-stop in St. Louis. "For me, it has to do with being expressive."
Brown's expressive style has been called "calligraphy with attitude," and he'll give a lecture about it Thursday at Studio Arts Classes in South Bend.
"My writing includes a lot of speed and changes of dynamics," he says of his style. "You can write a word to mean different things. You can write to be angry or peaceful."
His work, Brown says, combines visual art with text, but meaning may not be obvious.
"You may have to go into how (the words) interact with the image as presented," he says. "The actual message of the text may not be the semantic message I present. I may present a semantic message to disagree with the meaning, (just) as you can question a position in an argument."
These and other techniques are conscious attempts by Brown to "make calligraphy contemporary" in his practice of it.
"I've also been inspired by bar codes and rhythmic patterns of music that I program into a computer," he says. "Calligraphy is another example of rhythmic patterns."
Most people learn calligraphy by copying historical styles, Brown says, their enthusiasm fuelled by the realization that it takes "just a few strokes" of the pen to make a full calligraphic letter.
"There's a fascination with shape there, and then decorating them with particular styles of illumination," he says. "It was only later that I became aware of contemporary forms of calligraphy, making it into an art form rather than just copying letter styles."
Born in 1968 in Dublin, Brown discovered calligraphy when he entered high school and took an art class from a teacher who incorporated it into the course's lessons.
"Being in Ireland, we have a great heritage with that," he says.
Indeed.
"The Book of Kells," the most celebrated of its works, remains on public display at Trinity College in Dublin and was a prime influence on Brown as a young calligrapher.
"At the time I was a schoolboy, there was no charge, and I could see it any time," he says. "It was part of my teenage visits to the city center. I used to play video games after that."
Written around the year 800 by several monks associated with the monasteries at Iona and Kells, the 680-page book reproduces the four Gospels of the New Testament in text and fabulous, metaphorical illustrations.
"It's still what I feel is the most outstanding work of art of all time in history," Brown says. "It expresses its time, and it expresses the personalities of the individuals who made it, and it does so in a technically unbelievable way."
As unlikely as it seems, Brown says he sees a connection between Irish illumination and the video games he'd play after studying Trinity's medieval manuscripts.
"Looking back, I see similarities between the graphics of early video games, 'Space Invaders' or 'Galaxy' or 'Pac Man,' and not 'The Book of Kells' but earlier Irish manuscripts, more primitive in their use of two-dimensional forms and patterns of dots," he says.
On Wednesday, Brown will give a lecture about "The Book of Kells" at the Medieval Institute in the Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame.
"I will be showing and explaining some pages of 'The Book of Kells,' the decorations, but particularly the writing and showing some of my more traditional works that are inspired by that culture," he says.
In one, "Pangur Ban," Brown takes a ninth century poem by a monk that compares the monk's hunt for words with his cat's hunt for mice and gives it a modern spin: The cat, with computer mouse in paw, plays "Pac Man" on a computer screen while the monk writes in a manuscript. http://www.quillskill.com/trad/pangur.htm
Denis Brown
May 2005
Last month I announced that newsletters may be sporadic since my time will be predominantly invested in production of my film,"Italic with Attitude- A Calligraphy Master class". Nonetheless I have a couple of new small works to show this month. Both are an extension of my layered "shadowbox" style; they feature writing on glass that casts shadows onto a background paper.
The first of the two links below features my own words. I wrote them as part of what may be the most ironic collaboration to date that I have had with English poet Catherine Byron. If an artist and poet collaborate, one expects the poet to write a text and the artist to make an image. We have conformed to such expectation in the past, as evidenced in some other works on the QuillSkill site. However, this time the convention is turned on its head, as I was inspired to write a poem after Catherine sent me a visual image! See the work plus Catherine's photograph that inspired it, and read the full story at: http://www.quillskill.com/sales/crab.htm Interestingly, Catherine has since sent me a poem she wrote, influenced by an earlier verbal concept of my own, (Aqueous Humour, Vitreous Temper), so I figure that we are even!
You can see and read about the second new work at:
http://www.quillskill.com/sales/writeCol.htm
Both feature cursive "polyrhythmic" calligraphy, and a new finesse of line has been achieved in the writing on glass simply by the discovery of an alternative brand of glass paint. It works rather better than the one I struggled with previously! I just wish you could see them in their 3-D "flesh'. Nonetheless it gives me great satisfaction to be able to publish new works practically as soon as the ink is dry!
By contrast, the latest issue of "Letter Arts Review", the Review 2004 annual, has recently been delivered and features among the entries a work of mine that was fairly new when submitted, but has been online at QuillSkill for well over a year, (with clearer pictures and with the full story, which seems to have been censored in LAR, since the artist's description they requested has been omitted in publication). Rather disappointing, but you can still get the bigger picture at: http://www.quillskill.com/glass/redotter.html
(No offence intended to John or Rose of Letter Arts Review- it's still the world's best magazine in the field- and highly recommended) http://www.johnnealbooks.com/lar/
Denis Brown
April 2005
My time in the past month has been spent filming and editing video for my DVD project, now with the working title "Italic with Attitude- A Calligraphy Masterclass". The work is exciting but slow, given the attention to detail I'm putting into it, plus the fact that I'm on a learning curve. To give you an idea- I spent a whole day illustrating a beautiful clock-face with fine flourishes. It spends just 4 seconds on screen! In the movie, it ticks in time to rhythmic beats (that I have yet to program and record), before it turns into footage of the earth rotating! (It's from a sequence explaining rhythm in writing, which is introduced with a mention of rhythmic cycles in nature regarding time of day and planetary motion). You can see a still image of my clock-face here.
In a more functional sense I'm very pleased with the quality of close writing shots that I can achieve- you'll get to see practically what I see, but enlarged to fill your TV screen. It's much larger than life and, I think, a lot more revealing than watching a live demonstration amongst a crowd of students around my table at a workshop. The clips I've filmed to date have enabled me to observe my own movements without having to also concentrate on writing. This has been informative and revealing and no doubt will help refine my ability to explain complex techniques when I teach.
I'd like to say thanks to Trish Meyer of CyberMotion, www.cybmotion.com for her generous and expert advice on movie production and motion graphics.
It now seems clear that 2006 will be the DVD publication date, due to the amount of work to be done and due to a busy schedule of other work this year. More news and previews will be made available on the Quill Skill site in due course prior to publication.
Because of the DVD production work, I'm afraid I have no new art work to publish this month, (apart from the clock-face illustration mentioned above). This scenario is likely to continue, so it will be impractical for me to send out monthly news mails, but will notify you instead only as additions are made to the site. Please continue to visit Quillskill.com, the site has grown considerably in the past months and there's a lot to explore.
New Workshop Topics
One other small addition to the site this month: I have added two new topics to the list of workshops I offer- "Dangerous Lines" and "Polyrhythmic Calligraphy".
Special edition CLAS magazine
In August there will be a special issue of "The Edge" magazine of CLAS, (Calligraphy & Lettering Arts Society, UK), to be written and designed collaboratively by David McGrail and myself. Members of CLAS can look forward to receiving that- others may visit www.clas.co.uk for general and subscription info.
Denis Brown
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