A Thousand Wishes series
Innovative calligraphy/glass-art by Denis Brown

 

The original request for the wishes I collected is posted below.
Click here for images of works produced to date.
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Quill Skill News Mail: New Year 2009

Sincere Wishes: A Request for Collaboration!

Image: a dandelion clock


The idea of making a wish whilst blowing a dandelion seed head or 'wishie' is embedded in folklore. The wish is released with a breath and allowed to float away as one more seed in the air.

The dandelion will be the subject of my first series of 2009 and I urge you to help me! This common weed may be a nuisance for gardeners but it's feathery seed head, the dandelion clock, has always captured the imagination of children.

"...in many northern Italian dialects, it is known as soffione, which translates to "blowing", and refers to the habit of blowing the seeds from the stalk. The same is valid for German, where "Pusteblume" (blowing flower) is a popular designation. Likewise, in Polish it is called "dmuchawiec" which comes from "dmuchać", "to blow" when in its seed state." Source: Wikipedia.

I would like to collect many wishes, and embody them in art. I am asking everyone- and YOU in particular- to please send me a short wish. The less-personal nature of this group mail gives you an easy means of opting out if you are hesitant, yet I really encourage you to consider participation. In fact, I'm depending on you! In releasing your wish to me, I'll wish it may come true for you.

I plan to engrave all wishes by hand into a new series of my glass art pieces. Some previous works were inadvertently reminiscent of a dandelion clock; and this image will be actively deployed in the new series. All wishes will be anonymous in my work and 90% will be illegible; since a hundred wishes may overlap each other in one work. The significance will be that the wishes are implicit, even if not clearly readable, and will be understood as real expressions of people with a worldwide demographic. I need your help since it would be simplistic and sad to write only my own wishes; and closer to Narcissus than Taraxacum. The art will be frozen, captured as a moment in time, but your breath that releases the wish will remain a free flowing 'seed'; alive in the air and independent of any thing I make. I take a deep breath myself as I type, and I release that breath; giving to the unknown yet excited by the prospect.

Please do send me your wish. I only request a single sentence of text. It may be in English or in your native language, if that can be written with the Roman alphabet. (For example Japanese may be represented phonetically with alphabet, and this would spare me the pretension of copying forms I do not know). Your wish may be serious or trivial; momentary or long held. You do not need to send an explanation or translation, I do not need to understand your wish, but my wish is that your's is sincere. If it has been written on your soul for a long time, then I encourage you to release it. On the other hand, if you find in coming days you spontaneously wish something in your mind; I invite you to write it down before you forget it; and email it to me later, when you have a spare moment. I will make use of all kinds of wish. The wish should be your own words and not a quotation; I am not seeking poetry, just authenticity. You may send me more than one wish; send as many or as few as you wish, and whenever you wish.

Type me an e-mail, and breathe your wish as you hit 'send' to let it go. I cannot make your wish come true but your participation just might make it more tangible for you.The calligraphers and scribes among you may thus find that even e-mail may be an expressive and meaningful communication by text.

Thank you for reading; I wish that this project stimulates many people in a small way. If you wish, please feel free to pass on my request to other individuals or groups who you think may be stimulated and not annoyed by this extra mail in our time of unmanageable spam.

Best wishes,

Denis Brown
Dublin, Ireland; December 30th, 2008
I believe in the real power of the imaginary.