This week’s calligraphy prompt was to celebrate the month of May. The moment I read the prompt I could hear Julie Andrews singing the lyrics from Camelot about “the lusty month of May”. I knew I had to do something around those words.
In my head I though about King Arthur and the round table, knights and castles and damsels in distress. I started down the path of classic lettering in browns and golds, maybe a little illuminating of the first letter to make it look ancient and royal. As I traveled further and further down this path the further and further away I got from liking anything I produced. So I stopped, put it all aside and thought about the words. The first phrase is ‘Tra La” which is lively and full of energy; to me brown is not full of energy so it was time to find a different idea.
I went with Spring and life and whimsical, dancing, energetic letters. I played with brush pens and wrote the first phrase at least fifty times, dabbling with the shapes and sizes and colors along the way. This is what I ended up with, added some glitter and small letters to finish out the verse.
It can be hard to have invested time, effort and money into something only to realize you don’t like it and it needs to go away. Which means you have to spend more time, energy and money again to get where you want to go. Depending upon how you look at it the first attempt was not wasted, it is the path that got you where you wanted to go even if only by confirming what you did not like. In my studio I have to remind myself that it is only paper and ink and time I am using. The more paper I use the more I learn and the more I learn the more I am able to get the idea in my head to turn into something real on paper.
So here’s to the merry month of May and a trash can full of paper scraps. I think it is a great way to welcome in a new month.
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