This is the last week of our fifty week calligraphy challenge. The prompt was to choose one letter, then using only black on white paper with a small dot of red, write the letter at least twenty-five times to create a design. I chose the letter B and wrote it using Sumi ink on a Braille bible page. I connected over sixty ‘B’s to design the shape of the letter, then spritzed it with water to smear the ink. I like the way the water moved outside the ‘lines’ and onto the page.
If there is one thing this year taught me it was to go with the flow and keep moving. Having to create a piece each week according to a new prompt forced me to let go of my perfectionist tendencies. I made lots of mistakes and kept moving forward, sometimes keeping the mistake and other weeks shifting the idea to hide the mistake, and still other weeks I started all over with a new idea after making a mistake. No matter what I had made a commitment and was going to create something each week.
As I was putting my last piece into the notebook where I kept this year’s work, I was proud that I had created all sorts of different work and could see the progression of my skills with different tools. I experimented – like this week with Braille paper and water – and I created some typical Ann Bailey type pieces. Either way I have learned that I can produce more work than I imagined I could several years ago. I would never have known that if I had not agreed to the daunting task of creating something each week for fifty weeks.
Good news is I have already been invited to join the 2020 group and am looking forward to the new prompts and challenges a new year will bring. Sometimes we have to agree to what we think is an impossible idea in order to shatter our self imposed limitations. Thank you for your thoughts and comments, and I look forward to sharing more weekly challenges with you in 2020.
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