Dare to Tread in the Spider’s Web

For week twelve in Scribbled Lives, we were asked to make the gridlines & guidelines part of our piece…in other words, not to erase them. I thought about how to make those lines part of the piece, not just part of the behind the scenes process, and then I found this quote about utility:

The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web

– Edwin Teale

Once I read those words I got to work creating a spider’s web and lettering. This turned out to be much tougher than I originally thought. I had to figure out a way to make the letters look like a spider might have woven them into their web; which meant, every letter had to have all points attached to the web. I went through a lot of tracing paper to accomplish this task.

You may or may not know that calligraphers work within the lines, or at least that is how they first start as a Calligrapher. Draw lines, letter carefully, erase the lines carefully. Over and over again. I have advanced to the point that I now usually use a light table to project the lines, which means no time spent writing then erasing guidelines. Thank God for technology! It is important to learn the rules, THEN you can break the rules. The rules start for the calligraphic art form with lines, lines and lots more lines.

Too often we live life within the lines, and most of the time those are lines we have established for ourselves. Self imposed definitions of where we will go, where we can go, or lines that define where believe we have the power to succeed. Sure, other people have influenced how we draw our life’s lines; which means we have to meet new people, be open to new ideas, DARE to step outside the lines in order to experience a full and rich existence. How interesting to think that we have the power to draw our own lines AND THEN change those lines in order to move beyond what we thought was possible.

For years as I practiced calligraphy, I stayed within the lines. That was how it was done. That is how I was taught. It wasn’t until I was pushed WAAAAY outside the lines by a teacher at a conference, that I saw how I could control and even throw out the lines. That revelation helped me develop into the artist and leader I am today. I had to be willing to get uncomfortable to progress – VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. I had to be willing to not fit into the mold which gave others permission to do the same.

Let me encourage you to step outside the lines you have in your own world, be they preset lines or self imposed. It may sound crazy, yet the people I know who are living the fullest lives, who are the best versions of themselves, they live and work outside the lines. They learned the rules, respect them, then figured out how to break them in their own creative way. Utility is telephone lines…utility plus beauty is the spider web! Dare to tread in the spider’s web…once you do you will never go back!