For week fifteen in Scribbled Lives we were asked to blend traditional calligraphy with contemporary lettering styles, using different materials and tools. I had fun grabbing papers, tools, scraps and a variety of items to create this mishmash of a piece. I used very traditional lettering – block and italic, as well as contemporary – brush and extemporaneous, to illustrate both sides of the prompt. It was both fun and frustrating at the same time. I found two different quotes to help illustrate my point:
Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.
– Jiddu Krishnamurti 1986
Art is anything you can get away with.
– Andy Warhol 1987
As I created this piece, it was interesting to think about the traditional methods I was taught early in my calligraphy journey. Once I learned the rules, I then had the freedom to break the rules – THAT is when I traveled a wholly different path towards more contemporary art. It took taking a course that forced us to be uncomfortable that moved me into the realm of the unknown. A place where I could put my traditional roots to work and my desire to do something different to the test. I must admit, I struggled with being secure enough to go off the range AND skilled enough to make it work.
Don’t we all struggle like that? Don’t we know that to have an idea requires us to use skills and expertise we have developed over the years, AND ingenuity enough to push beyond the boundaries of our traditional background or upbringing? Being traditional and contemporary at the same time – which in and of itself sounds a bit schizophrenic – means balancing two sides of the same person from two very different perspectives. To do this we must lean on our learned knowledge and strengths while reaching beyond our skills towards inventive, ingenious, and often uncomfortable outcomes. What we did in the past may look nothing like what we produce moving forward.
This is the duality life now demands of us in our current times; we must embrace new technology, new tools, new ways of communicating while using our hard earned capabilities, skills and mastered techniques. Without the foundations that our traditional methods have helped us build, we may not be skilled enough to live outside the lines and move into this contemporary life. Whew! Just when we thought we had the knowledge and wisdom to live the life we want, we are asked to get uncomfortable enough to live a life yet to be imagined. And yet…to stay in the safety of our traditional life robs us of the opportunity to grow beyond the unlimitedness of our own imagination.
Traditional and contemporary do work together. They serve us well and at the same time push us to both master and change our lives. How boring life would be if we only lived using the skills we have already learned? There would be no new challenges, no exciting, fear-filled goals, no changes to ourselves and no opportunity to grow. Which means we would miss out on the opportunities these modern times allow us to experience. Who knew that traditional and contemporary do work together to make us the best version of ourselves? The magic of all this is that we have the power to be both – traditional and contemporary – if we only choose to go beyond who and what we know.
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