The Calligraphy of Anna Zhao

I recently had a lovely visit from Richmond’s Anna Zhao, who studies and practices calligraphy in the Shou Jin style. She came bearing gifts — including this gorgeous fan on which she had written my name.

She gave me this background information: The ‘Shou Jin’ style (literal translation being “slender gold”) was developed by empire Zhao Jie of the Song dynasty from AD1082-1135.

He was a very talented artists gifted in various forms of artwork including water colour painting and stamps. He was also known to have hosted many events promoting and celebrating various forms of art. The ‘Shou Jin’ style was carried on to his son Zhao Gou who further developed the structure and appearance.

Zhao Jie and his son Zhao Gou are regarded as an odd pair in Chinese history because it was rare for a father and his son to become calligraphers when being a part of a Chinese royal family. Although they are well respected and admired by millions of Chinese today for their art, they were both bad with dealing with country affairs. That is the reason for the idiomatic saying “Doing things as badly as the empire of the Song dynasty” we often hear today.

Thank you, Anna!

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Unsung Heros, Unsung Scribes

Strangely, it didn’t occur to me that when the Calligraphy Society of Ottawa invited me to teach a two-day workshop, that I’d be meeting Canada’s “national scribes”. Perhaps that was for the best. Had I understood that earlier, I would have been very intimidated by those in attendence at my evening slide presentation and weekend workshop!

Though I had been to Ottawa many times, I confess I had never visited our national Memorial Chamber located in the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, and was unaware of The Books of Remembrance displayed there.

I had a day to spend in Ottawa, and my excellent hostess, Pat Gregoire, whisked me off to ‘The Hill’ to see the books, chatting to me about the scribes who wrote them and sharing anecdotes about their work. It was a beautiful November day, just several days prior to Remembrance Day, and the green lawns of Parliament Hill were full of visitors. But in the vaulted Memorial Chamber, we grew quiet while examining the books — marvelling at the craftsmanship, but also keenly aware of the larger significance of these massive volumes — each and every name represents one life lost in service to our country.

As a scribe, I can well imagine the enormity of taking on such a task. First of all, nerves of steel are required. Though these pages are intentionally simple when compared to some manuscripts (we’re SO Canadian!), each page still involves painstaking hours of work — including watercolour illustrations, heraldic paintings and illumination.

Pat examined the pages closely, picking out the penmanship of various scribes. We don’t know all the names of the scribes involved, but we do know that John Whitehead, the founder of the Calligraphy Society of Ottawa, was both a scribe and mentor to the calligraphers who work on the books today.

I will be writing more about these books — their depth and historic importance deserve more than one blog post. But I will sign off this post urging anyone visiting Ottawa to take some time for The Peace Tower. If you’re Canadian, like me, your impression of Parliament Hill may be largely set by bickering politicians on the evening news.

Who knew the pride and pleasure of being Canadian could be rekindled by an impromptu visit to ‘The Hill’?!

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Shown above, top to bottom:
The Second World War Book of Remembrance honours over 44,800 Canadians who died in the 1939-1945 war.
The South Africa - Nile Expedition Book of Remembrance contains the names of 283 soldiers killed between 1899 and 1902, and 1884-85 respectively.
The Newfoundland Book of Remembrance honours the 2,363 Newfoundlanders who died during World War 1 and World War 2.
The In the Service of Canada Book of Remembrance, the most recent book added in the Memorial Chamber honours those who continued a Canadian tradition of selflessness and courage and offered the supreme sacrifice in the military service of our country since October 1947.

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Sue Fraser: A Tribute

Calligraphers, at least most of them that I know, are a pretty laid back bunch. So when I started attending the events of the Fairbank Calligraphy Society, Sue Fraser quickly stood out. She was the one making wisecracks in the serious meetings, sat at the rowdiest table at our yearly YellowPoint gathering, and just generally lightened the mood of any room she entered. She also stood out as a talented watercolourist and calligrapher.

A trip to Tuscany in 2006 resulted in a spectacular watercolour journal of over 30 pages. (Two pages are shown above.)

Sadly, my friendship with Sue was relatively short... we lost her to cancer this summer... but even while ill, she was planning a party. So, last weekend, along with her family, friends and members of both the West Coast Calligraphy Society and Fairbank Society, I attended the Celebration of Life for Susan Logie Fraser.

Sue’s calligraphy on the invitation included these words, “I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one... I’d like to leave an after-glow of smiles when life is done, I’d like to leave an echo whispering soft down the way... ”

What a bittersweet event – there were tears and laughter as we remembered Sue. Her plans for the day included members of the Fairbank Society creating weathergrams (tags on which were written memories of Sue) which we hung on a potted tree and gave to her husband, Chris. There was excellent music, (including an original tribute composed by her son-in-law) wine and food, and lots of Sue’s wonderful art. Sue’s young grandchildren handed out cards featuring her calligraphy, to each guest. I received the one shown below, “Do not stand by my grave and weep...”

As I put the final touches on plans to teach in Ottawa in November – teaching a workshop that Sue first suggested I teach and helped me to organize, I have to pause and think of Sue. And smile. In her after-glow.

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Ibrahim Abu-Touq

More beautiful Islamic art, this time the work of Jordanian calligrapher, Ibrahim Abu-Touq. This piece is called "Disappeared 1".

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Arabic Calligraphy Exhibition at Saqiyah el-Shawiy

Ramadhan karim…kullu sanah wentum bikhair. Hari kelima bulan Ramadhan yang lalu saya pergi ke Zamalek. Tepatnya ke bawah kubri (jalan layang) di ujung kota tersebut. Markas Budaya “Saqiyah abdul Mun’im ash-Shawiy”. Beruntung sekali ada kawan Mesir yang memberi tahu bahwa hari ini adalah pembukaan pameran khot oleh “Jam’iyyah Mashriyyah Ammah lil Khattil Arabiy”. Selain itu ada pameran tunggal oleh khottoth Hasan Hasubah asal Port Sa’id, yang digelar hingga 10 Ramadhan.

Pameran kaligrafi tersebut dibuka untuk umum mulai kemarin Jum’at (5/09) hingga akhir bulan Ramadhan, mulai pukul 09.00 pagi hingga pukul 15.00 siang. Kemudian buka untuk kedua kalinya setelah tarawih, atau sekitar pukul 21.30 malam hingga menjelang sahur.

Tidak banyak sebenarnya karya yang dipajang, hanya saja beragam. Ada 10 orang kaligrafer yang berpartisipasi melalui karyanya dalam pameran ini. Dari kaligrafer senior seperti khattath Muhammad Hammam, Khattath Musthafa ‘Imari, Fannan Musthafa Hudair, Mahmud Bargawi, hingga sederet nama kaligrafer muda seperti Romi dan juga kaligrafer putri mesir, Manal. Meskipun beberapa karya yang ada adalah karya-karya ‘tua’ yang juga sering nongol di pameran-pameran kaligrafi sebelumnya, namun pameran kaligrafi kali ini tetap saja sayang untuk dilewatkan…

Beberapa gambar pameran dan fannan (seniman) yang hadir dalam pembukaan pameran.

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Noble Calligraphers

The lines of calligraphers have neither beginning nor end as they constantly link and unlink. The calligrapher's work lies in search of the absolute; his aim is to penetrate the sense of truth in an infinite movement so as to go beyond the existing world and thus achieve union with God.

-- Salah al-Ali (quotes in Musee d'art et d'histoire. "Islamic Calligraphy: Sacred and Secular Writings". Catalog of an exhibition held at the Musee d'art et d'histoire, Geneva and other locations 1988-1989, p. 30)

Calligraphers were dedicated to their work. David James writes in Sacred and Secular Writings (1988, p.22) that calligraphers often wrote, not at a small table but seated on the floor, holding the paper on their knees and supporting it with a piece of cardboard. Calligraphers had to be trained from a young age, sometimes from childhood; they studied examples called mufradat which had the letters of the alphabet written out singly and in combination with other letters.

The great calligraphers could write perfectly even without the proper tools and materials. Although a calligraphic master might be deprived of the use of his preferred hand either as a punishment or in the battle field, he would learn to write equally well with his other hand. When the other hand failed him, he would astound his admirers by using his mouth or feet to hold the pen.

An aspiring scribe would observe his predecessors' art very carefully. To perfect his touch, sharpen his skills, and find a style of his preference, the scribe would imitate the masters of calligraphy with a diligent hand. Welch (1979, p. 34) cites the following quote from the Sultan Ali's treatise on calligraphy:

Collect the writing of the masters,
Throw a glance at this and at that,
For whomsoever you feel a natural attraction,
Besides his writing, you must not look at others,
So that your eye should become saturated with his writing,
And because of his writing each of your letters should
become like a pearl.

Ibn al-Bawwab reproduced the writing of Ibn Muqlah so exactly that his employer, the Buyid amir Baha' ad-Dawlah of Shiraz, could not tell the difference.

Arabic calligraphers integrate inner experiences with their experiences of external reality. By imbuing strokes with life and feeling, an equilibrium of energy flows from all composing elements. A calligrapher's integration of inner and external realities results in a very personalized style and is accompanied by concentrated and unremitting scholarly study. The development of a calligraphy style is as unique as the calligrapher's personality, and its achievement is considered as the representation of the individual's self-cultivation.

It is fascinating to think how great calligraphers such as Ibn Muqlah, Ibn al-Bawwab, and Yaqut al-Musta'simi strove for knowledge and made use of all possible resources from the past.

In almost all of the Arabic scripts, the spacing between lines and words overflows with a sense of freedom and a flexibility that reveals the creativity and spontaneity of the calligrapher. Through the calligrapher's momentum and sense of balance, a tranquil harmony is achieved that immediately appeals to the mind and to the heart. (http://www.islamicart.com)

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Islamic Calligraphy

Arabic is written from right to left, like other Semitic scripts, and consists of 17 characters, which, with the addition of dots placed above or below certain of them, provide the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Short vowels are not included in the alphabet, being indicated by signs placed above or below the consonant or long vowel that they follow. Certain characters may be joined to their neighbors, others to the preceding one only, and others to the succeeding one only. The written letters undergo a slight external change according to their position within a word. When they stand alone or occur at the end of a word, they ordinarily terminate in a bold stroke; when they appear in the middle of a word, they are ordinarily joined to the letter following by a small, upward curved stroke. With the exception of six letters, which can be joined only to the preceding ones, the initial and medial letters are much abbreviated, while the final form consists of the initial form with a triumphant flourish. The essential part of the characters, however, remains unchanged.

These features, as well as the fact that there are no capital forms of letters, give the Arabic script its particular character. A line of Arabic suggests an urgent progress of the characters from right to left. The nice balance between the vertical shafts above and the open curves below the middle register induces a sense of harmony. The peculiarity that certain letters cannot be joined to their neighbors provides articulation. For writing, the Arabic calligrapher employs a reed pen (qalam) with the working point cut on an angle. This feature produces a thick downstroke and a thin upstroke with an infinity of gradation in between. The line traced by a skilled calligrapher is a true marvel of fluidity and sensitive inflection, communicating the very action of the master's hand.

Arabic calligraphy, thus, is the art of beautiful or elegant handwriting as exhibited by the correct formation of characters, the ordering of the various parts, and harmony of proportions.

In the Islamic world, calligraphy has traditionally been held in high regard. The high esteem accorded to the copying of the Quran, and the aesthetic energy that was devoted to it, raised Arabic calligraphy to the status of an art. Arabic calligraphy, unlike that of most cultures, influenced the style of monumental inscription. It is revered as highly as painting. (Courtesy: Arabiccalligraphy.com)

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