Monday, April 20, 2009

FINDING GRAPHICS

I've always thought of myself as a designer of some sort. Graphics came to me easily, even though I didn't know what the word graphics meant. I drew, I sketched, I painted. But when I discovered I was able to design art that was not realistic but stylized, that were lines and forms juxtaposed or formatted to create pleasing forms, I realized that this was what I wanted to do. When I derived utmost pleasure and absolute satisfaction tracing a building, an ancient temple, an architectural feat from historical times, I knew I could be a different kind of artist—perhaps not someone who could paint realistic scenes, or portraits in oils and acrylics, but someone who could design motifs or logos, or book covers, or do illustrations.

A friend introduced me to the world of graphics. I was suddenly fascinated with typography, the design and forms of the alphabet—how each letter could be stylized and created to be some form of artwork. I could look at an object, any object, and see the lines, the curvature, the form, the space it occupied. I had this urge to study objects so carefully, feel them and caress them with my eyes, their form, their shape, just as Helen Keller touched everything to allow her to “see” and understand what stood before her. A new discovery. A new landscape. A new exposure to art that was different, and yet present and prevalent in everyday things, forms, shapes, and objects. This was only the beginning.