Burgues Script is an ode to Louis Madarasz, a late-19th-century American calligrapher whose legendary technique has inspired various schools of calligraphy for over a century. His virtuosity earned him recognition from some of his contemporaries as “the most skilled calligrapher the world has ever known.”
I use the term “ode” in a colloquial sense. If I were a poet, my verses would speak of unattainable longings, objects of absolute beauty that inspire humility, or figures of immeasurable talent who gaze down at us from the pinnacle of genius. However, my work is not lyric poetry, but rather the tracing of characters designed to coalesce and become elements of someone else’s visual poetry. In a way, I am the poet’s assistant. Occasionally, the assistant insists on the theme of the work, and at times, the poet yields to such persistence. I hope that you, as a visual artist, will find this insistence justified in this installment.