Wednesday, October 23, 2002

If pictographs are words, what is a word that makes a picture? So thinking about my earlier post with Cuneiforms' emergence from pictographs, I was struck by an opposite notion in Islamic calligraphy. There are absolutly wonderful pieces of Islamic Calligraphy where the letters, or words, are in the shape of animals. Here are a few examples of various birds: Bird at bottom of page Green Bird Bird at bottom of page Two Birds So what does one call a picture made up of words? What kind of art is it that displays information in such a formal way? (as opposed to allegorcal or Jungian symbolism, or something.) Further, I'll be the first to admit I know very little of Islam and its precepts of Tasweer. However, there is a definte notion in Islam of not depicting animate beings. 1,2. To me, this makes these calligraphic works all that more remarkable. Perhaps they are not merely calligraphic exercises, or frivolities, but much more important. 11:05:17 PM

More Thoughts on Ted Randall's Work (Ted Randall's work) ... carr(ies) a message of pottery in an envelope of sculpture. Val Cushing (Italics, mine, JN) At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, or seeming to make light of an important artist and his work, I'll just say ...hmmmmm...! 11:02:34 PM

I was wrong. OK, my guess about last week's Ceramics Today Mystery Maker was wrong. I still like the rest of the post, 'tho. It turns out to be Nikolai Suetin. Sorry, Nikolai. This week's Mystery Maker I'll go with Luci Rie. I promise I didn't Google it . 9:09:34 AM