Conclusions - The First Draft

Until I can write without having to recall what a word looks like or think about how my hands should move, I remain a student, not a master of the craft. The only definitive advice I’ve ever gotten was “practice, practice, practice," and I think that's pretty good advice.

Chinese is not my first language. I am a novice. Using my own graphics I illustrated the patterns emergent in calligraphy such as brush technique, stroke order and the differences between five calligraphic styles. The drawings separate the concrete facts from the incidental events. Calligraphy is a tedious, repetitive craft that uses wet, unforgiving materials. While the premise is basic, the rules simple, juggling aesthetic and kinetic factors in the moment between strokes is not. There are no easy tricks or shortcuts that masks a calligrapher’s inexperience. In this thesis, my calligraphy was carefully selected; for every successful case there were pages and pages of failures and mediocre results. Whereas the historical examples were successful, every stroke, every word and every sentence rendered beautifully on the first try. A true master is a painter and a poet. Calligraphy after all is a communications art and utility greatly influenced its development. In Feudal times, literary talent and a beautiful hand could transform a man’s life and elevate his social status. Every notable poet and painter was also an excellent calligrapher. A masterpiece makes space, traverses time and distance by suggestion on multiple levels: the tangible, the ephemeral, the poetic and the literal. Prose shape imaginative space, brush strokes and color blocks construct graphic space, the hand, the brush and the paper interact inscribing a physical space. Calligraphy is a matrix of stroke types assembled using a predetermined order and brush technique. Calligraphy is also a harmonious combination of serial patterns and personal touches. Contradiction is calligraphy’s definitive characteristic, simultaneously rigid and fluid.

In this present age, brush writing is obsolete. Most people prefer a pen or a keyboard. In China however, a skill set that includes calligraphy immediately boast one’s public image. Mao Zedong saved brush writing over other traditional arts during the Cultural Revolution. A single word by an established artist is a pricey commodity and historical relics are worth many times more. Calligraphy equals value. When hard work and good fortune intersect, magic happens, but these are rare occurrences. Thus, a few written words turn men into sages, and transform obscure places into extraordinary finds. As a culturally distinctive craft, brush art is also attracting new audience in the west. A renewed interest in calligraphy by a Western audience outside of the intellectual circle keeps the tradition alive.