a typographocal image that says a lot about me
I have always loved words and the look of them on the page. I learned to speak, read and write very early on in life.My earliest memories involve singing, dancing, doing shows for my family and holding court whilst standing on a snooker table but the day I learned to join the letters together was an out of body moment that I can only explain as riding solo on a learning curve.
One Monday evening, just like any other, I was lying on the sitting room floor, resting on my elbows, thinking and reluctantly doing my homework. I was not concentrating at all, since it was way more important to keep one eye on the TV and the other on the subject in hand. We had been asked to write an essay – ‘Last Weekend’ so I set about fantasizing around the most banal happenings, stacking one little letter in front of another with finger spaces between each one. I soon grew tired of the effort and wanted to get the job done quickly, so started to link the letters together with connecting swirls and curls. It seemed perfectly logical and natural to do this. Before I knew it, the essay was finished but when I checked over it I realised that my handwriting had drastically changed. How unusual it was to see the infant turn into the child in writing and in front of my eyes.
The strange thing is that I can’t remember exactly what I was writing about that brought about the change. All I remember is running to look up my style of writing in the encyclopaedia Brittanica – yes – the ‘hand’ I had chosen was closest to copperplate. No-one had shown me how to do it. I hadn’t practised it or purposefully tried to do it. It took no great effort. It was simply something that happened for me as naturally as breathing, sleeping and eating.From that day to this I have been in love with writing and our letters.
Since then I have explored the world of writing, keeping handwritten diaries, writing haikus and poems in a collection of ruled notebooks that i keep hidden from the world. I also keep a blog whenever I can remember the password.
