Callivember24, Week 5

That's all for daily challenges!

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11/25

thrive
where
havoc
crosses
harmony

I finished this piece ten days before prepping the scan for upload. Plenty of time to forget the exact wording before final edits in the computer. So I came up with "better" wording, dragging me back to the drawing board. I didn't like the initial version (with the cursive harmony O) so I tried again with the heavy O.

Two extra trips to the drawing board before remembering the original wording and realizing that the alternate version only has 4 words.

That's why it's important to write things down!

harmony
hides
in
havoc

,

aesthetic
without
rigor
is
nothing

5WP as a math problem.

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vibration
animates
all
under
heaven

Inspired by the occasional reading of old Chinese philosophy. The piece felt a bit dry after graphing, so I added splatters. Ideally the page would be energized by the graphs themselves, but I need a lot more practice with brush cursive. Until then, I'll shamelessly rely on gratuitous noise.

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11/28

abstract,
there is nothing else

I love using the heavy black brush over busy backgrounds. But that leaves the problem of getting the other four words readable within the noise.

,

aequaminitas
just one last snack

This one flowered into a bunch of variations, which is fitting for this 5WP.

Aequaminitas means equanimity. I first took it as the disappointment that always comes after completing a piece (even though I quickly recover by jumping into the next piece). Playing with the wording led to the realization that calligraphy always tantalizes the practitioner that the next graph will perfectly match the vision.

This hobby is such a tease!

,

gratitude
now
is
a
present

At first I tried using the words as ribbons but my script skills weren't good enough. I settled with a flat brush and then going white over it. Turned out to be a nice recall of the first word of Callivember 2024, with "flow" written in mastic.

11/1

,

Between Inktober and Callivember, I’ve held a part time job over sixty-one days. The pittance was a pile of (hopefully) pretty papers and around one thousand digital hearts on three social media sites. Oh and the skill to maybe do it better next time.

I've often told young architects you get paid in money and experience. So, $0 and a ton of experience.

Moving forward, I'll still hit the drawing board every morning, but I'm not grinding to produce something fancy everyday. The holiday season is upon us—gotta wrap presents, bang out Christmas cards, tidy the abode, and jump into tax season.

With all my hobbies, I’m a bit pensive about where it will go. Hopefully this keeps growing as a meditative creative practice, but history predicts a slow fade as soon as something else catches my fancy.

In the meantime, I have a growing backlog of Inktober 52 pieces so there's enough to

Cya next week!

,

PS

12/1

five
dandelions
in
a
row

While working on aequaminitas I was inspired to graph a dandelion. As always, it took a few tries to get the composition right, and then I took a few shots for good measure (I'm rarely happy with the results at the table). The morning after, it was tough to pick the best version so I chose all of them (using multiply layers on the opacity function). This turned a single word into a 5WP.

,

PPS

11/30

three
sprawled out
reading worms

The kids and I spent the other night reading books, all sprawled out in the bedroom. Mama would have yelled at us if she walked in before I fell asleep. The next morning, I found out that

Annie Hendrix

just reached 333 subscribers, celebrating with this song. The coincidence was too much, I had to celebrate too.

This first attempt was written on an 8-year old printout of Toni Morrison's essay No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear.

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That version was good enough to post in the moment, but I was unsatisfied with the composition and wording. It was originally oriented as a horizontal piece, but given the power of the background words, I pulled it vertical, but it felt off. Plus, I had gotten too cute by choosing "reading" instead of the obvious "book" worm.

So I went back to the drawing board.

three
sprawled out
book wurms

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