PICK OF THIS WEEK -
Week #29
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This work was done by Christie Burns.
I was introduced to the “Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot” in the Year Long Calligraphy course, 26 Seeds, a Year to Grow, with Reggie Ezell. (An underrated aspect of the course is the exposure to great literature offered as writing material for practice.) Of the Four Quartets “The Dry Salvages” describe a landscape I love. Thoughts about transcendence and mortality are woven in for contemplation. I felt at home with the sights, storm clouds, pounding surf, and sound of clanging bells, fog horn, cry of seagulls, smell of seaweed. I collected artifacts in support of the creative process; fossil, whale bone, rock. I feel a great emotional connection to the coast and its lifestyle. The metaphysical layers of time and timelessness that echo throughout the poem give resounding depth. Many fisher friends of mine have been lost to
the sea. Eliot mentions the indifference of the ocean to human suffering. It is a profound experience to feel such connection to a poem, and then to be submerged in the creative process to the point of disappearing self while your
hand does the work. Eliot describes becoming absorbed as “music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but you are the music while the music lasts.”
The description below is as it appears in the catalog of the Newberry library. The original work is available for anyone to view in the special collections room. Simply look in the digital catalogue under Chicago calligraphy collective purchase prize winners. This work, is over 30 more, will be listed there. I highly encourage you to treat yourself to this
experience.
“The Dry Salvages."
Calligraphic book, dated Oct. 11,2002, by Christie Burns of Newport, Oregon, containing the text of T.5. Eliot's third quartet, "Dry salvages."
Colophon: "Arches text wove paper painted, scrubbed, dipped, rained on, torn, folded, written on and sewn together using vast amounts of sumi ink, many overlapping Winsor & Newton water colors, walnut ink, charcoal, pastel, mica powder, hand beaten gold leaf & linen thread. The text was chosen for its metaphor, water-river and sea, time and timelessness, the temporal and the eternal, the moment in and out of time. Christie Burns, October 11,2002."
AVAILABILITY Eliot's text in italic script punctuated with lines of large and small printed capitals in white ink on leaves of Arches Wove Text paper, dusted with sparkling mica powder, and colored in shades of gray, black,
slate, buff, brown, and
VIRTUAL BROWSE white to resemble elements of coastal geology, such as volcanic basalt, sandstone, sand, fossilized shells and whale bone, and petrified wood; some words decorated with illuminated flourishes and ornaments in gold and silver; leaves cut in slightly different widths to produce layered fore-edges, suggesting sedimentary layers of rock. Matching paper covers (first and last leaves), sewn with black linen thread; laid in black paper portfolio, decorated with horizontal and vertical strips of painted and inked paper in shades of gray and black; clasp is a flat gray beach stone; magnetic closure.
Accompanied by black cloth-covered phase box, lined with painted and inked paper in shades of gray and black, containing calligrapher's documentation of the creative process. Materials, arranged in six stacked "layers", include compartmentalized box of rock, bone, fossil, and shell specimens; black paper portfolio of research materials on the history, geology, and geography of the Oregon coastline, beach snapshots, newspaper clippings, and lecture notes; black paper portfolio of essays on structure and themes of Eliot's "Four quartets"; album of 8x10 colored photographs of
Oregon coastline between Cape Foulweather and Yaquina Head in clear plastic sleeves, with ms. title "Inspiration for textures & colors of the Dry Salvages"; small booklet of sample papers from experiments layering pigments and sumi ink, and sample lines of calligraphy; and two leaves summarizing and commenting on contents of box, in plastic sleeve.
With artist's book and documentation box, are a small booklet of notes on creative process, in plastic binder, dated Feb. 29, 2004; illustrated, calligraphic letter to Wing Collection curator, Paul Gehl, from Christie Burns, dated March 15,2004; and exhibit label; in Special Collections Info File.
Awards Winner of the Newberry Library Purchase Prize at the 2004 exhibit of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective, Newberry Library.
__________________________________________
I was introduced to the “Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot” in the Year Long Calligraphy course, 26 Seeds, a Year to Grow, with Reggie Ezell. (An underrated aspect of the course is the exposure to great literature offered as writing material for practice.) Of the Four Quartets “The Dry Salvages” describe a landscape I love. Thoughts about transcendence and mortality are woven in for contemplation. I felt at home with the sights, storm clouds, pounding surf, and sound of clanging bells, fog horn, cry of seagulls, smell of seaweed. I collected artifacts in support of the creative process; fossil, whale bone, rock. I feel a great emotional connection to the coast and its lifestyle. The metaphysical layers of time and timelessness that echo throughout the poem give resounding depth. Many fisher friends of mine have been lost to
the sea. Eliot mentions the indifference of the ocean to human suffering. It is a profound experience to feel such connection to a poem, and then to be submerged in the creative process to the point of disappearing self while your
hand does the work. Eliot describes becoming absorbed as “music heard so deeply that it is not heard at all, but you are the music while the music lasts.”
The description below is as it appears in the catalog of the Newberry library. The original work is available for anyone to view in the special collections room. Simply look in the digital catalogue under Chicago calligraphy collective purchase prize winners. This work, is over 30 more, will be listed there. I highly encourage you to treat yourself to this
experience.
“The Dry Salvages."
Calligraphic book, dated Oct. 11,2002, by Christie Burns of Newport, Oregon, containing the text of T.5. Eliot's third quartet, "Dry salvages."
Colophon: "Arches text wove paper painted, scrubbed, dipped, rained on, torn, folded, written on and sewn together using vast amounts of sumi ink, many overlapping Winsor & Newton water colors, walnut ink, charcoal, pastel, mica powder, hand beaten gold leaf & linen thread. The text was chosen for its metaphor, water-river and sea, time and timelessness, the temporal and the eternal, the moment in and out of time. Christie Burns, October 11,2002."
AVAILABILITY Eliot's text in italic script punctuated with lines of large and small printed capitals in white ink on leaves of Arches Wove Text paper, dusted with sparkling mica powder, and colored in shades of gray, black,
slate, buff, brown, and
VIRTUAL BROWSE white to resemble elements of coastal geology, such as volcanic basalt, sandstone, sand, fossilized shells and whale bone, and petrified wood; some words decorated with illuminated flourishes and ornaments in gold and silver; leaves cut in slightly different widths to produce layered fore-edges, suggesting sedimentary layers of rock. Matching paper covers (first and last leaves), sewn with black linen thread; laid in black paper portfolio, decorated with horizontal and vertical strips of painted and inked paper in shades of gray and black; clasp is a flat gray beach stone; magnetic closure.
Accompanied by black cloth-covered phase box, lined with painted and inked paper in shades of gray and black, containing calligrapher's documentation of the creative process. Materials, arranged in six stacked "layers", include compartmentalized box of rock, bone, fossil, and shell specimens; black paper portfolio of research materials on the history, geology, and geography of the Oregon coastline, beach snapshots, newspaper clippings, and lecture notes; black paper portfolio of essays on structure and themes of Eliot's "Four quartets"; album of 8x10 colored photographs of
Oregon coastline between Cape Foulweather and Yaquina Head in clear plastic sleeves, with ms. title "Inspiration for textures & colors of the Dry Salvages"; small booklet of sample papers from experiments layering pigments and sumi ink, and sample lines of calligraphy; and two leaves summarizing and commenting on contents of box, in plastic sleeve.
With artist's book and documentation box, are a small booklet of notes on creative process, in plastic binder, dated Feb. 29, 2004; illustrated, calligraphic letter to Wing Collection curator, Paul Gehl, from Christie Burns, dated March 15,2004; and exhibit label; in Special Collections Info File.
Awards Winner of the Newberry Library Purchase Prize at the 2004 exhibit of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective, Newberry Library.
__________________________________________
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