stlukesguild
Artist and Bibliophile

Petrarch's... thanks for the visit and the comments. You are close with your guess as to the language of my background. It is actually Japanese. As I have been studying Japanese and Chinese culture with a vengeance for a short while now I am finding that the Chinese certainly produced the far greater body of literature... but the Japanese, in spite of their influences from China... developed an art that was quite unique. I actually far prefer the Japanese works of visual art which include calligraphy... an art form rather ignored in the West since the standardization of letter forms... and certainly since Gutenberg. Chinese writing is more block-like and formal (see example in my art album) while Japanese is more fluid and almost cursive-like. Initially Japan used only Chinese characters for writing (although they had their own pronunciations). During the Heian period there was a push toward a more elegant and sophisticated visual court style...(discussed by Sei Shonagon and Lady Murasaki in their writings). Among the innovations was the development of a native Japanese writing... which was often referred to as "woman's hand" as great female poets, calligraphers, artists, etc... were the ones who most cultivated this style. The background of this page... as well as the images titled tsurayuki and Heian Calligraphy are examples of this style. Eventually, this style would become even more expressive as in the painting/poem of Koetsu and Sotatsu (surely one of the great artistic collaborations of history). Such work was clearly influenced by Chinese Chen (Japanese Zen) philosophy and the embrace of the spontaneous... gestural... artist's touch. This became even more explosive in later periods... as in Bonzai... which is almost a forerunner of Abstract Expressionism.

Hi St. Luke's. Like the layout around here. Great background. What language is that? I was going to guess Arabic at first, but then I didn't think that was usually written vertically, so now I'm guessing Chinese? Is it a particular poem or other text you like, or purely decorative calligraphy? Either way, everything ties together nicely.

Everyone.. thanks for the comments.

Very interesting and informative for me to read your recent posts. Inspirational stuff.

Very nice page you got here Stluke! very tasteful as they say!

very elegant and sophisticated.

Elegant and tasteful.

Thanks all for the comments.

Beautiful in here. I love it! Very artist and tasteful.

oh! lovely profile, i like the colours and images you've used, they go well with the default LitNet flavours