The letters of the alphabet are to a text, what musical notes are to a musical work. To compose beautiful music, we start by learning notes. To text that is beautiful to the eye, we start by learning to form the letters of the alphabet in a pleasant way. This is the art of beautiful writing or Calligraphy (Cali in Greek means beautiful).
Bernard proposes a return to the use of the pen. He uses a caricature: we will from "WhatsApp" typing, to a computer keyboard, then to a typewriter and to the ball point pen, back to the fountain pen and finally to the pen with a nib that is suitable for calligraphy. The idea of this talk came from an impulse by Bernard to share his personal experience with his long relationship with the pen. The event will be based onlearning by doing. Karaz w Laimoon will setup a camera over his hands so we can all see the texts as they get formed, and more importantly, as Bernard breaks down the motion of his hands to modularize letters and re-use parts of them to create new letters. Members of the audience will then be invited to try their hand at calligraphic workouts.
Bernard Sader
Bernard is a designer, a graphic designer, an illustrator, a painter and and a calligrapher/illuminator. Since the dawn of time man tried to spruce the caves where he lived by drawing murals. Bernard was always fascinated by patterns and ornaments that decorated and embellished houses, temples, places of worship and books, throughout history. This source of inspiration led him back to the sources: the use of the pen and colors.
For 20 years he let his hands be guided by this passion. Also as far as he can remember, he had beautiful handwriting. His passion for ornaments pushed him to research illuminations and the copyists. That fascinated him forever. For 30 years he practiced this endangered art that may go extinct with the coming of the new technologies (typing, swiping, etc.) He always wanted to share this passion which resulted in the birth of his ongoing workshops, around 3 years ago. The passion became a profession, one that he hopes to perfect before retirement. Bernard says that what is beautiful about this is that it is easy to pass on to calligraphy lovers.