Word Art Update 20090920
Post date: Sep 20, 2009 11:38:02 PM
2009-September-20:
The ideas just keep pouring forth... especially when I am given a good reason. Just a couple of weeks ago Ambigram.com issued a challenge -- you can read about it in this article. The theme they chose is "Resurrection." The hardest part about this challenge was selecting what words or phrases I wanted to use, so naturally I narrowed down my decision to "Scripture Art." The trouble with that is that there are so many scriptures to choose from, I almost didn't know where to begin! I figured I had better start with a scripture that almost everyone knows. I chose the last sentence of Genesis 3:19, which reads, "For dust you are and to dust you will return."
The first thought that I had in mind for turning this scripture into art was about creating my first ever "perception shift" ambigram. (See description on Word Art Page, thumbnail at right.) I started with making the shapes for "DUST" that would also resemble "YOU ARE." I then worked out the shapes for "YOU WILL" that would also resemble "RETURN." I wasn't sure what to do with "for" at the beginning or "and to dust" from the middle of the phrase, so I finally decided on leaving off the "for," drawing a simple ampersand, and making shapes for the perception shift of "TO/IT." To further clarify my drawing, I added "Genesis 3:19" and slimmed down more distinctive versions of all the letter shapes below the featured art, so the entire phrase could be read more easily.
My second thought on choosing what to ambi-fy was a 90-degree acrostic-style ambigram of a scripture, or group of scriptures, that referred to mankind's future hope of resurrection from death. I already had several scriptural acrostic ambigrams, but not enough of this theme for the way I like to display them -- in a group of three arranged on a background image of an open Bible, separated into frames as a triptych. So I started looking through some of my favorite scriptures for more candidates. I would really like to have John 5:28 as an acrostic ambigram -- "The hour is coming when those in the memorial tombs will come out and hear his voice." Some scriptures have key words that pop right out at me, with a sufficient number of letters for linking to and a suitable phrase or list of related words that ties in with the key word, but I will have to come back to John 5:28 later as I haven't yet determined how I will go about it with that one. However, Job 14:14,15 has two key words with suitable phrases for linking to them. A few days after getting this verse drawn, I examined Genesis 3:19 again, and took the time to draw it as an acrostic as well as the perception shift design that I had at first drawn, and arranged these two new acrostics with another of my favorite acrostic scripture drawings (Revelation 21:4) on a photograph that I had taken of one of my own Bibles, and added a black three-window frame around the entire image. The result looks similar to the photo I took of another triptych I made and posted on my Word Art Page in the Scriptural Word Art section.
In addition to these two verses, I have also recently sketched acrostic ambigrams for Jeremiah 10:23. Psalm 104:13, and John 15:13; and once I've drawn them into the computer, I will add thumbnails to my Word Art Page. These have all been added to the list of scriptures on my Word Art Page -- now there are 14 in my collection. One of the fourteen is listed twice -- as two different styles of ambigrams. Several of the scriptures will be available in bookmark size, depending on the proportions of the completed lettering arrangement.
In Name Art News
Despite a few sprinkling rain drops and one or two mild rumbles of thunder, I was able to make it to the Three Village Fall Festival on Route 97 in Sprague, CT, Saturday September 12. One of the people who works at the Sprague Town Hall was very interested in the individual designs that I had drawn of Sprague and its three villages of Baltic, Hanover, and Versailles. She asked me to put them together as one piece of art so she could display it in her office at the Town Hall. After some contemplation on arrangement and embellishment, and with a bit of input from my mother, I arranged the four names in a pyramid shaped list with the year of incorporation below that in ambi-fied Roman numerals and encircled the design with an infinite chain that reads "3 Villages." I used two colors that I had seen in photos of some painted signs that were made for the three villages. She also asked for ambigram designs of her last name and her daughter's (married) last name, separately, with some decorative swoops or curls or something. Once I have presented the "3 Villages" design to her, I will add a thumbnail and/or photo of it to my Name Art Page. [EDIT: Completed art was delivered Monday, 2009-September-21. Thumbnail image was added to site Tuesday, 2009-September-22.]
Going to craft fairs gives me the opportunity to meet more people with uniquely spelled names. Because of events like this, in the past week or so I have added about a half-dozen more to my list of single names and another set to my list of paired names.
The Family that I referred to in my last post got to see the design on my website and Loved It!! They did have one particular request: Could I make "J.P." hyphenated instead? Of course. :) Now I just need to determine if anything else will be included in the complete design. I'm sure they will want the family name. Perhaps a street address, or city/state, or date 'established' ... or even all the above. I have this grouping arranged in two different sample outline shapes -- an ellipse, and a semi-circle -- with room for some of the aforementioned additional information. (The image at left is only a partial view of the entire ellipse design.) I think I'll make an appointment to meet the family to discuss preferences.
