Postcards
The opportunity to create something personalized, with colours and meaning in family, sometimes is realized on creating Postcards. A way to stay in touch with our beloved friends and family. Interesting that this was the ways used also by 'Abdu'l-Bahá to send some of His Epistles.
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Inspired by what happened with parallel lines in different angles, we tried this year to use as parallel lines, something more meaningful as just lines, so Martha handwriting was used to decorate a tree. It was searched to use a model of an olive-tree. We use 4 angles, one for each language, repeating the same Sacred Text.
The Text was an inspiration from some selection that was at this time in production with some Bahá'í friends in Brasil, and one recent at that time, was about trees. The first selection was exactly this Text.
In the back, the idea was to write really smaller, and with all the text, and since we always present at least a small phrase, and that phrase is exactly the beginning of the selected Text, the beginning of each block of the Text is in a double sized handwriting.
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After writing all texts in different papers (4 papers for the trees, and 1 for the back), the pages were scanned, and with Adobe Illustrator converted (in a digital huge A-2 size) to curves, then the lines were separated manually, and grouped. This set allows us to apply a gradient of color line by line, that generates a feeling of a dawn in a hill.
On the back of the Postal, the idea was to place different shapes of trees, in different (almost aleatory) dispositions.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh, 17.18, ¶2
“Man is like unto a tree. If he be adorned with fruit, he hath been and will ever be worthy of praise and commendation. Otherwise a fruitless tree is but fit for fire. The fruits of the human tree are exquisite, highly desired and dearly cherished. Among them are upright character, virtuous deeds and a goodly utterance. The springtime for earthly trees occurreth once every year, while the one for human trees appeareth in the Days of God—exalted be His glory. Were the trees of men’s lives to be adorned in this divine Springtime with the fruits that have been mentioned, the effulgence of the light of Justice would, of a certainty, illumine all the dwellers of the earth and everyone would abide in tranquility and contentment beneath the sheltering shadow of Him Who is the Object of all mankind. The Water for these trees is the living water of the sacred Words uttered by the Beloved of the world. In one instant are such trees planted and in the next their branches shall, through the outpourings of the showers of divine mercy, have reached the skies. A dried-up tree, however, hath never been nor will be worthy of any mention.”
~ Bahá'u'lláh
178
This year, the idea was to create a stylized map of the most sacred places on earth for the Bahá'ís, the twin cities of Haifa — where it is located the Mount Carmel, and where it is located on this mountain, the Shrine of the Báb —, and 'Akká — where Bahá'u'lláh lived his final years, and in its surroundings it's located His Shrine.
Both cities separated by a bay. Today this region is located in Israel, and it's a pilgrimage place for Bahá'ís. And in Bahjí, where it is located Bahá'u'lláh's Shrine, is the Qiblih, the point of adoration during obligatory prayers for the Bahá'ís. Between this two sacred Shrines, it was at that time in construction the Shrine of 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
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The first step to drawn this map, was to take the topography of the region, and that was possible with the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission with 30-meter resolution (SRTM 30m can be downloaded here). For this region, it was necessary 2 downloads (N32E035 & N32E034), and with QGIS it was necessary to merge both data into one coherent topographic map.
Then a Grid was created to the whole region. A grid it is a conjunt of vertical and horizontal lines inside a polygon. The vertical lines were deleted, and what we had it was only horizontal lines. This shape with horizontal lines was duplicated 9 times, at 360/9=40º each time. All these lines were converted to points in a more depth than 30 meters resolution. Each point was associated with information from the topographic map.
The table associated for each point indicates which angle this line came from, and each topographic elevation. The idea was to move (extrude) each point proportionally to the topographic value, but distorting accordingly to the angle of the original line. For a horizontal line, it was sufficient to apply in the y-axis all the elevation, but for a vertical line, the elevation must be shown completely in the x-axis. Using sin and cos for all new x and y points, it was possible to implement the new position for all the lines. To be more visible, all formulae used and increase of 9x. Now with all this new points, all were converted to lines again, and a smooth feature was used to hide some raw effects.
Just to be more visible the different regions, a new mask map was created from the topographic map, with regions. Until 0m was sea, between 0 to 19m was considered beach, between 19 and 95m was considered mount, and more than 95m was considered mountain. These 4 mask maps were used to clip all the lines. All was exported as SVG.
With Adobe Illustrator, these clipped and raw lines were edited, applying gradients of colours for each region. The colour pallete used was from the International Map of the World on the Millionth Scale (CIM).
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Was interesting to discover on the sea, beautiful patterns generated only by this effect of parallel lines in 9 different angles. Also how aligned are all this sacred places, so near and important for the Bahá'ís. With all that in mind, it was impossible to not remember a powerful tablet revealed by Bahá'u'lláh about the Mount Carmel, and a strong call was chosen to adorn this map, remember who already know this tablet, the importance of that place.
Bay of ‘Akká, formed by parallel and rotated lines (at 9 angles)
from extruded points according to the topography of the region
Lawḥ-i-Karmil, ¶4
“Call out to Zion, O Carmel, and announce the joyful tidings: He that was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His all-conquering sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing splendor is revealed. Beware lest thou hesitate or halt. Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that hath descended from heaven, the celestial Kaaba round which have circled in adoration the favored of God, the pure in heart, and the company of the most exalted angels. Oh, how I long to announce unto every spot on the surface of the earth, and to carry to each one of its cities, the glad-tidings of this Revelation—a Revelation to which the heart of Sinai hath been attracted, and in whose name the Burning Bush is calling: ‘Unto God, the Lord of Lords, belong the kingdoms of earth and heaven.’ Verily this is the Day in which both land and sea rejoice at this announcement, the Day for which have been laid up those things which God, through a bounty beyond the ken of mortal mind or heart, hath destined for revelation. Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee, and will manifest the people of Bahá who have been mentioned in the Book of Names.”
~ Bahá'u'lláh
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This year, the idea was to use one of the beautiful draws that last year as family we discovered as possible to make. More drawings like that can be found here.
This drawn was made joining with a line the astronomical position — in relation of the Sun at the center — of Earth & Venus daily in the whole first Váḥid of the Bahá'í Era, i.e. years 1-19 BE (1844-1863 A.D.).
It is admirable the beauty in something so astronomical/mathematical/cartographical of our home together with other planet. So inspired on that, we found in the prayer #41 from Bahá'u'lláh's Prayers and Meditations by Bahá'u'lláh, at the end of this prayer, this beautiful statement about our universe & generosity. The whole prayer is presented here.
With this beautiful statement in the languages that we mostly have friends on, with a deep-meaning graph, showing our Earth together with Venus, and with this old-style way to be in contact, our hope was to share a little more of our longing for many friends at this time.
Thy unity is inscrutable, O my God, to all except them that have recognized Him Who is the Manifestation of Thy singleness and the Dayspring of Thy oneness. Whoso assigneth a rival unto Him hath assigned a rival unto Thee, and whoso hath set up a peer for Him hath set up a peer for Thyself. No, no, none can withstand Thee in the whole of creation. Thou hast everlastingly been exalted far above all comparison and likeness. Thy oneness hath been demonstrated by the oneness of Him Who is the Dawning-Place of Thy Revelation. Whosoever denieth this, hath denied Thy unity, and disputed with Thee about Thy sovereignty, and contended with Thee in Thy realm, and repudiated Thy commandments.
Assist Thou Thy servants, O my Lord, to recognize Thy unity and to declare Thy oneness, that all may gather together around what Thou didst desire in this Day whereon the sun of Thine essence hath shone forth above the horizon of Thy will, and the moon of Thine own being hath risen from the Dayspring of Thy behest. Thou art He, O my Lord, from Whose knowledge nothing whatsoever escapeth, and Whom no one can frustrate. Thou doest Thy pleasure, by Thy sovereignty that overshadoweth the worlds.
Thou well knowest, O my God, my Best-Beloved, that naught can quench the thirst I suffer in my separation from Thee except the waters of Thy presence, and that the tumult of my heart can never be stilled save through the living fountain of my reunion with Thee. Send down, then, upon me, O my Lord, out of the heaven of Thy bounty what will draw me nearer unto the chalice of Thy gifts, and make me able to quaff the choice sealed Wine, Whose seal hath been loosed in Thy name, and from Which the sweet savors of Thy days have been shed abroad. Thou, in truth, art the All-Bountiful, Whose grace is infinite.
The whole universe testifieth to Thy generosity. Have mercy, then, upon me by Thy graciousness, and deal bountifully with me through the power of Thy sovereignty, and suffer me to enjoy near access to Thee by Thy manifold favors. Thou, truly, art the Great Giver, the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Bountiful.
~ Bahá'u'lláh
