Jaime de Albarracin

Is it a written art or artistic writing?

The essence of calligraphy is the hand-drawn, sensed line, the imprint or relief on a surface, on a cell phone, movie, or television screen. This imprint conveys ideas, figurative or abstract images, and sentiments. Through the centuries, this imprint created a system of signs that would develop into mankind’s best invention: the alphabet.

With the invention of the alphabet, people could communicate with greater precision. Verba volant, scripta manent. The domain of writing is memory and graphic testimony. Never again will events be erased from memory. Emotions, feelings, passions, desires, commerce, financial accounts, treaties between nations, war and peace… human history will never be forgotten!

Contemporary calligraphy lies between two slopes. On one side is the traditional, “pure” calligraphy, which uses only ink and paper; on the other is digital calligraphy, with its tools of informatics—the scanner, the graphic tablet, and the computer.

Self-taught, I invested six years in practice and personal research to purify my calligraphy, and at the same time I began experimentation with informatics.

Starting with an original work of calligraphy, I can achieve many variations in texture, colour, morphology, scale, etc.

Learning calligraphy is a slow process. Acquiring sufficient dexterity is a question of time and requires a “state of alertness” to know when that moment has arrived. This cumulative experience is engraved in mental and muscle memory and can be evoked to reach the next evolutionary phase.

They say that calligraphy doesn’t lie. This beautiful writing pours forth from the mind, heart, and hand.

A graphic image is the soul’s imprint made by ink and desire. The poet calligrapher continues to move us today as in the past. His expressions and words have remained in their form.

To appreciate calligraphy we evoke the pristine moment of its creation, despite the fact that it is no longer present. This is the magic of writing. Today as thousands of years ago, we do calligraphy.

Expression made word continues to defy time and space.