The artist in me has been getting antsy these days, as I’m reaching the home stretch in this season of focusing nearly full-time on language learning. Drawing and painting have been put on hold this past year and I’ve restricted my work to just maintaining my business and selling books and reproductions from the website, with only occasional exhibitions. This season has been a bit difficult, since it has left the creative ideas to pile up without outlet! But they seep out every once in a while. Here’s an example: Arabic is one of the most beautiful languages, in structure as well as in form and style. It is malleable by nature and you can form the words into drawings and designs. Someday I will learn Arabic calligraphy, but for now, I’ve just been experimenting on my own. I’ve made several of these so far. This is one of the first I tried. It says “Come drink without cost” (it’s the Moroccan dialect of Arabic and it reads right to left - “Ajiu tshrubu bleh temen”) which is the title of this painting.
My dear friend here traces Arabic calligraphy onto glass and then paints it and frames it on the wall. So she’s doing the same with my design and I’ll hang it on the wall here next to my framed print of this painting. I’ll post a picture when she finishes, and I’ll share some of the other word designs I’ve made - the more I make, the more creative and confident I get with what I can do with the letters.