Handwriting Examples
and some thoughts about the business of handwriting
by Peter Joyes

My first introduction to the power of handwriting began when I was about 15 years old.
I was attending Eastbourne College in Sussex, England.
For my 12th Birthday, my Dad had given me a small Adana Printing press.
 It had several fonts of metal type. My favorites were Times New Roman and Old English.
 Mainly I would print stationery for friends and family. I became very familiar with alphabet letters.
 In the process of setting type, I touched into an instinctive interest I had in composition and layout of type,
words and pictures.  I used to watch my Dad painting price signs for his store.
Often alone and lacking the appreciative response of anybody else, he would hold up a sign
 while the paint was still wet, and say to himself out loud  "Now that's a good sign"
In the fall of 1954, a sixth form lecture being given by a visiting professor from Oxford University is a demonstration
of Italic Handwriting. "Italic" because it is from Italy. As I watch this tall, elegant gentleman
drawing words on a chalkboard, I am completely entranced. It is as though these little pieces of metal type which
I had been using in my printing machine come to life. The letters themselves take on a personality
The next day, I buy a small calligraphy pen and within a few days, I am able to producing acceptable italic writing.
The phrase "God is at hand" takes on a new meaning for me as I watch my pen dance,
allowing the letters and words I write to take on a magical kind of new meaning
far beyond the actual dictionary meaning of the words themselves.

In this little video clip
you can watch as
my pen writes the
word
"Handwriting".
Notice the
consistent angle
of the pen, and
the Shopping Center
background noise

     From watching the graceful movements of my pen across the paper,
maybe you can understand my fascination with the harmonograph machine and the exquisite pictures it makes.
 If there is any secret to learning this kind of handwriting, it is to realize that it is a spiritual dance.
I am not actually writing alphabet letters. I am like an ice skater,
and rather than paying attention to the graceful motion of my body, you are noticing the scratches on the ice.
 Handwriting then is "Evidence of a dance". Only you can dance the way you dance.
 Nobody can tell you how you should dance. It is your body and you move the way only you can write.

The next step in your calligraphy lesson is to wrap your thinking around an important idea.
That within the context of each picture I make is the response it creates.
This makes me totally response-able for what happens when people respond to what I do.
Now see the two parts to this idea.
 

Because I work as an artist, doing my work in public, I have come to realize that I can make people
respond any way I want. By creating a context in which my artwork would be seen in a specific way,
I could get people to respond by saying "WOW, Peter, you are a great artist.", or I could get them to respond
by walking away, saying in effect "Your artwork is not even worth looking at."
So I keep on doing it until people say "I want to buy one!" and then I do that some more.
 

It is not like you could learn how to do it in a school. You'd have to be out here in the big wide world, allowing
people to respond to you, your work, and the entire context in which you present it.
I have been earning my living as an artist since 1976. The products I make and sell are completely original.
 It is as though I am constantly re-inventing my business.  I dreamed it up, changing what I do and how I do it
frequently, guided by listening very carefully to people telling me what they want.

MORE IDEAS
If you have read all the way down this far on this page, then here's another idea born out of my own experience
Some years ago I was refused the opportunity to put some of my artwork in an art gallery
because the committee had decided that they didn't want to risk the reputation of the gallery.
There is a risk, then, in doing art that people want and like,  and art that they will actually
wait in line for, and willingly offer to pay money for, that some people will consider it
"Beneath" them, or consider it to be "Trash"  Both these words have been used to
describe my work. Allowing and encouraging people to respond and to make judgments
about my work includes the possibility that some of those people won't like it
and will say so. I have to let that happen, hear it, and let it go, and be ready
with an open mind for the next customer.

Who is next?

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