You know how, every once in a blue moon they put out a movie in "3-D"? Of course you know that means "3-dimensional"......appearing to have height, width, and depth.

That's because every other movie is 2-dimensional!

No matter how big or how bright or how dramatic or how impressive or how 2-star or how 5-star or how "blockbuster" or how "old time", how gory or how excellent or how much action or how sentimental, or how loud, or how wonderful the sound track music, that movie is 2- dimensional. It just seems that the more I research, the more 2-dimensional projections (pardon the movie term) I see.

I guess it's time to expose the fact that this computer screen, whether it's a laptop or a phone or a PC or a Mac or a ........? that everything - every single thing - you see on it, whether it's text or pictures, is two-dimensional, and same with all the TV's in our communities and homes.
I say, if you think two dimensions is limiting, think again!

Calligraphy

A couple chapters on "Calligraphy" will get us started on the 2-dimensional quality of calligraphy. You may have seen a spiral staircase in your day, and such a piece of architecture always reminds me of calligraphy, but let's face it: a staircase has three dimensions! Calligraphy is done on a 2-dimensional surface: a piece of paper of many different possible qualities, a scroll, a glass window in a door, a tablet or sketchbook, a piece of fabric, a ribbon, a poster, a flyer, a greeting card, a wedding invitation, advertising layouts, certificates galore, logos, letterheads, decorations, etc., etc!

I have always been interested in calligraphy, even as a child, and I played around with some experiments, but about 5 years ago I joined a Guild, since it was only $18 a year, and they only met (in Salem, Oregon) once a month. I never, ever, told them that I had never taken even the most basic calligraphy class, and so I faked my way through several years of business-meetings, potlucks and art projects. One day I had the nerve to reveal, to one of the most accomplished prize-winning calligraphers, that I had never "taken Italic" and she actually gasped. I have since remedied this situation, taking an Italic class which cost a fortune and which was taught by a friend of mine. It is always so rewarding to take a calligraphy class, no matter which font. (My friend, herself, was busy taking a watercolor class!)

Back to Basics

I'm strictly a 2-dimension type of artist, and, even though one of my majors in college - oh so many years ago - was building with clay, I never figured it counted.

I switched from some 60 years of watercolors, to acrylics a couple years ago, still sticking always to 2 dimensions.

And when I reached an impasse with the larger canvases last fall, I got involved with yes, more 2-dimensional stuff: ceramic tiles, 6" by 6". Joined a ceramics club with their own ceramics studio, and their own kilns, and their own glazes, and since clay was one of my majors in college! - I kind of took ahold : began to even get into abstract ceramic tiles: still 2 dimensions, and still only 6" by 6".

More tomorrow.