Type on Fire

My love of letters came to me much later in life, as I’ve expressed in other posts. As a toddler, when I first saw the Roman Alphabet, I did not think the letters were beautiful. I played with a Fisher Price chalkboard and set of magnetic letters, Helvetica style. The thick straight lines, unbalanced asymmetries struck me as ugly and lacking the magic of languages like Chinese. When I finally began to love the alphabet, it was because I was drawing so much and occasionally, in my search for beauty, even making up letters of my own. I learned from my personal explorations that letters have patterns and that there is a balance in letters between individualism and conformity. If letters are too dissimilar, they do not work together beautifully. And if letters are too similar, they are too easily confused with one another and their identities blur. I began to respect rules as a source of beauty and harmony, through my explorations with letters.

bamboo leaves © 2013 Laura Maaske - Medimagery LLC. Medical Illustration. Copyrighted Material Illustrated by Laura Maaske Medical Illustrator, Medical Animator, Biomedical Communicator, & biological artist. For permission information contact the artist

Changing Trees to Bamboo

The Chinese language builds like bamboo, held in lines by knots and short, strong segments. ?Learn to change trees to bamboo and bamboo to trees?, the author suggested.

Orchid © 2014 Laura Maaske Medical Illustrator - Medimagery LLC

An Alphabet for Grasses: Making Complex Simple with Chinese Brush Painting

The Aleph is the first stroke of the universe. Back before I stumbled upon a ?first stroke? of my own, I thought of the Aleph as a tree. It was like the solid base of a trunk: the source. This is not wrong. But then, I found a new way to see it. Drawing letters, playing with curves, might allow you to explore the strokes you like best and choose from among them. Certain strokes do hold more than others. which is what I learned painting these grasses ?a magical idea.

Photograph © Laura Maaske - Medimagery LLC Medical Illustration. Copyrighted Material Illustrated by Laura Maaske Medical Illustrator, Medical Animator, Biomedical Communicator, & biological artist. For permission information contact the artist

Sweet April Pond Songs

This is my favorite time of year, because of the frog chorus. I can walk out my back door and explore the ponds and woods with my daughters. The air is cool and full of new growth, and there isn’t the heaviness of mosquito clouds that will be surrounding us in another month or two.

Mist Figure

When Someone is Far Away

Now, I will let go something.
I will allow mist.
Sometimes, explaining offers clarity,
and it works well.
Other times, it destroys
the delicate web of threads.

Around a Moon: Moon Profiling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jvVzkZiRs&feature=plcp

Watching the July 4 fireworks, there seemed a whole life revolving around the lone moon: not so circular and isolated after all.

eye

My Dad in Conversation

I have a childhood image of my dad
which carries through all the years.
He’s standing at the patio door with his hands interlaced behind him
silently engaged with a tree (or it might be the moon).
Even when I was very young,
I kept at a distance, so as not to disturb the feeling he created there.