Tiger, Mantis, & Snake

“My exploration into calligraphy began by using the English alphabet, expressed using the aesthetics of East Asian writing. These initial references as my foundation allowed freedom and room for discovery. With an understanding of the brush strokes and stroke-order of Chinese characters, my practice began to shift from mimicking shapes to constructing a unique system.

Other interests in my life also started to flow into my writing studies. Martial arts and Shaw Brothers films were a huge influence, and akin to the Wu Tang Clan and Hip Hop, Kung Fu philosophy started to appear in my art. Ancient practitioners of Kung Fu would study nature and attribute the characteristics of animals into their movements. This laid the groundwork for my calligraphy practice.

In the Chinese writing system, characters have historically been expressed in five ways: Oracle bone script, Seal script, Clerical script, Standard script, Semi-cursive script, and Cursive script. The oldest known forms of Chinese writing were generally more detailed and pictographic (Oracle bone, Seal); I focused on more modern/simplified characters, which felt more relatable to the English alphabet. I applied the Standard, Semi-cursive, and Cursive forms to my lettering system – resulting in, respectively, Tiger style, Mantis style, and Snake style.”