It's All in Appearances

Many people looking at Tapissary have equated it with Arabic. To some, the visual resemblance is undeniable. Truth be known, any Arabic speaker will have little advantage in reading my script. While there are samples of çelloglyphs (the hieroglyphs of Tapissary) that are derived from Arabic vocabulary, [in a somewhat altered state], the amount of legible Arabic is a rarity in Tapissary. Rather, the semitic legacy resides in the feel of the cursive line. Most of the Arabic-type glyphs are fabrications of my own imagination.

The Islamic style of layering words in an artistic lace of verse is evident in the art of the book, weaving and architecture. When visiting Turkey, I was enthralled with the way the gorgeous blue tile compositions of interiors were framed within calligraphic bands of text. Instead of writing a sentence one line at a time, words twine into a botanical geometry with overlapping layers, appearing more like blooming trellises than language. I’ve also seen examples of this in other cultures, including the knotted wonders of Celtic art and calligraphy.

Apart from Arabic, one of the most compelling teachers of style comes in the form of street graffiti. The tag style especially attracts my attention, because devoid of image, it relies on the potential of design within letters. Like Arabic, many tag artists bundle their message into multi-layered segments. Balance and artistic flair are essential. Many years ago, I spoke with a tagger who asked to see my notebook written in Tapissary. He was very interested in the style, and we talked about both invented language and tagging. I went down to see some of his work on a wall of a building that was destined to be hidden by new construction. It blew me away. He had shared some of his calligraphy in my notebook, and I created many çelloglyphs based on his symbols.

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Sample of text in Tapissary, showing influences attributable to both Arabic and graffiti.

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Perhaps I am a graffiti artist at heart. Once I’d written a small Tapissary phrase into fresh cement on a sidewalk. Hours later, I noticed it had been smoothed over. That was my one failed attempt at tagging. Hold on a minute. Now that I think of it, there is some Tapissary scribbled into a railing on the Eifel Tower. The wooden rails are laden with people’s signatures, remarks and drawings. I decided to give Tapissary its chance to attain 'great heights', and penned my çelloglyphs onto the surface hundreds of feet above Paris. So I have tagged after all. I carried that enthusiasm over into one of my exhibits at the Amos Eno Gallery in NY, where I painted my texts in huge bubble shapes on the walls. I also covered the two supporting pillars in çelloglyphic verse. It was one of the most fulfilling exercises I’ve done. The show was called “Oils on Tablets”. Ulike an authentic tagger, I was obligated to paint over my work at the end of the show. The walls became white once again. Here are a few samples from that exhibit:

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/HJ

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Influences of Graffiti and Arabic