the year of the abecedary...

Now that you know what an abecedary is 

here's what I'm hoping to do in my self proclaimed 

year of the abecedary 

(look - here's something I found of mine from the early 1990s - oooo what fun!) 

The year of the abecedary is all about reconnecting to my past life in letters. So this year I'm going out into the world actively looking for the letters of the alphabet.... the more gnarly and obscure, tattered and torn, obscure and ephemeral the better! I'm particularly on the look out for handwritten snippets -- maybe I'll find some wonky letters on hand written signs... maybe I'll find some on beaten up posters... scratched into cement or wood... perhaps I'll decipher some letters in seaweed arranged by the waves on a beach.... 

... and of course I have a whole studio and past life in letters to drawn from... so I'm thinking that a year of ABCs just might give me an excuse to show you some bits from waaaaaaaaaay back (like many calligraphers I have something of a collection of hand drawn ABCs - a ready made abecedary!) The year of the abecedary might just provide an impetus to drag out my beautiful calligraphic tools to pen a new letter or two.... you never know!

 

ooo look -- its a page from one of my very very very VERY old books of calligraphic exemplars
here are some of my wobbly skeleton Roman caps - circa 1993...

Perhaps the abecedary will provide a good reason to go through my drawers of type and produce a type specimen book of all the typefaces in my collection --- for the uninitiated, the type specimen book is a classic example of an abecedary -- type specimen books were a common item of type foundries and printers as they demonstrated the range and quality of type on hand. I love letterpress type specimen books (particularly the ones that contain weird and wonderful ligatures, ampersands and display capitals in a type set) 

I've learned quite a few things about my art process over the past few years of photographic, ephemeral, online arty interactions and of course I'm bringing all that to this adventure. I know that I like spontaneous, informal, humble and uncomplicated photography with minimal equipment and post-production. I enjoy the thrill of the chase -- finding things in unexpected places and/or creating unexpected combinations. I love working with found and salvaged objects and creating temporary artyworks that I can share freely. I love the process of art making (I'm not so much in love with arty world shenanigans). I like having a basic framework to work within but one that has lots of flexibility to encourage freedom of expression... I like to zig and zag all over the place! That means I'm going to let the year of the abecedary evolve naturally and I'm not going to make a whole lot of promises or deadlines or rules (other than 'there shalt be letters'). 

The year of the abecedary will principally be an instagram project --- although I'm still finding my way in the IG world I felt an instant connection to all things instagrammalandish --- I love the immediacy, the ease of uploading and sharing, the hashtags and the ease of connecting posts from IG to my facebook page... oh yesssss IG is just right for the year of the abecedary.  When I find me them thar letters I can throw them out into the universe straight away... wheeeeeeeeeeee! and I can keep throwing things into the ring in rapid succession whack, thwack, whackity thwack! or I can hold off for days (or more) and just present one. little. pic. at. a time. 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. 

For those of you not on IG - I will be sharing many bits and bobs from my IG account to my facebook page -- oh and I expect to occasionally curate a few collections of my found ABCs and share them here on the blog (plus you can always have a loosee at my webby IG place )

And that's it

simples really

Lets see where it takes us shall we

(I say 'us' because if you are on instagram
 perhaps you'd like to throw some things into the abecedary too?

 just use

#abecedary2016

or alert me to things with
@book_ronnie

and that way I can find
(and maybe, with your blessing, regram)
your abecedary offering to the world?)

ooooooo what fun!

I do hope you'll join in

(texta tag - found in pambula)

.....