Calligraphy by Johan

Français
Português

BACK TO JOHAN SILVA'S MAIN PAGE

PRESENTATION

ALPHABETS

GALLERY

STUDIO

CARTOON

Add my site to your favorites

bserving my work as a whole, the first idea that comes to mind is a complexity of black and red, a game between the letters of the alphabet, between red and black. This is the first observation, then observing closer, the identity of the red letter appears. It is the twin of another letter, it is dual in the text, it is red but also black, in accordance with the position that it takes in the word where it appears. It is voiced but also sometimes voiceless.

Since MM03, I have been attempting through repetitive studies, sketches, attentive examinations, through the alphabets that I write by hand, or let's say through my calligraphy and through the comprehension of the evolution of writing in all ages, to understand the language and the sense of the signs which constitute the graphic representation of the letters, the transformations and different shapes of the alphabet.

Travelling in the past and letting myself be led by the interest in the letters or signs, going forward, going deeper, progressing through studies, I saw myself going back in an unavoidable way to the roots of our ancestors in writing, the Phoenicians.

I have observed each sign of the alphabets : Occidental, Hebrew, Greek and Arabic, and I have followed the movement of the strokes of each of them, the skeleton of the letter, the design in its entirety, the appearance, the mobility, the dress, the body, the importance, the position, the degree of intensity, the strength, the weakness, the posture, the sound of each of them, when on their own and when they are combined, and the alphabets of which they are part and that they represent.

After studies, investigations, deductions, the most varied versions, I decided to create my own representation of the sign, the letter or character, in accordance with the form or space where these beings appear in my work. I adapted the alphabets I use, giving them a personal touch, making them my signature, "Johan" alphabets.