The Hammock Papers: Master.

19 August 2015

Master.

In these modern times, writing by hand is fast becoming a dying art form. People are communicating more and more electronically, whether it’s by email, cell phone, messenger apps, and so on, rather than by taking a pen to paper. Schools in America are even phasing out teaching cursive to students, national standards do not require such instruction, and it’s viewed as an unnecessary waste of time that will soon be obsolete.

One simple fact highlights how much the art form has died; there are now only 12 people left in the entire world who currently hold the title of ‘Master Penman.’ Jake Weidmann, from Colorado, is one of them and the youngest by far. From early on he was consumed by handwriting and would often choose to work on it rather than play outside or go to recess with all the other children. His whole life has revolved around working at, and perfecting, his penmanship. All of his time, energy, practice, and dedication to the art has paid off because he has since earned the title of Master Penman. Everything he does in his work, down to the pens and tools he uses, is in the old school way of writing and drawing. Oftentimes a piece he is working on will take well over a year to completely finish. If it’s not to his exact standards, he scraps it and starts over. All of this preciseness and the need for perfection is what earned him recognition and has helped make him a master at the art of penmanship.

CONNECT

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL