About the Artist: lecture series

May 7, 14, 21, & 28

with Ewan Clayton

Ewan reveals what has made his own understanding of calligraphy distinctive in a series of talks which will inspire and evoke expansive perspectives for the audience - letter designers, artists, historians, and the curious alike.

About the course

In this series of four sessions Ewan reveals what has made his own approach to calligraphy distinctive, from growing up in the craft community at Ditchling, Sussex, home to Johnston, Gill and David Jones, to a brief period living in a Benedictine monastery. He also discusses what he learned from working as a consultant at the Hi-Tech lab Xerox PARC and writing his book on the history of writing, The Golden Thread.

This programme is in an artist’s talk format rather than a workshop. The talks last an hour with a half hour interactive discussion with questions at the end. Ewan has chosen this format as it allows him to present his own reflections without filtering them through the neutral stance he usually adopts as a teacher facilitating individual students’ goals. As Ewan says “Here the focus is unambiguously on me; what has formed me, motivated, and inspired me.” These talks offer a personal view.

Session 1

‘Text’ - What is writing? Ewan's shares how his approach to text has been shaped by his connection to Ditchling, life in a monastery and working as a consultant to Xerox PARC in Silicon Valley where much of the technology that powers our new digital information age was first invented. It has made him look at the personal commitment we have to the words we use and the importance of the objects that text is embedded within - not just the letters but the structure of the written objects we make.

Session 2

‘Line’ - Ewan takes aspects of Edward Johnston’s teaching and David Jones’ poem In Parenthesis to reveal his own approach to the calligraphic line. For him a line is what some sociologists might call a boundary object, the edge of one thing and the beginning of another; there is an ambiguity here that one can play with and a certain atmosphere and associations that letters can evoke.

Session 3

‘Movement’ - Ewan used to do ballet as a child and that love of dance and movement has never left him. It has inspired some of his favourite works. In his third lecture Ewan discusses movement in calligraphy and how he has learned to talk about it and lead workshops for artists of many kinds focussing purely on this aspect of our embodied lives. Ewan explains his particular debt to his Godmother, Joy Sinden, who studied with the movement theorist Rudolf Laban. Laban gives us a structured approach that helps deliver more choice in the way we move.

Session 4

‘Space’ - Depth and recalibrating the curriculum is the focus of the last talk. Here Ewan explains his approach to history, how he came to think about writing his book the Golden Thread, and how he is now writing a new book about the community he grew up with in Ditchling. History always needs updating, it is a process of continuous dialogue between the past and present, as our world changes and issues like climate change and social justice become more significant, so too our histories will inevitably shift. Here Ewan asks himself “How are we exploring new narratives for calligraphy, communication and design?”

Where and when

Online via Zoom

Tuesdays, May 7, 14, 21, & 28

5:00 pm UK time

Talk runs for one hour + half-hour interactive Q&A

Cost

£ 160 - includes access to the four live sessions, as well as their recordings for six weeks.

Enrollment advice

These talks are suitable for anyone.

Next steps

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