To me, blacksmithing and forged work is about line. Forging an iron bar for a decorative railing is a ‘three dimensional line’ element. Most will view the work from a two dimensional space but upon closer inspection all sides of that bar have been worked by the smith. I have always thought that each element on a hand forged gate or railing could be viewed as a line drawing or a sculptural element on its own.

This thinking has led me to look closely at hand writing and calligraphy. I specifically love the Islamic calligraphy because it is an art form based on the linear graphic. In “The Splendor of Islamic Calligraphy”, A.Khatibi and M. Siljelmassi write “What calligraphy does is to take the written sign and alter its form and decorative style by changing the treatment of line. This plastic form simultaneously serves both the meaning of the actual statement and the composition of images, of letters that are recreated as image. The actual meaning of the statement here becomes secondary, so that the imagined reader is like a dreamer awakened, whose vision is woven within a context of art.”

While my work is not literal in any way, for this series I start with an imagined letter form or signature and work the metal as though brushing a linear meaning. Similar to calligraphy, forging takes a bar and alters its form by changing the treatment of the line.

Most of this work is purely abstract, but a few of the pieces are replicas of Arabic letters and phrases that I found to be quite pleasing or challenging to forge in metal.