[Essay In My heart]

The Power of Writing

As I go through the frustrating days where it is hard to see the end like these days, I wondered if there was any way to clear my mind. So, calligraphy was started from time to time.

Occasionally, while browsing the Internet, I watch videos on calligraphy techniques and write my own. Now that it is in its infancy, I am going to try to write whatever I want with a brush based on the experiences I learned over the shoulder of my father when I was young without a teacher. Calligraphy is grateful to me because even those moments when I concentrate on writing have no distractions.

I receive words of encouragement from all over the place when I take pictures of the words, wrote through SNS, and send them to people I know. Through writing, the heart and the mind communicate with each other.

The letters I want to write are mostly famous words from classics or words that touch my heart. For example, when there are many confusing and heartbreaking things due to war like these days, I practice and write the words such as '平和', '平安' or '自由'. Sometimes, I try to write wonderful passages of Korean poetry.

Then, not long ago, I thought that there might be more creative and artistic ideas that developed from the traditional calligraphy of writing letters on paper, and then I came up with the idea of engraving letters on wood. First, I took a picture of the calligraphy writing ‘平安’, and then I went to a nearby wood workshop and ordered them to make an A4-size wooden board. Then, I gave the polished wooden board (made of maple wood) along with a photo file to a souvenir-making workshop and asked to engrave it with a laser printer according to the shape of my handwriting.

For about 20 minutes, the letters were first engraved with a laser printer, and then black wax was applied over the letters. As I made one of these wood crafts for the first time, I thought it would be fun to occasionally do these things as an enjoyable hobby. If I had various wood tools at home, it would be even more fun, but if not, I think it would be quite interesting to make wood crafts by outsourcing the necessary works to the shops that do such work.

When I brought the finished work home, I felt proud of myself as I thought that my work, which was completed through joint work with the two studios, is the only one in this world, regardless of elements such as artistry and creativity. Now, my work is placed on a pedestal in one corner of the room. Sometimes I look at my work alone and fall into a brief meditation.

One of the charms of calligraphy is the instantaneous divergence of concentration through mental unification when writing. In order to preserve the joy and memories of writing these words for a long time, it is quite meaningful to engrave the letters in a unique way on wood rather than on paper. It is vaguely understood through history why our ancestors wanted to inherit beautiful and precious cultural traditions for thousands of years by enjoying and appreciating calligraphy, critiquing each other, and using it as a means of writing. 

Solti

March 7, 2022