NOTES ON ANDREW STEVENSON

Andrew Stevenson is an English artist who has for many years lived in Italy and Finland. His writing, painting, ideocalligraphy and woodcarving are different aspects of an integral body of work. Through the development of his system of ideocalligraphy he reveals the sensuous quality of language in its visual form. This is the missing link between writing and drawing. Following the ideographic scripts of Egypt, China and other parts of the world, he reintroduces the aspect of resemblance which is largely absent from the abstract elements of written language. His aim is to encourage the use of the ideocalligraphic method as a medium of communication across language boundaries.

His poetry offers concentrated images of immediate experience, vivid moments of perception captured and enhanced with freshness of vision and hearing. The fewer the words, the more carefully they are selected. The carver’s knife is evident in the poems, pared down to essentials. They evoke a sense of space, silence and stillness, and a dynamic balance between people and their surroundings, in which there is no separateness between the observer and what is observed.

The physical gesture, the movement of the hand, is the common element in his writing, drawing, painting and woodcarving. The hand, eye and mind of the sculptor follow the shape and grain of the wood, working in sympathy with the tree’s growth to reveal another image, often an animal or human figure. One life form becomes a metaphor for another. All his work expresses this participatory understanding, an intuitive feeling of empathy for the essential continuity of the human and natural worlds. - Michael Parsons March 2001

The first Radicals, made by me back in 1972, were most probably : woman & man, then sun, moon, horizon and welcome/embrace. From the start my primary objectives were simplicity, clarity and a correct stroke sequence. For a Radical, the sequence called for a hundred drafts. If it still lacked precision and flow, then more. The Japanese and Chinese stroke sequences proved very helpful guides.

At this early stage I had the good fortune to meet the outstanding Egyptologist Professor Moss Bakir. Curator of Cairo Museum in the 1940ies, he later held the chair of Egyptian Philology at the University of Cairo. I met him when he was doing research at Christ’s College Cambridge in the early ‘70ies . The calligraphy of his own hieroglyphic hand was much admired. He one day pointed out to me the essence of hieroglyphic calligraphy by taking the example of the ‘cow’. “It’s all in the line of her back. It’s all there!” And each ideocalligraph has a commanding stroke, which has to be right. That applies equally to Radicals and Composites. In those early stages of Ideocalligraphy’s development, Moss was very generous with his encouragement. I owe him much and those commanding strokes mark my debt of gratitude.

The arrival of the composites, of course, was another watershed. The communication and integration between their parts was crucial. And their more complex stroke balances could vary with the context. The ideocalligrapher plays a leading role in the dance of meaning. He does more than describe, he generates perception. In looking through the examples the best ones will leap off the page.

Ideocalligraph clusters and constellations may prompt head-down concentration for the journey towards a basic awareness. Once achieved, the constellation is yours and your personal journey between and within the ideocalligraphy begins. Speed is not of the essence. What counts is a kind of floating directional awareness. Therein ideocalligraphy shows its quiet purpose. - Andrew Stevenson 2020