Calligraphy: expression through letters

Many claim that the days of hand-written letters are gone. However, the art of hand-written letters and messages has its own charm, and can never be replaced.

Calligraphy is a form of art that is now being embraced by different artists of this country. Through this form of art, people see the wonders a simple pen can do.  Hence, nowadays artists have taken a keen interest in experimenting with letters and presenting a unique form of visual art.

One of the artists is Humairah Shams, who recently conducted a two day-long workshop on calligraphy. Initially, she started with a seven days' challenge of lettering, which was about drawing letters and quotes into some formation to make it look nice. Then gradually, she fell in love with calligraphy and started taking it professionally. “What I love about calligraphy is that you are able to express yourself through words but you are also able to draw it,” says Humairah. “Painting words I want to say is the most fun part. I usually try to make my words short and pretty”

Calligrapher Omiya Hassan, who mostly does Bangla calligraphy, started her calligraphy journey from 2016, when she went to attend a conference in India. She had a segment where she had to represent Bangladesh by setting up a stall, and her team was brain storming news ideas about things to showcase. “I had this idea that we can write names of people who visit our stall in Bangla,” says Omiya, “Bangla alphabets are so diverse in nature and have so many curves and dimensions!” After that, she started following English calligraphy tutorials and tried incorporating those in Bangla. It turned out to be a hit and every visitor loved their personalised gift. She further adds that there is no strict rule in calligraphy and practicing is the key for beginners.

Anything hand-written is personal and calligraphy is a fun way to illustrate thoughts and convey love.