In the art of calligraphy, much time and effort is devoted to achieving consistency, practitioners continually working towards a sense of uniformity and proportion. Victorian artist Anita George spent decades honing these skills: “I learnt the rules. Now I break them.”
In her work Tictoc, the pendulum swings, the artist engages in what she calls “freeform writing”, an integral part of her practice that seeks to articulate emotion through words as mark-making. Words and phrases in her works are not intended to be legible, communicating literal meaning, but rather convey significance through form. Instead of neatly traversing the page, George’s words cascade in a flurry that cuts diagonally across the work’s surface. Ink spurts out from her quickly applied lines on a base of thick gesso to interrupt her pen, and organic plumes of colour punctuate the swift rhythms of line and form. With this work, George was thinking on the passage of time, her words responding to her experience of past, present and future. The pendulum flows back and forth among her thoughts, demarcating precious seconds as it swings. George commits the experience to paper, revealing her feelings through action captured in ink.
Above: Anita George, Tictoc, the pendulum swings, 2024. Sumi ink, 60 x 60cm. $550. Courtesy: the artist.