Departure2003

DEPARTURE(definition):1. a departing; going away; leaving 2. a starting out, as on a trip or new course of action; as, political action is a new departure for labor.3. a deviation or turning aside (from something.)4. [archaic] death.5. in nautical usage, a)the distance of a ship due east or west from the meridian of its starting point. b) a ship's position in latitude and longitude at the start of a voyage from which the dead reckoning is begun. I was inspired by the myriad meanings that define the word departure, and by my interest in the stucture of Chinese ideogram to dpart, which had 4 changing phases of the over time before becoming obsolete and removed from the dictionaries. Traditional Chinese calligraphy has its own critical criteria concerning line and composition. Foremost is the relationship between the horizontal and vertical strokes that make up the form of each character. This particular character reminds me of a doorwar or gate... Arriving at a sense of balance and harmony in the exectuion of calligraphy is similar to the struggle of Homo spiens to maintain equilibrium as they walk upright; vocalize; and usher in human consciousness. DEPARTURE indicates this body-mind connection we see the protagonist's interior view; her process into walking' and various forms that correspond to the ideogram's shapes (snake, cattle gate posts)