I am very pleased to have a piece in Calligraphies in Conversation 2017 on exhibit now in San Francisco. The full exhibit can be viewed at www.calligraphies.orgRead More
Handmade paper with bird image and calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas.Read More
In Arabic script a dot denotes the numeral zero, a convention derived from the earlier use of the dot in the Devanagari script of South Asia. The Bakhshali manuscript, written in an early form of Devanagari script, has been newly dated to the 3rd or 4th century CE. Now in the Boolean Library at Oxford University, the manuscript was originally discovered near modern Peshawar, Pakistan, and is the oldest existing document using the dot to denote zero. This is not the oldest known use of zero. The ancient Babylonians had their own symbol in the cuneiform writing system.Read More
There comes that moment when you’ve done the prudent planning, and yet still, enter that place Rumi says “from now on I’ll be mad.” Mad not as in angry, but as in irrational. We have water, candles, flashlights, food. Took down the precarious tree, put up sandbags . . . in Florida, awaiting Hurricane Irma.Read More
Satya सत्य Sanskrit for truth, for the virtue of being truthful in thought, speech and action; One of the five yamas, the virtuous restraint from falsehood and distortion of reality in one’s expressions and actions. Calligraphy by Stewart J. ThomasRead More
A suitably sodden, too wet, version of 雨 , the character for rain (yu).Read More
Atmabandhu “Soulmate” Sanskrit in Devanagari calligraphy, paper mounted on board with gold wash, by Stewart J. Thomas. This piece was just accepted to the juried exhibition “Calligraphies in Conversation” curated by the Ziya Art Center and will be exhibited this fall at the San Francisco Public Library in California.Read More
This is a new addition to my long-running series of “Lost Manuscript” pages. Watercolor, gouache and actual desiccated leaves compile this mixed media work by Stewart J. Thomas.Read More
उपेक्षा upeksaa; Sanskrit for “Equanimity” the state of maintaining mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation. Calligraphy by Stewart J. Thomas.Read More
Rumi’s poem:
ز اول که حدیث عاشقی بشنودم
جان و دل و دیده در رهش فرسودم
گفتم که مگر عاشق و معشوق دواند
خود هر دو یکی بود من احول بودم
Coleman Barks translation:
The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
My translation:
When I first heard [the] story of love
I wore out soul and heart and sight on its path.
I said: are lover and beloved two?
[The] self two were one; I was seeing doubleRead More
