Instant coffee…
An essay…
I grew up in a coffee culture. Though I did not start properly drinking it until my son got hooked on it and we got dragged into it. Fun fact: he used to make us coffee every morning. Now, we have been left on our own. My relationship with coffee was tied up to my affection with bread. For a long time, and I still do, my preferred way to have a taste of coffee was to dunk bread into it.
Because I mostly or only used coffee as a seasoning for my bread, my grandma Mamá introduced me to instant coffee. No brewing, no waiting, no mess. Just warm the milk and there it is, coffee! Thus, the fine details of coffee making, aside from its wonderful smell, are unknown to me.
Instant coffee is the promise of a quick and no mess cup: immediate gratification. The irony is that there is really no such thing as instant coffee. One still has to warm milk or water to enjoy it. And though there is not traditional brewing involved for each cup, instant coffee comes from traditionally harvested coffee that has been dehydrated. I guess one could say it is an illusion.
Yesterday I taught a lettering class the Mobile Museum of Art. It was a small group and because of it, we bonded through sharing personal experiences and stories. In between stories and conversation, I taught the basics of brush lettering. None of the class members had experience with lettering or brush lettering before. However, both of them had been exposed to handwriting classes in school. One of them was even familiar with the Palmer method of writing. The conversation then turned to a shared lamentation about what is missed by leaving handwriting out of the educational system. The conversation turned of course, towards the overall state of affairs, AI included, and the loss of basic thinking skills to formulate a coherent sentence.
The backdrop in our conversation was clear: technology, social media, AI, the overall decline of education, and the illusion of immediate gratification. Yet, the class’ members felt at times let down because they could not yet do the strokes of the letters exactly as they were in the handout. Though I tried to explain that it took me a while to get to a place where a letter looked easy to them, the sense of progress eluded them even when they might have done something right. One of them was more akin to feel a sense of progress at times, which was great. I tried to be as encouraging as I could offering praise when something was right or closer or looked like progress from before. It made me wonder, have we all been infected with the illusion of “instant coffee”? We do seem to bring an “instant coffee” attitude to much of what we do and what we expect from things. But the truth is that some things, in fact, most things, take time and effort, lots of effort.
Teaching lettering for a few hours is bittersweet for me. I love teaching it but it is not possible to master lettering in that block of time. The truth is that lettering, calligraphy, and typography all require a time commitment over a period of time — redundancy intended. There is no quick lettering method, just like there is no quick anything method. When people sign up for a short term class, they want to walk away with something. I provide a traceable artwork but that is still not theirs. I struggle with what to provide. When I teach over an entire semester, it is different because there are projects to assess the progress of their skills.
Much of what I do in my creative routine, is that: a creative and boring routine of stroke by stroke, looking at the paper as simultaneously my worst enemy and best friend, obsessing over what to letter, communicating a concept, struggling with the ink, nib, marker, watercolor, and so many other variables. None of these however, are a deterrent. They are simply per the course aspects of the practice that I embrace.
Almost every question the class asked had the same answer: practice. Boring practice. There are nuances that can only be somatically acquired through the tactile experience of the practice. A type of tacit knowledge that is only gained through the engagement with the tools to achieve a skill. Some things can’t be properly explained. They have to be experienced.
I do hope that the class members get to practice and practice a lot. There is no “instant coffee” on mastering lettering, calligraphy, or typography. There is however, much boring repetition and loving that repetition is the secret sauce.
Love,
Alma