TOM MAZZULLO

LETTERS

When I started drawing letterforms, I was looking at actual, three-dimensional sign lettering salvaged from building demolitions and sold as decorations or as scrap metal. Looking at the letters as a simple still-life, I became interested in the proportional relationships between parts of a letter and the whole, and the rhythms found among the different forms as they appeared in arrangement. 

Later on, I saw that arranging these letters produced what could be seen as new and unusual words, a lost language of "incantations". Recent works repeat letters, creating new forms and rhythms. Later works in this series are drawn from type samples – raised letters on their characteristic blocky support – and having so few samples to draw, I imagine other letterforms based on the examples I have in my possession. 

All of these works play with language and its abstract relationship to reality – exploring how language changes reality, and asking how words and letters themselves change language.

© 2024 Tom Mazzullo