In a forgotten corner of my shelves, among tubes of colors and brushes, both old and new, and other tools more or less useful, I discovered a “treasure”: a sheet that held my secrets from my time as a student at the University of Arts in Iasi. Time had forgotten it there, and now I feel fortunate to rediscover it with nostalgia.
It’s a somewhat worn-out, aged paper, but one that proudly preserves the imprint of my artistic past. Its story began in the small studio I had in the faculty’s workshop building, where I loved to spend as much time as possible, and where every line and every letter were carefully placed on paper, with the soul and passion of a young dreamer aspiring to become an artist.
Contemplating and surprised by this discovery, I rediscovered my “guide” for constructing letters and the art of creating “mirrors” for book illustrations. With a sense of nostalgia, I quickly recognized the simple yet fundamental principles that helped you understand how a letter “works” visually. The feeling is very pleasant; each stroke and each curve of the letters are simple and clearly explained, like an artifact from a lost realm in the digital age.
In those days, there were no vector applications or AI tools for image manipulation. Everything was done by hand, and paper was the basic canvas on which the magic unfolded. It seems that those sketches I rediscover now were somehow precursors to a digital era where technology entirely took the place of traditional creative tools.
Each line on my sheet retained the memory of long days and late nights spent in the faculty’s workshop. Every stroke and every contour remind me of my attempts and discoveries in the fascinating world of art, the art of writing, and illustrations. It was a time when our imagination found expression in every stroke and every contour, and this sheet carried with it the secrets of an era where paper and pencil were the extensions of our creative hands.
Today, as technology has offered us new horizons and possibilities, this sheet remains a living testimony of a time when art was born from our gestures, and words were crafted with care and patience. It’s a fragment of artistic history, a relic of an era where every artist was truly an architect of images.
So, with this sheet in hand and memories in my heart, I wonder: How often do we forget to pause and appreciate the journey? How much creative wealth do we hide in our closets, waiting to be rediscovered? In an era where digital and analog dance in an endless partnership, this sheet of paper represents a bridge between two worlds. It reminds me that, regardless of the tools we choose, the artistic soul remains the same, and art is always a fascinating journey into our creative universe.
