Artist makes a living with letters set in stone

May 13, 2011

An HCM City man who writes calligraphic verses has found a novel way to present his art which is becoming popular throughout the land.

Huynh Quang Linh is possibly like most young people, just hoping to get a decent education and find a good job. But for the 29-year-old, life has panned out differently. He became an artist by accident and now earns his living by pursuing his long-time passion for creating calligraphy on stone.

Linh, who moved to HCM City from Hoi An in 2004, says he discovered the form of creating fancy lettering by chance when he visited Non Nuoc stone carving village in Hoi An as an 18-year-old. He was taken in by the artisans who were skillfully carving vivid structures on blocks of rough stones.

Linh says: «I like something natural, and stones retain their intactness even if we make changes to their surface. Everybody likes calligraphic stones since they evoke nostalgia».

After all, stones are found everywhere, from high in the mountain to deep under the river and sea. They come in different shapes and colours, are small and large, smooth and rough, and white, black, and yellow.

After the visit, he began practicing calligraphy on stones himself. As he earned the admiration of many people, he became keener and keener on it. In the beginning he had to wander around in search of stones mostly in the central region. He found beautiful white and yellow stones near the Ba Lien River in his hometown, some of them large. He went to streams in mountains and to the sea to find stones, going as far as Nha Trang and Phan Thiet and up to Bao Loc town in the Central Highlands where black silicate stones occur.

«It only worked if I went and looked for the stones myself. And, depending on the shape, size, and texture, I composed a certain type of calligraphy. Sometimes it took me days just to find a certain stone».

Transporting large stones was easier than finding quality ones from among those his acquaintances brought for him. Later he also began to buy white silicate stones from Thanh Hoa Province in the north and egg-shaped stones from Non Nuoc craft village.

While working on these stones, he keeps the original shape if the base is naturally flat and can be mounted on a wooden base. Otherwise, he whittles away a bit at the base. To paint calligraphic words and draw images on them, he uses a secret ink he developed himself by mixing various kinds of inks. While acrylic ink scales off with time, his ink does not fade and so can be kept even in the open for a long time, he says.

After he finishes the work, Linh covers the stones with a layer of gloss paint to give it a shiny appearance. Nevertheless, he admits it is the shape and texture of a stone that determines the beauty of the calligraphic work. He points to some black silicate stones, decorative stones formed during volcanic eruptions that are abraded over the millennia into beautiful shapes. When mounted, they stand proudly looking like a mountain or a sail.

Linh rates a stone as beautiful if it is lean or pock-marked due to natural abrasion. Gemstones like calcite and agate enhance the appeal of finished calligraphic stones. Linh also favours a kind of veined stone found only on Nha Trang’s beaches that are often used in spas. It is naturally beautiful, relatively hard, and has colours.

«Doing calligraphy on paper is inherently difficult but it is more challenging to do calligraphy on stones that are rough and have no patterns,» Linh says. «The most difficult thing is to produce a well-balanced calligraphic work with some strokes that are thick and some that are thin, which will convey the character and emotions of the creator».

Linh creates calligraphic works using verses by famous poets and adages and maxims for life. Sometimes he uses sayings that intrigue him and sometimes composes them himself.

To pursue his keen interest in the art and hoping to make it his livelihood, Linh moved to HCM City and embarked on the arduous task of setting up a business. In the beginning, to introduce his products in HCM City, he travelled 30-40km a day on his old bike around Districts 7 and Thu Duc, sometimes even going as far as Binh Duong Province.

«I used to offer my products to bookshops and leave them there».

But often he faced rejection and would return, tired, dejected, and heavily laden. He did not give up. With encouragement from friends, he successfully overcame the early hardships until orders from big bookshops like Nguyen Van Cu and Le Dai Hanh began to pour in to his great delight.

He has a theory about why his calligraphic stones found acceptance: «Stones embody eternal solidity and verses and maxims written on stones transmit meaningful messages that also bring recipients closer to nature. That’s probably the reason why [they] have quickly been embraced by people».

Linh’s products are now available at tourist sites, bookshops, and supermarkets almost all over the country. He set up the Quang Linh Co Ltd last year and it has its office on Van Kiep Street in Binh Thanh District.

Not surprisingly, it looks more like a workshop than an office. Linh and 10 young men and women, mostly students from the city’s fine arts schools who work part-time, are engrossed in composing calligraphy on stones of various sizes and colours.

Starting right at the entrance are small piles of black silicate, white silicate, and veined stones neatly placed in red plastic baskets. Further inside lie egg-shaped stones and half-finished and finished products. Seated on the floor are young artists who deftly create calligraphic works while chatting merrily with each other.

Linh says each produces 50 to 100 works a day, mostly on stone. But they also work on other materials like ceramic, wood, roots, bamboo, and photo frames. The products retail for prices ranging from a few thousand dong to hundreds of US dollars: a key ring made of cinnamon with calligraphy on it costs VND10,000 (50US cents) while small stones cost up to three times that.

Linh, who is also currently head of the fine arts club at the District 1 Youth Cultural House, says a Viet Nam Television reporter in Hai Phong recently ordered a pair of large black silicate stones for nearly VND30 million ($1,500). His company has tied up with travel agencies to demonstrate calligraphy to foreign tourists at tourist sites as well as instruct them in the art. Many travel agencies also buy the company’s products to sell to tourists as souvenirs.

Linh does not consider himself an artist, saying calligraphy is simply a «passion».

«Amid the hustle and bustle of this big city, a small gift made of natural stone on which Vietnamese letters are written gracefully can provide a moment of contemplation», he says. «That is why I always tell my staff to try to put their heart and soul into each of the small stones».

Source: VietNamNews