This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
Deirdre Maher ’08 (Merrick, N.Y.) is working on an honors thesis which focuses on handwriting as a unique and highly personal art form. Her adviser is Curlee Holton, professor and head of art and director of the Experimental Printmaking Institute.
As an English and Art double major, I am interested in both the emotive power that language possesses as well as its visual elements. Specifically, I have always been interested in the communicative nature of an individual’s personal handwriting. My interest in handwriting was definitely awakened by my aunt; a retired English teacher, writer, and graphologist.
Throughout my childhood, every family function was bound to be stirred up by her evaluation of each member’s personality through examining a sample, usually a paragraph of their handwriting. Looking back, it is difficult to determine the complete accuracy of her readings because being the matriarchal figure and generally kind woman that she is, any undesirable characteristics that might have been evident to her in examining our respective handwriting surely would have been spun in a positive light or entirely omitted.
My interest in exploring the harmonic collision of poetry and art was influenced by the rebel poets of the 1950’s including John Ashbery and Frank O’Hara and artists such as Robert Rauschenberg and Grace Hartigan. I am interested in the links to jazz and spontaneous composition as well as the emphasis on the liberating process of making art that these figures highlighted. The use of guitar strings in my work calls to mind the lyrical nature of handwriting and the associated auditory element of what the words would sound like if spoken.
It is interesting to wonder, does a person’s handwriting mimic their speaking voice in any way? Language is set up in much the same way music is written, in a lateral fashion. Just as music notes reside in various portions of the staff, handwriting resides in various places on the page and these places vary according to the specific gesture of the writer.
I am attracted to the variation in people’s handwriting and how the same sentence can appear so different when written by someone else. The difference in appearance of peoples’ handwriting is interesting because we are all taught to write in a similar fashion. As children, we are given templates to teach the correct way to render letters as well as templates for writing on lined paper, however, as adults we all write differently. It is interesting to think that this eventual departure from what we are all originally taught could be a revolution against conforming to one style of writing.
Although some certainly stray further from the way we were taught than others, no two people have the same style of writing. Each person’s handwriting is something that is entirely their own and the impossibility of replication represents our individuality. Our handwriting is our own stamp, a subtle manifestation of our universal goal to make ourselves stand out and separate ourselves from everyone else in some way.
Also in my work, I play with the juxtaposition of a variety of people’s handwriting as well as a variety of languages. I have asked several people from different backgrounds and nationalities to write one of my own poems in their native language. In doing this, I have tried to capture a variety of personal moments. By layering these languages and samples of handwriting with my own, I have tried to create the image of a dialogue between different people. With the same poem at the fulcrum of this dialogue, each person is reacting to and writing the same words.
I am interested in the juxtaposition of the sense of community that language itself creates, with the very personal and private aspects that the individual’s handwriting reveals. This calls to mind the importance of the individual in the grand scheme of things as well highlights the importance of the individual in a world where one can feel so insignificant. By separating it from its purely utilitarian purpose, the refreshing vitality of handwriting is brought to the foreground and it becomes a personal, as well as unique, artist’s mark.
Maher served internships at the Howard Scott Gallery in New York City and Novita Communications, a public relations firm in Brooklyn. She also studied abroad in Galway, Ireland. She plans to attend graduate school for either creative writing or the visual arts and would like to work in a museum setting or teach English abroad.
Lafayette’s focus on close student-faculty interaction has made it a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the hundreds of students who participate in the honors thesis, independent study, and EXCEL Scholars programs each year publish their work in academic journals and present at regional and national conferences.