When I first starting researching woodblock printing, I found some images that were used to make illuminated manuscripts. With the invention of movable type, lots of poor monks suddenly found themselves not needed. Bibles could now be mass produced, quickly and cheaply. But I think we lost something as a society, we lost the beautiful images and hand written pages these monks and artists made.
So, I decided to "try" and bring back a little of the old and mix in in with a little of the new, creating my own illuminated manuscript, based on the Book of Psalms.
I had already done a woodblock print for an exchange with the Baren Group (http://www.barengroup.org) that was based on Psalm 2, so that was the start of my quest.
I've posted just a copy of the image, later I will post the whole illuminated page, also with an explanation of how I "saw" the Psalm, visually.
What a wonderful river of tradition to step into, to work in the way of the early monks who transcribed the scriptures before movable type. Do you hope to do all 150 Psalms? A great project!
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