Calligraphy

A final update on two listeners’ year-long creative projects.

Instagram’s calligraphy king makes you want to watch ink dry.

The Japanese leader was lauded after he purportedly left a hand-written note in Chinese thanking a cleaner at the hotel he stayed in for the G20 summit in Hangzhou last week.

Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions. It’s an annual ritual. But some are more ambitious than others: Garman Herigstad’s, for example. Once a special effects artist for movies and TV, Herigstad wants to explore more fully another kind of art — on a rather large canvas.

Before the French came in and pushed the Islamic militants out of the towns in northern Mali, many of the country’s historic artifacts and cultural history were threatened. But because of the forethought of some Malians, including calligrapher Boubacar Sadek, the country’s manuscripts were saved. For now.