Word art

I've talked about words as art: as lovely fiction, as lyrics in a song. Here are words used in other artistic ways that I really like.

• Artsy fartsy: I'm excited to go see the Belle Lettres exhibit at Altered Esthetics in Minneapolis. 
• Conscript: I love this project Takeluma: a sound-symbolic, phonetic alphabet that can scrawl your words in a wall almost in real time. #nerdalert but also a neato installation.
• DIY: Worldle makes word clouds so you can make art. Here's what this blog looks like:
  
• Upcycled art: I'm sure you've seen these book autopsies by now. And of course there's the Fuck Yeah, Book Arts! Tumblr.
• Web design: I very much enjoyed these pretty slides on how to use @font-face and CSS3 to create "classic" typographical looks. (I guess I really like guys who are into typography because I have an internet crush on Sean McBride (@smcbride). #dreamboat)

• Letters: Good news. van Gogh's unabridged and annotated letters are available online. 

It may well seem to you that the sun is shining more brightly and that everything has taken on a new charm. That, at any rate, is the inevitable consequence of true love, I believe, and it is a wonderful thing.

21-28 March 1883 to Theo van Gogh 

Do yourself a favor and write someone a letter today. I wrote three!