Kadosh

The letters of קדוש, kadosh, are pulled into a single form by extending the strokes they share. The word means holy, set apart, and it does not give itself up at first glance. The eye has to travel backward, down, and through one letter to reach the next. The form does what the word says: it makes holiness something you have to look for.

When I draw these letter-forms I feel less like an inventor and more like a partner. The shape seems already present among the letter's possibilities, and my hand only gives one of them a body. I do not think the result is an amulet with power of its own. Whatever power it has is the ordinary, considerable power of language and image: to gather attention, hold intention, comfort, and heal. Some of it becomes visible only once you have learned how to look.