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            Words are symbols that name things or convey meaning that has been learned. Words are made from letters that also are symbols of individual sounds, and when grouped according to guidelines make those same words. In the development of written language, we find that many word symbols were simplified pictures that over time became abstracted into standardized symbols that make up the alphabet of a given language. This idea seems simple enough, but who made those first images and why? Was someone trying to remember a sighting or previous experience? Was someone attempting to convey a message to another? What flash of insight led to those images and eventually to those words?

            Some people struggle with language and writing for various reasons, but as a society we have learned the importance of communication. In spite of our impatience as adolescents with the adults around us, so much so that we create secret words and special meanings, we gradually mature into understanding that communication is about inclusion rather than exclusion. Something deep within yearns for that connection, and when we have access to enough information, we find that regardless of language or custom or circumstance, we all share qualities that are binding. One of these qualities is imagination, and through that we create many forms of expression.

            We make art from language and from any material or tool that through imagination can be transformed as if by magic just as those first images must have seemed magical to their maker(s). That symbols on a page, whether word or image – spoken, sung, danced, or painted, can make a world come to life again and again, reveal subtleties of emotion and thought, and transport us to realms far beyond that of ordinary sensory experience is indeed miraculous and worthy of praise and preservation.