CROWDSOLVE THIS! DECIPHER ME #1


 
From an early age, the late professor of art, William J. Girard, Jr. (aka Bill Girard) habitually scribbled his home-made "Egyptian" hieroglyphics into various paintings and sketches. 

But what do they mean?  That's where I'm hoping you can help. Maybe you're the person who can decipher the hieroglyphics found in the sketch below. 

Actually, there's like some intended and unintended humor embedded in the characters Bill Girard developed. The character that resembles a shepherd's crook is a S. The character that reminds me of a tent with a small flap, that's a G. The character that looks like a capital N with a runaway upstroke, that's an N. But then, so is the character that looks like waves. The Roman numeral for five, that tipped over and fell to the left, that's a C.

For additional reference, please review the two posts that addressed this general topic and include keys to the hieroglyphics: 

This sketch, which appears to be a landscape, includes a new character - to me - the inverted T. It also includes some scribbles that may or may not be text or hieroglyphics. See detail, below. 

Girard was interested in ancient Near Eastern cultures and multiple paintings exhibit themes related to these, including Babylonian Fantasy and Ozymandius, found in www.girardsvasari.com/paintings. (Look in the Mythic Visions section.)  Bill was commissioned by a wealthy Chaldean businessman, living in Detroit, to paint a large landscape maybe 35' x 50" and as I recall, it felt a bit like this sketch. But where that painting is now I have no idea. Haven't seen in maybe 25 years.

 

Decipher Me #1



Landscape Sketch Detail with Possible Script


Start when you're ready. Stop when you're done. Let us know, PLEASE, what you come up with. Use the Comments box.



 Other Posts 


By Glenn Scott Michaels.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2021.
_________________________________

Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit,  professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at https://girardsvasari.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GIRARD? GIRARD WHO?

Image
Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit,  professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at  https://girardsvasari.com/ Note: Most images are clickable. ------------------------------------------------------- Left to Right: Bill Girard, Father Nicholas Maestrini and collector, Bernice Kent. 1968. Behind  Kent, Girard's painting: Of Rumbling Wooden Wheels Going Through A Dusty Night The burglar  paid no attention at all to our collection of Girard paintings and sculpture. It was very depressing. My naturopath subsequently instructed me to treat this and all life issues with the balm of gratitude. She would surely be pleased to know that the burglary has taught me to be grateful for boors. Happily, at least one of the two investigating police officers could scarcely drag his eyes away from the large Girard painting, Fauvel. This made me feel much
Read more

GIRARD'S DAVID: A SMALL MIRACLE IN TERRA COTTA

Image
  Master of Mud (aka artist) and former Center for Creative Studies (CCS), Detroit,  professor of art, Bill (William J.) Girard Jr., passed away in 2011. The website created to honor him is found at  https://girardsvasari.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- If  you wonder where this is going, think about one of the most famous pieces of sculpture in the western world:  Michelangelo's sculpture,  David .  Actually, that's misleading. That's just where it starts. Maybe. Maybe it starts with Genesis 2:7. “Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life…”  Loosely translated, this passage is a recipe for terra cotta: Take clay and make something so amazing that it takes on a life of its own. It's a tremendous challenge. Point is, everyone knows about that  David . So if you're a certain type of artist Ambitious Interested in tackling one of the more popular themes in art and biblical hist
Read more

CROWDSOLVE THIS: DECIPHER HOME-MADE HIEROGLYPHICS OF DECEASED ARTIST

Image
  So yeah, it's a little complicated. As a (very?) young man, artist William J. Girard, Junior (aka Bill) developed a penchant for encoding his thoughts in hieroglyphics. Maybe due to the influence of the then famous novel, The Egyptian . At least in part.  Anyway, at one point, Girard's patron. Allen Abramson, requested a key to his hieroglyphics and the young artist obliged. See the key below. But the reason your help is needed is because his cipher kept evolving. The key didn't. Now, with the help of a world-renowned German chemist, Dr. Robert Fuchs, major progress was made in deciphering a complex text by the artist. So that's your Rosetta Stone . But even when you know the language, small changes in handwriting style can encrypt what might otherwise be obvious. Throw in a few new characters as yet unidentified.  Plus some symbols that represent certain sounds, like the CH in cheese . Or the TH in the . Or SH as in shoot . Oh yeah, Girard tended to approach spellin
Read more