The surface of looking, the surface of reading. The text’s flatness on the surface of the page and across the width of the canvas. The handwritten word, its rhythm and tilt as it moves towards becoming a signature. Shifting the word from what it sounds like to that which it looks like. The look that can creep into a page of poetry. Lines of text abandoned to the flow and rhythm of the look of words as one flows into the next.



Ian McKeever, Talking Painting: Writings on Art and Artists, 2026