These tablets would include text. But the text had to fit in with the images, be part of the image, not just labels. While I was in Sicily, I saw the mosaics at the Palantine Chapel in Palermo - beautiful images and lettering in a style I hadn't ever seen before:

These aren't paintings - these are mosaics, made with gazillions of tiny tiles. And in between all those glorious images is this incredible lettering (this is a composite of 4 different photos of the lettering):

Look how they crammed in the letters! Starting top left: The R sitting inside the G, the N floating between the 2 A's, the E growing out of the T! On the third line, I love the way the O is holding the M and N together. Back at home, I looked online for other samples, and couldn't find them! (they've GOT to be out there, somewhere).

These nestled letters are beautiful, and not meant to be quickly skimmed through. Oh, yes: this is a text style meant to be savored, meant to be carefully figured out. It was meant to be part of my new art series.

After checking all the typefaces on my Microsoft Word and Photoshop, Imprint MT Shadow turned out to be the best typeface available for this. Sitting with my trusty Photoshop, I was able to turn this:

into this:

But then realized that the letters would be better as white against the colors of the images, so I changed the dark type into a plain white:

If you sit in front of the computer long enough, you can find better ways to fit the letters together. You realize that certain words (the, and) should be saved in their tightly  compressed form for additional uses. The letters on my Stained Glass piece were my first attempts. Later pieces have better lettering, but this works:

and this part required many hours of maneuvering:

This lettering style is NOT easy to read, I know. Which is why it's so perfect. The first time I went to England, I remember being delighted by the way people spoke - it sounded like a foreign language, but I could understand it (Yes, I'm ashamed to admit that, I'm a complete auditory philistine ). However....I wanted to require some effort from viewers. I wanted it to feel - just a little - as if they were translating it. 

Next post, you'll see how it all comes together with the images.