Lynn Tsan
Geometric forms. Repeating patterns. A letter turned around, reflected, multiplied, and seen anew. Lynn’s original artwork gives each study its own visual world.
THE ART & POETRY OF LETTERS
An alphabet.
A world apart.
Twenty-six letters, seen differently.
Lynn Tsan’s art meets Peter Liptak’s poetry in an alphabet with art and attitude.
WORDS: PETER LIPTAK
ART: LYNN TSAN
01 / LOOK A LITTLE CLOSER
There’s more to a letter.
Choose a letter. Look for its shapes. Hear how it sounds.
LETTER A / THE BOOK
An A in Art
Colored smart to start
Take a triangle and triple it.
Then line it with color bit by bit,
With sharpened tips like sailing ships
Then flattened sides and jagged divides.
Adventure awaits on the angled edge of A,
An active letter lined with hues to play.
Ridden red from blue then lined with a ray
Of light – white and bright, but hey…
This is an alphabet apart
Animated from the heart.
A may be abrupt, brusque, or curt you say grinning
But such begets a winning beginning.
Hear Peter read this letter
The full poem is in LETTERS. Explore A, C, m & n, O, or Q here as complete art-and-poetry samples.
Find the full alphabet in the book ↗Poetry by Peter Liptak · Original book artwork by Lynn Tsan
M and N share a study, just as they do in the book.
02 / AN APP APART, AGAIN
Less watching.
More making.
The old app project asked what else an alphabet could do. Here are three ways to find out.
Every name is a little gallery.
Write a name, a word, or a small thought. Let the letters do the rest.
Use up to 16 letters. M and N borrow their shared artwork from the book.
Follow a line. Or take it somewhere else.
Color the original app’s outlines, or trace the book’s letter art. Pick a color and draw with a finger, mouse, or pen.
The original 2012 app outlines are a separate version of the letter designs. Your drawing stays in this browser tab until you save or clear it.
See the pieces. Find the letter.
Slide a tile into the empty space. Put the original artwork back together.
Move a tile next to the empty space.
03 / A BOOK TO KEEP OPEN
LETTERS
Building an Alphabet with Art and Attitude
By Peter Liptak · Illustrated by Lynn Tsan
Circles become a conversation. Lines find a rhythm. An alphabet takes on a life of its own.
Each study pairs Lynn’s letter art with Peter’s alliterative verse: a playful meeting of color, sound, shape, and thought. Made for readers who like to look twice—artists, poets, teachers, and the alphabet-curious of every age.
Find your edition at Exile Press ↗See current formats and availability at Exile Press. Paperback ISBN 978-1-936342-14-3.
“an excellent meeting of the two mediums”Midwest Book Review · quoted in the original book flyer
TWO WAYS OF SEEING
The artist.
The wordsmith.
The alphabet between them.
Peter Liptak
Alliteration, rhythm, rhyme, and a fondness for following a thought around a corner. Peter’s poems respond to the letters and the worlds inside them.
More from Peter ↗Look. Listen. Make.
Which shapes repeat? Which sounds keep coming back? What would your own version of a letter look like?
Take it to the studio →FROM THE ORIGINAL APP PROJECT
An App Apart, then and now.
The 2012 app project explored reading aloud, coloring, tracing, spelling with art, and letter puzzles. This browser studio returns to those ideas using the actual book artwork, the original app outlines, and Peter’s archived narration.