**11 Prints Left** “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” I love this quote but Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, considered by many to be the greatest German literary figure of the modern era. I really wanted to try to do Goethe’s words justice. My approach is always to try to draw from the past but to try to strongly evoke the present. It seemed appropriate to adopt a very classical approach, so I have contrasted a bespoke, flourished, formal script with my interpretation of Roman Monumental Capitals. Very often beauty in work of this nature involves aiming for the highest levels of harmony, balanced contrast and vitality. Vitality in this context involved trying to look beyond conventional, contemporary approaches to letterform design. I’ve tried to achieve vitality here with an extreme attention to detail and an unconventional approach to ornamentation. The word ‘Love’, for example, is constructed using circle packing, a branch of mathematics concerned with the arrangement of circles on a given surface. ’Shaped’ is a relatively simple piece by my standards and I hope it demonstrates that there is often a great elegance and beauty in simplicity. I’m very proud of this piece. ‘Shaped’ - Metallic Gold & Black, Seb Lester, 2017 - Metallic gold ink screen printed by hand on Plike art paper, 330gsm. Signed and numbered by the artist. Edition of 150, 420 X 510 mm.