SYMMETRY. Bilingual containment. "Esther" in Hebrew is hidden inside "Diamond" in English.
INSPIRATION. Commissioned by my mother, Pearl Kim, in honor of Elise's Bat Mitzvah.
STORY. Elise Diamond studies piano with my mother, Pearl Kim. She enters high school this fall and is also studying percussion. Esther is one of her several middle names.
My mother is one of my most demanding patrons. She especially likes commissioning designs for her piano students. She sent this one back to the drawing board when the first version turned out to be too square and not feminine enough. "You can do better," she urged me, "and it's good for you stretch."
This is the third bilingual English-Hebrew inversion I've done. I'm told that there are similar bilingual signs in Israel. Hebrew reads right to left, so it is especially interesting to combine it with a language that reads left to right. From right to left, the four Hebrew letters are Aleph (E), Samekh (S), Taw (T) and Resh (R).
As is usually the case with inversions that involve a language in which I am not fluent, I'm never quite sure if the liberties I have taken are permissible. In this case the biggest liberty is introducing an extra stroke in the middle M/Taw; the rest of the Hebrew letters are rather ordinary.