Saturday Sharing (My Finds Are Yours)

With today's edition of Saturday Sharing, you can go from calligraphy to botany in minutes and stop for a few poetic words and art views in between. 

✭ Calligraphy from the hand of a professional is among the most beautiful of writing forms. Until I saw this wonderful video featuring calligrapher Taha Al-Hiti, I did not know that some Arabic letters originally were based on the shape of the human body. A number of beautiful examples of Al-Hiti's calligraphy may be seen on his Website, which also features his architectural projects. Al-Hiti is the head of Yaqut Designs in London.

Taha Al-Hiti on FaceBook

Profile at Aya Gallery

✭ If you missed Menupoems at Alimentum: The Literature of Food, go here and enjoy the readings.

Alimentum on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ FASO (Fine Art Studio Online) has created a searchable database of known art scammers.

✭ A national public art project, Winning Words, conceived by William Sieghart, who founded National Poetry Day, seeks to incorporate poetry into the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London. Until January 6, the public had the opportunity to nominate poems for the project that represent the values of the Games: respect, fair play, excellence, friendship, courage, determination, inspiration, and equality. (Go here to see some of the nominees.) Poetry selected from among nominated work will be engraved on a wall in Athletes Village, which, post-Games, will be converted into more than 2,800 new homes for East Londoners and an art academy. Selections for the wall will be announced next month.

Winning Words on FaceBook and Twitter

✭ If you enjoy looking at art online, you may work your way through the alphabet at Artabus, which features more than 1,700 virtual galleries of contemporary work.

✭ Can you name America's oldest botanic garden? 

I couldn't either until I found Bartram's Garden, the 18th Century home, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of naturalist-botanist-explorer and Quaker farmer John Bartram (1699-1777). Go here and start an abbreviated online tour of the 45 acres, beginning with Bartram House and ending with "special trees".

Bartram's Garden on FaceBook