Author claims your handwriting says more than you mean it to
“The only difference between a Rottweiler and Georgia O’Keeffe is that the Rottweiler lets go eventually,” said Arlyn J. Imberman.
And how does Imberman know that? It’s all there in the artist’s handwriting , said Imberman, a “graphologist” and author of “Signature for Success.”
On Sunday’s rainy afternoon, Imberman was holding forth on artists and their personalities to a dozen hardy souls gathered at Casa Contemporary Fine Art.
It was a typical Santa Fe group — locals and tourists, a skeptic and a psychic, a few seeking both nibbles of food and a respite from the rain, and others hoping some art on the walls might get sold.
Calling handwriting the “emotional DNA” of a person and “as singular as a fingerprint,” Imberman explained there’s a big difference between reading a person’s signature and looking at how they write a letter, for example.
“The signature is the way you want the world to see you,” said Imberman. “Bill Gates started out with a tight, little, constipated signature. Now it’s quadrupled in size.”
And in her book, for sale in the corner of the gallery, Imberman had examples of how fomer president Richard M. Nixon’s signature had practically wasted away to a wobbly scrawl over his years in the public eye.
But it was through O’Keeffe’s letters, not her signature, that Imberman was able to best analyze her personality. Showing one of her handwritten letters, Imberman described how the artist’s writing was “highly connected” and compulsive, and indicated her nature to pursue her art without interruption. There were sudden changes in formatting, which also showed O’Keeffe’s moodiness. And the crosses slanted downward on her T’s “say, ‘Don’t stop me,’” Imberman said.
Knowing there would be skeptics in the crowd — and Anita Worsham admitted she was one, “because everyone knows O’Keeffe” — Imberman also analyzed the handwriting of artists she didn’t know, including Gary Mauro.
Mauro is a figurative sculptor working with modern fabric, Imberman explained, and said the way he freeassociates to come up with his art is shown by the space patterns in a handwriting sample he gave her. “He moves in different directions, like a hummingbird, to get to where he wants to go,” she said.
“Um, yeah,” Mauro said, when Imberman asked if she was correct. He said he agreed “100 percent with the multitasking and the need to focus” analysis.
Imberman, owner of the New York City-based company Emerging Image, had contacted the gallery about doing a talk in Santa Fe. Her company has counseled emerging growth companies, start-ups and not-for-profits for some two decades. Imberman said she started studying graphology as “social self-defense” in the dating scene.
On a professional level, at the same time, Imberman was working as a social worker and was asked to be a supervisor at a hospital. In working with staff members there, analyzing their handwriting became “a secret formula to opening up the safe,” to help figure out their personalities.
Imberman said that, today, with computers and e-mail, “You have to be sneaky to be able to get handwriting.” But it remains a good judge of character. “Your handwriting is really your energy on the page,” she said. “It’s your unconscious on the page.”
Even the out-of-towners were happy with what they heard. “One of the reasons we like to come to Santa Fe is because of things like this,” said Bob Socci of Florida.
