American Calligraphy #26: The spaces

I'm blessed with beautiful letters to see in my neighborhood. But this means I can't avoid seeing the un-beautiful letters too, or more often the awkward spaces between the letters. When Boston threw itself into the Gothic Revival in the later 19th century, its Roman lettering suffered. Shown here is a cautionary example of all the inscriptions that could have been better spaced. 

The spacing looks good enough until you focus between T and M; U and A; E and R. 

I like to keep in mind the artistic principle, variously attributed to Mozart and Debussy among others,"The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them." Calligraphers too know that the spaces between the letters are where the beauty lives. 

Enjoy the letters around you and the spaces between them.