This Is What Happens When You Replace Texting With Handwritten Calligraphy

These days our need for texting speed has gotten so out of hand, typing out words like "are" and "you" seems like an enormous hassle. Yet the daunting task of avoiding abbreviation pales in comparison to the time-consuming texts of an artist named Cristina Vanko, who handwrote all of her text messages for one week -- with a calligraphy pen.

Vanko embarked upon the project after trying out her father's calligraphy pen and becoming infatuated with its magical properties. "I examined the black barrel that held the ink and disassembled the pen, pretended to be a mad scientist (duh!) with my ink dropper as I watched the ink fall like teardrops into the pen, and finally, I assembled my shiny new toy," she wrote on her website.

Upon using the pen, inspiration struck. Vanko devised a plan to challenge and explore the texting addiction that afflicts so many of us. She called the project "Modern Day Snail Mail."

"My rules for this type experiment were simple," her website states. "Create handwritten text messages for 7 days, i.e. no using the keyboard on my phone to send a message. I wrote out my message on paper and then I snapped a photo to send as a text message."

"Overall I learned that I rely on the speed of technology and instantaneous results far too much," Vanko explained in an email to the Huffington Post. "But sometimes it's refreshing to slow down since it has the ability to produce beautiful results.

She compiled other snippets of wisdom on her project website, which contains unavoidable truths like: "We are a culture that heavily relies on emojis." Check out some more of Vanko's handmade texts below. We especially like how you can see when she upgrades to iOS 7.