Portfolio: Calligraphy

Brush writing is both straightforward and profoundly complex. The ideographs first created by the Chinese thousands of years ago now number more than 50,000.

Beautiful characters dance. A student first learns by copying the ancient masters. But without infusing your own energy in the work, calligraphy appears lifeless and boring. It's the challenge of combining discipline and tradition with freedom of spirit.

I studied calligraphy in Tokyo for nearly seven years, with an extraordinary sensei, Okada Shunpo. Japanese calligraphy includes hiragana, one of Japan's two phonetic lettering systems, and kanji, the Chinese characters Japan borrowed in the sixth century for its first written language.

In California, I have been studying with Zen artist, Kazuaki Tanahashi since 2004.

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