It is my wish to bring you closer to the beauty and spiritual power of Japanese Calligraphy. Through my words and my artwork I hope you get enthusiastic about this special art form. Let me introduce you to the way I practice and experience shodo and show you why it is an unceasing source of inspiration for my life and my art.
If you want to have a look first at my Dharma art, click here to view the Shodo Art Gallery. Jump to beautiful pieces of Japanese Calligraphy inspired on Buddhism.
Taking the way of the brush, becoming a shodoka
In the pursuit of a true art form where art meets spirituality I found Japanese Calligraphy, shodo, and its spiritual expression, Zen calligraphy. Since then the brush is rooted in my heart.
What is Japanese Calligraphy for me?
I remember that the first time I saw Zen calligraphy and paintings at an exhibition of Japanese Calligraphy in Berlin I was very impressed by the abstract beauty of this artwork. But there was another secret quality in this art that I was unable to identify at first sight.
Calligraphy is an image of the mind
To create the artist has to be in union with the true self. Then her/his artwork will transmit the timeless essence of the universe and communicate on the deepest level of our being.
In very few art traditions this first creative impulse has been trained and practiced so purely and directly as in Zen calligraphy.
Calligraphy is writing from the heart
It reveals the universal life force ki
The essence of Japanese Calligraphy and Zen calligraphy is true creation, you do not stop training until feeling and reason are no longer separated and body and mind become one. You let life flow into the brush and by so doing you create a vivid movement in the brushstroke that reveals the ki —the universal life force.
That is why Japanese Calligraphy never stops fascinating me; it is an art training that addresses my own inner richness.
It is Dharma art as taught by the Tibetan meditation master, the XIth Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche:
"(...) dharma art refers to art that springs from a certain state of mind on the part of the artist that could be called the meditative state. It is an attitude of directness and unselfconsciousness in one's creative work."
As a Western artist
I dedicate myself to this meditative art, which the ancestors often called the elixir of long life.
When done properly the practice of calligraphy becomes a conversation with the true self. When writing with the brush the mind becomes calm and pure, the intuitive force is released and you discover your inner silent space. It is a fine art feeling that points to the true self and meets with the message of art, the refinement and perfection of the human mind.
At the Shodo Art Gallery you can enjoy and buy my calligraphy and paintings, the contemporary Dharma art of a woman artist. Click here to view Japanese Calligraphy at the shodo art gallery.
May there be happiness!
