
My Chinese calligraphy practise for today. Black ink on Chinese practise paper. About 9" x 15". The paper didn't all fit on the scanner. The writing is the first line done over and over again from Lao Tzu's "Tao De Ching". It reads from right to left, top to bottom, "Tao ke tao, fei chang tao." I made the ink made by hand rubbing an inkstick on an inkstone.
I learned how to do Chinese writing at Rutgers University in their Chinese Calligraphy class in the fall of 1992. My teacher was Miss Lin. I forget her first name. She is an award winning calligrapher from Taiwan.
The style of wrting here is called "kai shu" or regular style. It is the way of writing when people begin to learn to write in Chinese. I'm not fluent in the language so I haven't really allowed myself to evolve into the more graceful forms of writing. I have been told that even though the fluid ways of writing look easier it is better not to do that until I learn how to do that as there is a set way to do it. In museums that have Buddhist texts copied in Chinese kai shu is the style used and there are talented calligraphers who prefer to use it.
Today is my first day of practising calligraphy since maybe 2005 or 2006. I did several sheets today and only showed the best one which happens to be the last one done for today. Although I can do it of of learning paper, when it has been a long time since doing it I go back to basics so that I can develop balance and the relationships between the strokes.
Chinese art and calligraphy can look very free flowing, however the people who learn and do this are very pragmatic and conservative when approaching the practise of their arts. Brush writing is a form of art held in more esteem than ink painting in China. Therefore the practise of it is one of immense discipline and practise. Only after years of practise can one graduate to the styles that show a lot of freedom. It is an internal skill. It is done with the flow of knowing how to use the breath as strokes are executed. A lot is involved.
For several years when I had Chinese roommates doing this was almost a daily doing. It would depend on how busy I was. Saturday and Sunday mornings were the best. It was a way of life for me and a very enjoyable one.
I'd like to try to get back into doing it. I don't have the access to Chinese people liivng in the countryside as I do now. But on facebook I have found some friends that knew my old friends from the early nineties. So maybe I can reconnect with the culture that I so miss.
Also, I love to share what I know about Chinese and Japanese culture. Feel free to ask. And to the Chinese people who read this, I want to develop my writing skills, so criticism is welcome.
Enjoy.
Diana