Tokoku Harada

Haiku-Cherry Shell

May 2010

5'5 x 2'11

Sumi ink on paper

Triumphantly

May 2010

5'5 x 2'11

Sumi ink on paper

Tokoku Harada was born in the Aichi Prefecture, Japan in 1962. He is a receipient of the Mainichi Calligraphy Exhibition Member and Excellence Awards, and the Seikai Kuni Modern Calligraphy Award. Harada is the founder of the Toukousha Calligraphy Study Group. He serves as Lecturer of Comprehensive Art Theory at Chubu University in Japan.

Ritsuun Omote

Detail, Mukuge, -Rose of Sharon

Mukuge, -Rose of Sharon

2010

4' 5.94" x 2' 3.56" (scroll)

Sumi ink on paper

“The function of written characters is to represent the pronunciation of language with simplified symbols that can be used commonly. Thus nowadays, the character types, which are accepted and used throughout the world, are all phonograms or pronunciation-based characters.

However in the late nineteenth century it was learned that characters written on pieces of bone called ryukotu...actually represented a writing system called Oracle Bone Script dating from the Shang Dynasty around 1500 B.C. They were hieroglyphic pictograms and are the earliest appearance of logographic characters...quite peculiar in the world in that they represent both pronunciation and meaning.

Since then, with the passage of time there have been changes, however, the characteristics and aspects found in the earliest writings have remained present to this day, hidden in the abstract art- like aspects of ‘sho’.

[Following] the Second World War...much self-examination was requested of Japan. In ‘sho’...the new idea of ‘Avant garde sho’ appeared. At the same time, in Europe and North America the structure and brush-stroke technique of ‘sho’ triggered a flourish of abstract painting.

[I] hope that this exhibition will serve as a chance for ‘sho’ to spread beyond China, Korea and Japan and bring about another inspired and exciting exchange between the art of East Asia and that of the West.”

Ritsuun Omote is an Avant-garde Calligraphy artist. He is also the Leader of the Gebdosha Group. Omote was born in 1926 in the Toyama Prefecture. In 2009 the artist won First Prize for Japanese Calligraphy Art. Omote has a deep knowledge of classical Chinese, and uses avant-garde form.

Kichung Lee Lizee

Petroglyph Series

May 2010

5'2" x 2'8"

Watercolor on mulberry paper

Petroglyph Detail

"Eastern calligraphy I learned is a living and breathing spirit, rather than the dead and rigid tradition of thousands of years. It is uniquely a form that conveys the pulsation of life energy. Through it, one can experiences all aspects of the living spectrum. Eastern calligraphic form reveals the kind of life the artist has led, as well as manifests the self as a way of life or philosophy of life. It is a powerful art form that operates through direct Intuition. As an artist I rely heavily on creative intuition. Moving with changes in the stream of consciousness, my creative intuition somehow brings out the subconscious and super conscious through artistic expression. Art to me is an expression of an inner world and inner energies in the giving of SELF. The recreation of the world, it brings invisible and inexpressible dimensions to the surface using elements of design. In order to accomplish these purposes I find the brushes and papers of Eastern calligraphy most effective. The brushes and mulberry papers are unforgiving, challenging me to flow with the creative impulse and thereby convey the immediacy, spontaneity and close proximity of an intimate connection with nature. I put my inner energy into these brush strokes. Hopefully, these intentions are conveyed throughout my work.”

Kichung Lee Lizee obtained a BFA from Wilson College in Chambersburg, PA in 1967. She earned a M.S. in Education & Art from Troy State University, AL in 1970.

Tsai Yu-Lung

L2: Retaining Emptiness of Guards' Remainder, Sutra.
2007
5'1 x 9'11
Sumi ink on paper

L12: Expressing Earnesty and Sincerity, Sutra.
2008
5'1 x 9'11
Sumi ink on paper

“Calligraphy, Poem, Painting...alternatively, starting from The ‘Heart Sutra’, a biblical text, which represents a great love spirit in Buddhism, with Chinese brush, ink, paper...a freedom optimistic attitude in my lines and songs from ancient to modern, from past to future, I am writing ‘a line of sentiments’ that connect last generations to next generations.”

Tsai Yu-Lung (China) is native of Taiwan and currently resides in Shanghai, China.  A graduate from Taiwan National University with a MFA 1981 in Western Painting, Mr. Tsai has exhibited both his painting and calligraphy works internationally, including at the Taiwan National Museum (1992), Xu Jiahui Art Museum (2008), Hai Gallery in London (2008), Shinseido Gallery in Tokyo (2009), and Duolun Art Center in Shanhai (2010). 

Tsai Yu-Lung website:  http://www.long123456789.com/en/

History of Cursive Calligraphy: http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh93/calligraphy9310/   

Michiko Hamasaki

Transmigration
August 2000
6'2 x 16'9
Sumi ink on paper.

The two 'sho' activities I am involved in at present are as follows. One of them is creating art works and also organizing my annual private exhibitions within Japan. The other is "cultural communication through 'sho'...I seek to introduce Japanese culture and promote international understanding. ‘Sho’ takes form only when complemented with a refined character. This is because ‘shosen’ captures the heartstrings of the calligrapher, the soul and being of the calligrapher. Therefore, I live my daily routine thoroughly, all the time accepting fully and completely all the feelings that spring from within me, sensitivity, delicately and energetically into my ‘sho’ activities.

“I write a calligraphy at a dash with a gigantic brush (weighing 7kg) soaked with India ink. The brush looks as if it danced rhythmically on the paper. The splashes spurting from the brush tip fly around, making the calligraphy... conspicuous. This is my ‘daijikigo’: writing calligraphy on an extra-large piece of paper (10m by 5m).

The specialty of my calligraphy is giving a demonstration of ‘daijikigo’.”

Michiko Hamazaki was born in Japan and graduated from Tokyo Gakugei University with a BFA and MFA in Calligraphy Art. Since 1995, Mrs. Hamazaki has performed calligraphy demonstrations in Beijing, Tokyo, London, Paris, Kyoto, Spain, Turkey, and the USA. Ms. Hamazaki has presented numerous solo exhibitions in Tokyo, Kyoto and Seoul, and is well known for her large-scale calligraphy work.

Artist Website:  http://www.michinokai.com/english/index.htm

Youtube Performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33N75NGPL7k&NR=1

Katherine Mitchell

Art and Meaning, 2009, 4'x4', Acrylic and graphite.

Drawing for My Mother, 2007, 2'1x1'9, Graphite, ink, chine collé and gouache.

“The works on paper began as texts of imaginary conversations or correspondences. For example, one work is a letter of appreciation to my mother. All of the Drawings for My Mother, 2009 were done in a very intense and rapid stream of consciousness style with no editing or revision. The texts were imbedded in the layers of the painting.

The canvases are palimpsests of texts of imagined conversations among a variety of artists, writers and thinkers whom I’ve heard speak recently or whose work I had recently read. These sources include Walter Benjamin, Gerhard Richter, Alice Walker and Philip Glass, among others, as well as my own comments. All of the ideas discussed concern the making of art and its meaning. There is irony in the fact that I am drawn to reveal the verbal content of this work while the texts insist on the dominant importance of form. Art and Meaning includes as the final layer of text a series of questions the answers to which are discussed in the layers beneath.

All of these works explore my interest in the relationship of form and content, meaning, and how art becomes meaningful.”

Katherine Mitchell graduated from the Atlanta College of Art (BFA, 1968) and obtained a MFA from Georgia State University in 1977. Her works reside in the High Museum, the J. B. Speed Museum, MOCA GA, the Arkansas Art Center, Agnes Scott College, and the Carlos Museum. She is represented by Sandler Hudson Gallery.

Artist Website: www.katherinemitchellart.com

Kim Jue Whe

Heart Sutra Written In Chinese Characters, 2007, 6'6.7x 2'11.5 (scroll), Sumi ink on paper. 

Kim Ju Whe is native of Korea and resides in Tokyo, Japan.  A graduate from Daito Bunka University with a MFA in Calligraphy in 1960, Mr. Kim is currently a Ph D. candidate in Calligraphy Art at the Daito Bunka University in Tokyo, Japan.  He is a member of Korean Calligraphy Art Forum, Japan, and Editorial Supervisor of Hipposha, art project publisher based in Tokyo and Seoul, Korea.  Mr. Kim exhibited at the 2005 Seoul Calligraphy Biennial, the World Calligraphy Festival 2006, and had two solo exhibitions at Kyukyo do Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. He is the initiator and the curator of the Spirited Calligraphy Exhibition in the USA in 2008 and in Seoul, Korea in 2009.

Fiona Ross

Ross with "...When We Could Be Diving For Pearls", October 4-6, 2010, Watercolor market, oil-paint marker and graphite.

“My recent series on ink drawings on paper and site specific installations take the form of unicursal, or single line, labyrinths.

The self portraits and landscapes are rendered from a single, unbroken thread of a line, leading the viewer on a predetermined journey through the drawing’s fantastical creatures and situations, making the experience both physical and metaphysical.”

Fiona Ross received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2001 and teaches art at the University of Richmond. Her paintings and drawings are in the collections of Capital One, Wachovia Securities, Markel Corporation and the Republic of Ireland as well as many private collections. Her works have also been featured in many national and international exhibitions and publications and she is a recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Artist Grant.

Artist Website: fiona@fionaross.net
Blog: http://apotropaia.blogspot.com/

Carol LeBaron

Calligraphy Veins I, 2010, 2'3.5"x 2'1, Cotton jacquard tapestry.

Calligraphy Veins II, 2010, 2'3.5"x 2'1, Cotton jacquard tapestry.

“My work is a combination of contemporary aesthetic, modern technology, and ancient techniques. These pieces are weavings lifted directly from my sketch journal. The synapse between the neurons in the brain and the hand are spaces in which I create controlled movements, resulting in expressive marks of the brush, each of which holds concentrated energy. Translated onto cloth, the controlled mechanism of the loom allows the energy of the calligraphic mark to remain suspended in time. Jacquards are woven on an industrial loom, thus creating a literal and conceptual opposite to ancient, hand controlled processes.  In the case of the jacquard work, color is created by weave structures.  In this way I can control the amount of reflected and absorbed light. An investigative understanding of structure allows me to manipulate the surface.”

Carol LeBaron is a current professor of Textile at The Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Her clamped wool and jacquard work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and has won several awards.      

Artist Website http://www.carollebaron.com/

Sogen Hirano

Tayutaumono -That Which Floats In The Air

2006

16.5' x 11.8"

Dyes on cotton

Detail, Tayutaumono -That Which Floats In The Air

“I think, ‘SHOGEI’ is soul drawing (spiritual drawing).”

"With general calligraphy, although a work is written on the topic of a character or language, ‘SHOGEI’ does not stop there. There is a character work, and there is an abstract work, which is separated from a character... If it says more, it has a possibility of also producing the work of art which is separated also from the act of ‘writing’ and which used essence of writing art as the base.

The essence of ‘SHOGEI’ is in the power of the line of a brush.

The form produced by the line of writing differs in a dimension with meant modeling. Into the improvisatorial play of the line of writing, there is a soul of the writer beyond modeling and appearance is projected as it is. There is it in a child's writing. The source of the infinite power connected with the truth of the universe is in the great free play heart.

People are born to each with a precious article. It is the precious article ‘the soul of base’.

‘SHOGEI’ is art with the power which can express it direct most simply rare in the world. When that work of writing is attended with the soul of base, a writer's soul is in sympathy with space nature, and united. It is connected with the universal truth of the universe through ‘SHOGEI’,

I want to connect the soul of people in the world.

It is my dream.”

Sogen Hirano was born in Tokamachi-shi, Niigata in 1961. At the age of 31, Hirano became a Shogei artist. He is  a calligrapher, graphic and fashion designer, and an installation and collaboration performance artist.  He has appeared on CNN, Korean National TV MBC show, and other broadcast events in Japan.  Mr. Hirano also designed official calligraphy emblem work for the 2002 FIFA World Cup poster, and for numerous major corporations, including Suntory, Toyota, and Mitsui Real Estate.  Mr. Hirano has exhibited his calligraphy art works and commercial design works internationally since 1991.  Extending the conventional boundaries of the medium, he has recently collaborated with musicians and dancers in the performances of calligraphy art.  His works are permanently on display in hotel lobbies, theaters, corporate spaces in Japan.    

                              

Artist website www.hiranosogen.jp

Blog http://blog.livedoor.jp/cpiblog00787/

Dr. Kevin Hsieh

Illusory

2010

1'2" x 4'2"

Mixed media

Kevin Hsieh Ph. D is Assistant Professor of Art Education at Georgia State University with specialization in Chinese Art History, technology integrated interdisciplinary art education, and museum education. He has a Ph D Art Education from Penn State and a MFA in Art History and a BA in Visual Art Education from National Ping-Tung Teachers College in Taiwan. His articles appeared in Museology Quarterly, Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Research, and Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

Juliarose Loffredo Triebes

Brown Horizon, 2005, 4'4"x3'6, Hand stitched wool.

 “The horizon is a visual approximation of the infinite; in my work it is a metaphor for the bounds of our mental and visual perception. Infinity is an enigma because unlike other numbers and concepts it cannot be defined by being told or demonstrated.

Although the works are minimal they are not impersonal or impassionate because the hand injects a level of emotion and feeling that is vital to their concept. The seemingly immeasurable surface of hand stitches is an inseparable part of the work’s message because time is revealed by their mark. The stitches take full advantage of the visual power of repetition and are a daily ritual of marking time.”

Juliarose Loffredo Triebes currently resides in Arizona. She is a textile artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including Sotheby’s New York and the Tilburg Textile Museum, Holland. In 2006 Triebes co-curated the national juried exhibition “Needle Culture” at CCA. She is currently employed fulltime in Flagstaff, AZ at Turrell Trading Company, the studio of artist James Turrell

Kyomi Tachibana

Tsunagi 繫

2009

3'1 x 2'6

Sumi ink on canvas

Kokoro Dokoni Kokoni

2008

2'8 x 5'8

Sumi ink on paper

Regarding Kokoro Dokoni Kokoni –Where is Heart and Mind, Here?

“I recorded the fluctuations of heart and mind through time and space.”

Regarding Tsunagari – Encounters

"Encounters we have in our daily life can provide the source of explanation in our awareness. Some encounters become void, others extend to form strong bonds. I expressed the dichotomy of human relationships I this work. I used string like style and layered the images.”

Kyomi Tachibana was born in Kochi, Japan in 1979. She graduated from Daito Bunka University in Japan. Tachibana won the Mainichi Calligraphy Exhibition in the Large Character Category in 2006.

Craig Dongowski

Fugitive Static, 2009, 5'x6', Oil pencil on wood.

Maoma, 2009, Oil pencil on wood.

“I am an artist working in multimedia technology while rooting it in the conventional practice of drawing. My work derives from investigations into the grey area between drawing and writing. The physical action of both practices has been a source of compelling curiosity for me. The relationship of the spoken and written word has led me to explore the connection between the drawn mark and the sound produced while inscribing.

The execution rate of these drawings is exceptionally slow. Visually and conceptually they are connected to and assimilate with geological time and sound waves. My working method is inverted: rather than responding to a sound that yields a pictorial result, I am responding to a visual (line) that yields a spectrographic result. I also see these works as internal expressions. The slow and obsessive nature of the process literally places me within the work at a microscopic (microphonic) vantage point.”

Craig Dongowski obtained his B.F.A. at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and M.F.A. University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota. He is an artist living and working in Atlanta since June 1999. He has taught painting and drawing full-time at Georgia State University becoming a permanent faculty member in fall 2001. During the summer of 2001, he presented a fragment of a film and soundtrack he is involved in making, titled The Wisdom Connected with Children Freezing to Death. This film was shown at the Raymond Lawrence Gallery in Atlanta during the month of August 2001. Prior to his move to Atlanta, Dongoski lived and worked in Boston since 1991 where he was on the permanent faculty at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. He has been very active in exhibiting in the United States and in Europe, Further involvements include organising outreach programs such as the International Print Symposium in Boston and co-curating a major exhibition and print exchange for the First Africus Biennial in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dongoski’s work is a continuous and ongoing exploration of the self.

Artist Website http://drawingvoices.com/index.php

Georgia State University Faculty Website http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwart/art_design/3274.html

Caladan Gallery Website http://www.caladangallery.com/v2/thumbnails.php?album=784

Junko Matsumoto

Jakumetsu I: 6'3x1'6.5, 2010, Sumi ink on paper 

Jakumetsu II: 4'6x1'3, & III: 4'6x1'3, 2010, Sumi ink on paper.

Junko Matsumoto's relationship with 'sho' (East Asian Calligraphy) sprouted first in kana (Japanese syllabic characters). However, her recent works are not born from any type of 'sho' style, traditional or otherwise. They are far from the Academism found in the 'sho' that is taught at universities, and focus instead on drawing a single line. That she is not affiliated to any group or society that promotes or maintains a certain 'sho' style is felt to be the main reason for her independence of style. It is her feature and persistently communicates itself as such.

Matsumoto gropes and searches with the touch of her brush for the accidental chance-like element that instigates a feeling of fun and interest within us. In writing the conflict between emotion and will twists and contorts her as 'sho' secretes from within. Also when she makes the spirit of kanji (Chinese characters) or sumi (Indian ink) the motif of her work, she brings out the interposing beauty between the white and black that is at its base. She never constructively contrasts the two elements, but instead catches instinctively that perilous and ephemeral moment when all is about to collapse and be lost. It is nothing more than a sense. Her physical being seems to be simultaneously receiving and sending. In communication with an ever-changing providence that is out there somewhere. Junko Matsumoto was born in 1951. She graduated from Tokyo Educational University in 1975.