Sister hurt her knee and needed help, then I hurt my knee and then I hurt my back – boy has it been a tough week and a half. I have not been able to focus my energy on creating art or even practicing my skills. It is amazing how tired you get when you are in pain. Anyway I am recuperating now and had the time, energy and interest today to get something done. I miss being able to share my work and contribute to our lively discussions. And I need to start work on my Lighthouse…June 21 is rapidly approaching!
Over the last few days I have continued to putter around with the painting of Irises and it has improved somewhat. Leslie mentioned what she thinks about when working with dark purple and it led my down a productive path. Making small changes made a big difference!
Today I started studying a new book I bought on Chinese Calligraphy. It was recommended by Naomi (you can see her work at inkyarnandbeer.wordpress.com). The book provides instruction on five different styles of Chinese Calligraphy. I started at the beginning with the ancient pictograms. I was fascinated with the pictogram for Self. 
It is based on the human nose – the source of our breathe, the source of life. I am going to show two other sets that I worked on.
Two ways to write Clouds
Tears and Rain
The first is two different ways I found to write the word for Clouds. The second set is related but different. It includes the pictograms for Tears and Rain. This has been really fascinating and I am happy to be working with ink and brush again. It has been two months – way too long!
