Jean Tsai | Sumi-e Art
I practise Sumi-e, a Japanese art form using the calligraphy brush and black ink (sumi) made from charcoal.
The ink, water, and rice paper have been great teachers of flow. I continue to learn lessons every time I paint.
About Me
Hello and welcome to my website! I have chosen the domain name “learn to flow”, as this is what creating art through sumi-e has made possible for me. I was born and raised in Taiwan, where I first learned traditional Chinese calligraphy in elementary school. Back then, we learned how to write characters on rice paper printed with gridlines designed to help students perfect the form with exact precision. It was not until many years later, when I encountered my Zen teacher and the practice of Shodo - the Way of the Brush - that I had an entirely different experience of the brush, ink, and paper. Here, energy came first, form second. Shodo had me working on finding flow while bringing everything I’ve got to the moment.
Learning to flow through sumi-e is a practice of feeling into the essential nature of all beings, and letting this flow through the brush and ink. The more that I effort to “make” my painting go a certain way, the more it stiffens. The less hard I try to control how things go, the more the painting can come alive. It is a wondrous dance, and the paintings themselves reveal all!
Having moved many times throughout my life, I am grateful for how this ancient art form has helped me heal my connection to the places, peoples, and beings who make up what I call home. Currently, I am based in Toronto, Ontario, and spend some of my time in Duluth, Minnesota and Vancouver, BC. Wherever you may be, may you feel your home always.
My Art
The practice of sumi-e is deceptively simple. The supplies consist of black ink, water, rice paper, and a calligraphy brush. Dark, medium dark, and light ink tones are created by mixing the ink with varying amounts of water, and a hint of very light colour can be added at the end to complete a painting.
Having been self-taught for the first part of my learning of this art form, I experienced great frustration as I quickly learned that the flowing nature of water meant that I, too, had to be in flow. The masters who made the YouTube videos make it look so easy!
I now study with Hiroshi Yamamoto who is a Nihonga and Sumi-e artist based in Toronto, Ontario. Our lessons have taught me much about flow, and about how not to take the self too seriously - seriously enough, though, to give it your all when sitting down to make art. This journey of being and becoming, for both the painting and the painter, is one that invites much wonderment in me.
For me, sumi-e has been a joyful way to give expression to the things that I care deeply about. I am so grateful for this practice and the opportunities to share my art with the world.
“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.
There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be.
We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be
redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of
fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than
all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything…whatever it is,
don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.
— Mary Oliver
Contact
jeantsai.info@gmail.com