Lantana

My warm-up is always calligraphy. I love the way the pictograms are combined to express different concepts. I have a few books that tell me what the symbols mean. Bamboo is my favorite subject to paint. I have bamboo growing in my yard. We have some beautiful orchids, here in Hawaii, and sometimes I paint them. The classes I have taken have included some landscape painting, along with flowers and a little calligraphy, but I have not practiced landscapes with the Chinese brush much. One sensational experience about painting is grinding the ink. The ink stick gives off wafts of wonderful eucalyptus-type smells when it is being ground and mixed with water on the ink stone.

Introduction: Another try: I am a homemaker and I live in Hawaii. Over the years, I have been interested in Taoism, practicing: Tai Chi and Chinese Brush Painting and trying out Kung Fu and Chi Gung. Sometimes I throw the I Ching as an oracle. Reading Taoist works inspires me. I used to study astrology but it was too time consuming and hard on the body, sitting at a desk and studying charts etc. And I felt that it really didn't matter ... participating in the moment without projecting limitations on the future was the best I could do ... and isn't that the Tao? You Tao Bums seem to have a very interesting site.

Aloha, exposure to Taoist thoughts and exchanges appeals to me.