All artists need to become skilled in accepting the many ways of rejection, from form letters to “we had so many high quality applicants, unfortunately you were not selected etc.” Some offer encouragement which is appreciated. Whatever the reason for not being accepted into an exhibition or a gallery or when there is a likely sale that doesn’t pan out, we should expect that to be the norm but never stop trying to reach as high as possible.

Handpapermaking.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing traditional and contemporary ideas in the art of hand papermaking. With a biannual magazine, newsletters, [read more]

What is the meaning of the color red in various cultures? What comes to your mind first? Red as celebratory in China, red for a 60th birthday in Japan and your second childhood, a red light meaning stop immediately or the dreaded X in red in Western cultures meaning incorrect on schoolwork?

You must be thinking, now what does all this have to do with Japanese calligraphy? In my view, a great deal. It turns out that teacher corrections to calligraphy are made using red ink though in truth the color is not a deep primary red but rather leaning toward red-orange. Japanese calligraphy teachers also may make samples for their students to copy using this same ink. Thus, this color denotes teaching materials and corrections [read more]

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat who, in July of 1940, through extraordinary measures and under seemingly impossible circumstances, selflessly saved the lives of endangered Jews. To honor his memory and that of those whose lives were both lost and saved, artwork by Rona Conti can now be viewed at the Sugihara Foundation and Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.

In the late 1930’s , as World War II approached and Jews were being rounded up, a man named Joseph Shimkin from Poland but living in Vilnius began to realize that he would be trapped along with thousands of others. He went from embassy to embassy [read more]

Dreaming Japan eons before I ever set foot on its soil, from the time I was in college studying ceramics and painting I was mesmerized by Japanese scrolls, the essential black and white mysteriously beautiful forms brushed upon tactile surfaces, then mounted and hung in soft-lit rooms of museums. Envisioning Japan from books and objects, I dreamed of studying calligraphy in its proper setting.

Love and youth has a way of re-shaping dreams. Had I not [read more]