Shodo- Japanese calligraphy.
In a quest to improve my artwork, as well as my kanji, I decided to try my hand at shodo, or Japanese calligraphy. In Japan, writing characters is an art form in and of itself. If you go into a Japanese art museum, don't be surprised to find a display of characters that someone has written.
Back when I left Chitose, one of my students gave me a Japanese writing set, and one of my co-workers has been doing it since she was 2 years old. I talked her into teaching me a little on one of our days off. I have tried it a couple of times on my own since then. It is more difficult than it looks, I think- there are a lot of little details to pay attention to, specific ways to do all of the various brushstrokes. Still, here's some proof (as well as proof that I'm not photogenic, and that I currently have a beard again):
Those are not at my house... I keep thinking I should take some shots of the inside of my house, but never get around to it.
While doing it, I had a couple of artwork ideas. Perhaps more on that later, if I a) get better at the writing style and b) get around to doing the ideas. I've sketched them out roughly on a note in my art supplies box, so there's little danger of forgetting them. I even tried a couple of attempts at one of them, but I need to get better first.