I have two passions - black and white photography and kanji.  The allure of these two systems comes from my attraction to Japanese aesthetics: simplicity, suggestion, irregularity, quiet refinement.

Both photography and kanji can be minimalistic, complex, esoteric, mysterious, and enigmatic.

Kanji (漢字), the Chinese characters used in the Japanese language, are adopted from Chinese characters. Kanji are logograms.  That is a new word to me, too.  Logogram.  A logogram is a written character that represents a whole word or even a phrase.  Not a sound.  A whole idea.  A visual.

The Japanese write in pictures.  Imagine that!  Every time you write anything, you write your thoughts in little pieces of art.  Not only ideas, but images, too.  Tree actually looks a bit like a tree – 木。 See the skirt of the tree, and the branches at the side?  I know, a bit abstract.  But, then, abstract is cool.

A river looks like this 川．It is the flowing water down the stream.  And 水 – water –  is squeezing the river, and out comes water!  Swish.  I love it!  

Every word, every sentence is made up of a gallery of paintings.