This calligraphy painting is an unsigned gift to me painted by a friend and teacher when I visited Taiwan circa 1977. I was fortunate to briefly study this art of calligraphy mostly using heavy dark ink and golden brushes to practice dots and lines across newsprint laid out on large tables. My love for this calligraphy stems from the ability of a few words to capture the glory of nature "the mountain is high, the river (water) is long...." The poem is in some way a tribute not just to the grace of the Chinese language but to this island place once called Formosa or beautiful island in Portuguese. I was fortunate to travel with groups of students from the Chinese Culture College climbing across the highest mountain tops, crossing jewel like green gorges on swing bridges built by the Japanese during the Second World War and even visiting a single redwood tree hidden in the forests like an old giant. We went so far as to travel to remote areas occupied by the indigenous people of Taiwan who then were called simply the Shan Di Ren or mountain people. All of these memories flood back just by the simple reading of this calligraphic script which in black and white captures the spirit of a wondrous landscape moving from bright daylight to evening. There may be many amazing artifacts of this Chinese art of calligraphy but this one is my own personal memento.
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