“West Meets East Through Images and Words”

What is shodo?

“Shodo is the ‘way of calligraphy,’ and it enjoys a long history in Asia. Valued as not only a form of traditional brush writing, it is also thought to function as a form of ‘moving mediation’ and to enhance concentration, willpower, and composure.  Since the kanji, or ‘character’ that are shared by both China and Japan, often amount to abbreviated pictures, shodo has elements in common with abstract art.”

    From michioline.org: Journal of Japanese Cultural Arts

L.J.C. Shimoda, a practitioner of shodo goes beyond the cultural definition of shodo to create her own art form. Using traditional shodo materials (brush, ink, washi paper, and inkstone) and incorporating the brush techniques and stroke forms of shodo, L.J.C. creates her own language of images.

Although L.J.C. enjoys Japanese calligraphy, she prefers to develop and grow through her unique art form.  Linda’s abstract way of expressing and interpreting life is her form of personal communication, her unique expression of thoughts and feelings.  She creates a language all her own through her powerful brushstrokes.

L.J.C. is married to Todd Shimoda, author of “The Fourth Treasure” and other novels illustrated by her.  In this collaborative process, Todd creates the words and L.J.C. creates the images.  In every project their goal is to let the words add more dimension to the images and the images go deeper and reveal things the words do not convey.  Thus, the story would not be fully told with just the images and the images would not be fully understood without the story.