Chiyo Sanada’s artful calligraphy honored as fall Arts Walk’s cover image

Arts Walk poster artist Chiyo Sanada, who grew up in Hiroshima, Japan, found her passion for calligraphy the way many a pianist falls in love with the keys.

“In Japan, it’s really common for kids to go to calligraphy class after school,” Sanada of Lacey told The Olympian. “I went there because my mom said so.”

Mom, it turned out, had the right idea. “Most kids quit when they’re in sixth grade or maybe middle school,” Sanada said, “but I kept going.”

She never stopped, and her passion for Japanese calligraphy — shodo — is matched today by her passion for peace, the subject of the artwork used to advertise Olympia’s fall Arts Walk, happening throughout October.

“I’m always thinking of peace because of my hometown,” she said. “And I’d like this country to be peaceful. There are so many disasters in the world. I’d like it to be a peaceful world.”

“Peace,” on display at Aikido Olympia and now part of the City of Olympia’s permanent collection, combines traditional calligraphy with an image of bamboo painted in the orange-red ink that Sanada’s teacher used to correct her students’ mistakes.

“Red bamboo stands for celebration or good luck,” Sanada said.

Her work combines calligraphy with colors and textures that express her meaning to people who don’t read Japanese.

And process is as important as product for Sanada. When she demonstrates her work — as she’ll do Friday at Aikido Olympia — she dances as she draws. “The mind, heart, body and brush connect, and they express your emotion on the paper or on canvas,” she said.

“It’s so cool to see her in action,” said Angel Nava of Olympia’s Parks, Arts and Recreation Department. “It feels almost like a dance the way she creates the work on the page. It’s really beautiful.”

When she fell in love with calligraphy, Sanada planned to teach art in Japanese public schools — a plan that was interrupted 21 years ago when she fell in love with an American and moved to Seattle with him.

It was moving to a country whose language she couldn’t speak that changed her focus from teaching art to creating it — but now she’s come full circle.

She’s teaching Japanese language and culture at Tenino High School.

Chiyo Sanada

• What: Sanada’s “Peace,” featured on the Arts Walk poster, is on display during Arts Walk’s kickoff weekend.
• When: 5-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1, when Sanada will be on hand and demonstrating her work, and noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2
• Where: Aikido Olympia, 506 Columbia St. SW, Olympia
• More information: http://www.chiyosanada.com/