9:36pm, Sun 6 May 2007

Born Sydney 1934. Became interested in Oriental calligraphy in the
1950s when studying Sheep and Wool at East Sydney Tech.

Cold Mountain

Matters require Man's involvement


These are two samples of Mike Harty's recent work. The calligraphy piece that would be presented would be similar in feeling - very dramatic and distinctive in style and scale (perhaps 4 ft long) - and bear the words 'Cloud Gate' in Chinese characters - a combination of an oracle-bone style calligraphy over 4000 years old for the word 'cloud' with a twentieth-century abbreviated form of the word 'gate', incorporating elements derived from the Tang dynasty wild cursive style with a highly modern and unconventional 'uncontained' calligraphic style which expands beyond the boundaries of the paper's edge as per the image on the left, and executed in a hazy blue-grey 'Ching Mou' type of Japanese ink which will imbue it with a floating, nebulous
quality. We feel Cloud Gate will appreciate this nexus between the oldand the new....

Mike Harty - bio

Born Sydney 1934. Became interested in Oriental calligraphy in the 1950s when studying Sheep and Wool at East Sydney Tech, when there were
also three young Japanese students (for the first time since WW11).
Began studying with only books and dictionaries, until 1988, when I began studying with Zhu SongFang, a Shanghai born architect and
engineer.

Began carving seals 1988.

Founding member Australian Chinese Painting Society. Vice-president for
10 years.

Founding member Australian Oriental Calligraphy Society. Vice-president
for 10 years.

Now Consultant to the Calligraphy Society.

Mike Harty¸ę®Ć
http://homepage.mac.com/mikesharty
http://web.mac.com/mikesharty