Life can only be found in the present moment.
⸺ Thich Nhat Hanh ⸺
2018 ⸺ 2025
Taograms
Gestural + calligraphic expressions
Working with Sumi ink and rooted in the practice of Shodo, Taograms mark the beginning of everything that followed — including, ultimately, the Breath Meditations. What connects them all is a single principle: full attention to the present moment, then a mark.
Here, that mark is large and expressive — a gesture, a symbol, a structure. I call this body of work Taograms to distinguish it from pictograms, logograms, or ideograms, which refer to predefined written language. A Taogram is something else: a depiction of energy at a specific moment, a snapshot of the Tao’s ongoing flow, or a symbol of whatever I was contemplating when the brush met the paper.
The series unfolds in three distinct approaches:
|
Signs
Symbols, characters, and gestures. Each work captures a single moment of focused attention, applying the meditative spirit of Shodo to existing signs and abstract concepts alike.
|
Solar Barque | Taogram N°5
40 × 50 cm ⸺ 2021
Private collection, London
Taogram N°24
50 x 70 cm ⸺ 2024
Fern | Taogram N°13
40 × 30 cm ⸺ 2022
|
Tracks
Reduced to a single, continuous brushstroke. One unbroken gesture, exploring what lies within the flow of a single movement across paper.
|
Liquid Time | Track N°38
40 × 50 cm ⸺ 2023
Mountain Chain | Track N°40
40 × 50 cm ⸺ 2022
Private collection, London
Hairpin | Track N°1
30 × 40 cm ⸺ 2021
Private collection, London
|
Structures
Large, gestural compositions built from broad, dynamic brushstrokes — sometimes rooted in a Kanji, sometimes purely abstract. The dark, concentrated marks form a scaffold — a skeleton of condensed energy. In a second step, color is applied from behind, creating a luminous glow that envelops the structure: radiant, yet form-giving.
|
Taogram N°32
60 × 80 cm ⸺ 2024
Private collection, Salzburg
Nothingness | 無 | Taogram N°33
ø 30 x 3,5 cm ⸺ 2025
Taogram N°31
50 × 70 cm ⸺ 2024