CARVING MY CHINESE STAMPS

I worked a good deal of the day carving out these two stamps to the right. The top is a stylized version of my God symbol depicting Three in the whole of One with a symbol placed in the center for composition's sake. I tried to make it appear a little neo-Tibetan. The bottom one is the name Roland in Chinese. At least I hope it is. I may cut a frame around the name as I did with the symbol. Although Haiku poetry is a Japanese artform, I like the Chinese characters better and as I'm using them only as small bits of art in themselves, more as a design than for literal communication, it really shouldn't matter.

Then to the right of the stamps is the finished cut-out painting of the swan Haiku I posted earlier. Everything seems to be falling in place on this series - so far.

AND BACK TO AUTUMN

Here's another little Haiku design I've done for Autumn which may or may not be translated into a painting, I haven't decided yet. I see some color changes I'd make, but for the most part there will be no structural changes to the composition. Maybe once I make those color corrections it would make the decision to paint it a whole lot easier.

Today I got my supplies for making the western version of the Haiku woodblock stamp. The rest of today will be spent cutting the blocks and maybe tomorrow I'll be able to show a sample of it.

SOME WESTERN POETRY

Some years ago I did a nice series of "night" drawings illustrating Robert Frost's poem "STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING". I remember having gone into the country to do some quick sketches in the snow for these and how silent it was. Almost the perfect mood for Mr. Frost's poem. To this day, when I look at these drawings I still get a bit of a chill just thinking about the cold. But there is no landscape more beautiful than the moon reflecting off a new fallen snow. Surreal, other worldly, but still beautiful.

AUTUMN HAS ARRIVED, AT LAST!

With the celebration of the first day of Autumn over with, I sat down to pay homage to my favorite season. The first of the Autumn Haiku poems I chose uses what I believe is the crow as the welcomer to the season of change. It's a more suitable symbol for the crow rather than being the portender of bad luck.

Today I have purchased the materials necessary to create my own rubber stamps in the ongoing quest to reconcille the eastern arts with the west. The artists of Japan, if not all, had used woodblock stamps in their illustrations. I want to update some of those stamps and westernize the symbols used as a form of experimentation, for now. If successful, I will use them more with each painting.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

This is one of my earlier attempts at illustrating a Haiku by Japanese poet, Buson. It was a very morbid time of my life where I was totally engrossed with my own mortality. As you can see in this painting above, even the chimneys seemingly transform into tombstones. Was it a preoccupation with death or was it an illustration presenting the Resurrection symbolically shown as the yellow light coming from the church?

HAIKU - YOUKU

Working with the Haiku idea does have it's merits. For one thing I've rediscovered how closely linked the poetics of word and visuals are. And as with the design above I've also found that there can be an association of music as well. Visually, I like how this study ended up as something almost surreal; is the swan swimming on the water or floating in the sky? Whatever the desired effects I attempted with this written Haiku it ended up as something I didn't expect: a profound study on many levels.

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND

Due to the unexpected protests and the threat of a riot by my friends, I've decided to try this blog thing once more. During my brief sabbatical I've renewed my love of the Japanese Haiku. I love the simplicity of the artform and found that a simple design can be as difficult as the written Haiku. Because of this challenge, I like to continue this love affair with the "visual" Haiku.

Above are the new design studies I've done on the Adobe Photoshop prior to transfering them over to a more permanent medium. It might be done in a mixed medium of 3M vinyl cut-outs and gouache, but that could very well change in the next few days. However, I know that this little project will take several weeks to accomplish if not longer. Afterall, with each newly discovered Haiku presents the possibility of another visual.