STILLNESS, 10"x10" collage by Donna Watson
A NEW WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT: BORO/WABI SABI: The Japanese Spirit of Collage.
A 2 day course March 2-3 2015. At the Sheraton Airport Hotel in Portland OR. For more information about the workshop, supply list and how to register go to Art and Soul Retreat
Wabi Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic... an appreciation of the beauty of things imperfect, incomplete and impermanent - rustic, earthy, simple, subdued, textured and organic. It shows how the passage of time affects everything. Boro embodies the Japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi - tattered rags used to describe patched clothing. Instead of fabric we will learn how to hand paint Japanese washi papers. On the second day, artists will learn simple compositions and design elements and principles based on the Zen tenets of balance and harmony. Artists will recreate this "boro" effect by placing their own hand painted papers quilt like onto their own supports (paper, board, canvas) to create their own collages.
TO BREATHE, 8"x8" collage by Donna Watson
"I had a discussion with a great master in Japan, and we were talking about the various people who are working to translate the Zen books into English, and he said, "That is a waste of time. If you really understand Zen, you can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary, because the sound of the rain needs no translation."
--- Alan Watts, Whiskey River
TO WHISPER, 8"x8" collage by Donna Watson
"Wabi Sabi is a broken earthenware cup in contrast to a Ming vase, a branch of autumn leaves in contrast to a dozen roses, a lined and bent old woman in contrast to a model, a mature love as opposed to an infatuation, a bare wall in contrast to a wall hung with beautiful paintings.
As Leonard Koren says: the closer things get to non-existence, the more exquisite and evocative they become.
--- Crispin Sartwell, Six Names of Beauty
