Year of the Rabbit

This is the year of the rabbit. I love rabbits. I don't know why, really. Perhaps it is because they are so quiet and gentle. Above are 2 handmade scrolls.

I have stone and metal rabbits throughout my home.

I have stone and metal rabbits in my Zen gardens.

This is the Chinese Year - of - the - Rabbit horoscope. If you were born in 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987 you would be a 'rabbit'. When Buddha lay dying, he summoned the animals to bid them farewell. The cow was the first to hasten to the scene but the rat, riding on the cow's back, jumped off and arrived first. Thus the rat became the first animal in the Asian zodiac, a cycle of twelve years that assigns a different animal to each year. A person is thought to take on characteristics of the animal representing the year in which she or he was born. Since nature is the source of all art and design in Japan, you can find animals depicted in many of their art forms.

Wood carving.
Those that are born in the year of the rabbit are considered articulate, talented and ambitious. They are often lucky.

Macau postage stamp 1999

Netsuke are miniature sculptures invented in 17th century Japan. They were first used as 'toggles' to help close bags that Japanese men wore to carry around their belongings.
Eventually, netsuke became a highly honored art form.

A ceramic cup

Rabbit's frozen pose--
breaking loose he springs away,
melting through the fence.

You can find more of Kris Hargis' drawings at this gallery in Portland, OR here.

Geoffrey Gorman creates his animal sculptures from all sorts of materials.
Find more of his wonderful sculptures at his website here.

"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit. "No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way." --- Winnie the Pooh

A New Day

This is a collage I made last year. I titled it NEW DAY.

I have been working on a new series and struggling a bit. I work in my studio during the day and often end the day frustrated and even feeling lost. The next day, in the early morning, I lie in bed thinking about the new day and what promise or hope I have for the new day in my studio.
Every morning is like a haiku filled with new artists' impressions. I get up and get ready to tackle another day in my studio.

Jo-Ann Van Reeuwyk is a fiber artist. Her work is about vessel making and containment. She explores relationships, embodiment and containment which are important aspects of the personal. You can find much more of her wonderful fiber creations here.

The following is a poem by David Whyte titled What to Remember When Waking. It is about what an artist (or poet in his case) thinks about when first awakening in the morning.

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

Carole Kunstadt is a collage artist who combines objects like stones, shells and twigs with hand made papers. Layers of memory and a sense of intimacy pervade her work. You can find more of her wonderful work at her website here.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

A detail from the above piece

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Tracy Spadafora is an encaustic artist who investigates the connection between our man-made and natural environments, illustrating the endurance of nature. These two are her works on paper and you can find more of her wonderful work at her website here.

Now look through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white pages on the writing desk?
---David Whyte

When I saw this collage by artist Leslie Avon Miller (you can find her wonderful blog here), I thought of early dawn when the sky is still dark but hints of color - orange, red, or yellow begin to burst through at the edge of the darkness - hinting at the new day.. a new day in the studio.

awakening light
promises of a new day
streaks across the sky
---Russ Baleson

Histories Past and Present

A scroll is a roll of parchment or paper which has been written, drawn or painted upon for the purpose of transmitting information or using as a decoration. Scrolls were the first form of record keeping. They were also used in recording history and literature before the bound book.

Come said the muse,
Sing me a song no poet has yet chanted;
Sing me the universal. Walt Whitman

Photo by Werner Bischof, from JAPAN photography by Werner Bischof 1951-52.

Without memories, there is nothing to account for our lives. With memories, we develop a language, drawing from universal concepts.

"Leaning against the wall were rows of ancient, tattered Chinese screens. I peeked between torn corners to see layers of paper, some yellowed with age but covered with exquisite calligraphy. A new body of work had begun." Roberta Marks, A Place Between

I found the above image at Seth Apter's tumblr page which you can find here. It is titled Four Play. He has beautiful images there as well as at his wonderful blog, which you can find here.

I draw these letters
as the day draws its images
and blows over them
and does not return. -- Octavio Paz

Four ancient scrolls from China.

A detail of the seals and chops used in the above scrolls.

A scroll made of bamboo
Man is but a part of the fabric of life -- dependent on the whole fabric for his very existence.
--- Gary Snyder

The above is titled LETTER FROM THE OLD WORLD by Lissa Hunter. Her book is LISSA HUNTER: Histories Real and Imagined. She also has a wonderful website which you can find here.

"Any process , whether it is washing dishes or making art, is begun to fulfill a function, is formed by appropriate techniques and materials, and if affected by cultural and historical influences." --Lissa Hunter

The Way of Tea

I may have posted the above collage already but I had several inquiries after my last blog post for more information about my tea lattes. I am a tea drinker. I collect teas where ever I travel.
I look for exotic teas and lately I have been looking for chocolate teas. The title of the above collage is THE WAY OF TEA. The Japanese strive for harmony with natural beauty. The monk Shuko (1422-1502) is credited with making the tea ceremony into an exemplification of wabi sabi design and refined, graceful living. The tea ceremony is an important part of the Japanese aesthetic.

THE BOOK OF TEA by Kakuzo Okakura is a brief but classic essay on tea drinkers, its history, restorative powers, and rich connection to Japanese culture. Okakura felt that 'teaism' was the very center of Japanese life and helped shape everything from art, aesthetics, and an appreciation for architecture, design, gardens, and paintings.

The black and white photograph is by famous photographer Werner Bischof. He took photographs in Japan over a 2 year span 1951-52. You can find more of his photos in the book JAPAN.. photographs by Werner Bischof and text by Robert Guillain.

The title of the above mixed media work is TEA. It was created by the artist Lissa Hunter.
You can find more of her work in her book LISSA HUNTER: Histories Real and Imagined by Abby Johnston.

Above, is a watercolor painting by Daniel Kelly titled ANCIENT BLUE. He is an American artist living in Japan. You can find more of his paintings and prints at his website here.

Mel Robson is a potter in Australia. She makes functional and non-functional cups and bowls and dishes in porcelain. You can find out more about Mel, and where and how you can get your hands on some of her fabulous porcelain pottery at her blog here.

As you can see in the above image, Mel is obsessed with old maps and text and handwriting.

There is a wonderful blog I want to tell you about. It is Tea for Joy and you can go to the blog here. This blog has things British and vintage, but also features a tea of the week. There are beautiful images and links to other blogs.

There are some wonderful new teas available now that become delicious tea lattes. Go to the Republic of Tea website here and check out their Cuppa Chocolate Tea Collection- a new tea there is Red Velvet Chocolate. Another tea I have is Chocolate Mint Rooibos by TEASE and you can find their website here. I make a cup of tea, add either non-fat milk, or non-fat half and half cream, and a dash of Splenda sugar. Then I use my Milk Frother to 'froth' up the milk and then I add India Tree dark chocolate bits. You can find all sizes, types and prices of milk frothers at Amazon.com. You can find the chocolate sprinkles along with sugars and spices at the India Tree website here.

FLOW with whatever may happen

and let your mind be free:
Stay centered by accepting
whatever you are doing.
This is the ultimate. -- Chuang Tzu

The time has arrived

During the holidays, this past November and December, my mantra was "I will do that in January". I will update my website, I will get caught up in the blog world, I will send out information about my upcoming workshop in April, I will start a new body of work.. so many goals, desires, wishes, hopes... all were put off until January. I have always viewed January as my new beginning-- blank canvas, blank calendar -- the beginning of my new goals. Well, it is now January. The first thing I did was take a look around at some of my favorite things and favorite quotes, looking for inspiration.

Old Japanese books, with worn torn covers

some more old worn Japanese books

DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO 'TRY'. - Master Yoda

old typeset wooden letters

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall. -- Ray Bradbury

My collection of beach stones

Alas! must it ever be so? Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go, And fight our own shadows forever? -- Lord Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton

Collection of bird eggs, bird skulls, bones

Be patient towards all that is unresolved in you and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Live the questions now. --
Rainer Maria Rilke

Old Japanese wooden boxes

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we reach it. -- Michelangelo

Old gears, watch faces, rusty metal

You have to be available to the invisible voices that are swirling around you.-- George C. Wolf

Old maps, old scrolls, old papers waiting for inspiration.

I may not know who I am, but I know where I'm from. -- Wallace Stegner

After my favorite tea latte with chocolate sprinkles, and leftover sugar cookies on my favorite plate, I will get to work. I wish all my blog friends a successful, creative new year.