Wabi-sabi: Day Two

Sumi ink and Walnut ink in Antiquing Solution spray on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

Nature has its way all ways
in drips and accidents
swirls and blots
it shows us the mud
of winter rains and rotting leaves

sometimes it stinks
of fungus and rich loam
we wrinkle up our noses
try to stay clean
sanitize our sinks
wash our hands with perfumed soap

while the wind blows more leaves
onto freshly swept walkways
more debris in gutters
more tree limbs onto roofs

and we miss the point

miss the wabi-sabi

This is one of the demo pieces from the Sunday Muse Group, actually three demos in one.  The lesson started out as black/white studies with ink but branched out into the Japanese aesthetics of wabi-sabi: the beauty of the natural, spontaneous, unpretentious yet character filled (and so on).  We started to really appreciate the loveliness of our unintended “accidents” with the inks, allowing more and more randomness to enter our pieces.

The piece pictured here was an example of three methods of ink blob art.  In the flower shape on the left I dropped a blob of ink on the paper, spritzed it with water to splash ink outward, let it drip down the page, which created a stem, then took a bamboo pen to scrape some ink out from the stem for suggestion of leaves.  The shape on the right is a random ink blob created by pressing another piece of paper, monoprint style, over the blob, then removing.  And the line of thumbprints across the bottom are just that!