"To any happy Flower," a series of 15 one of a kind monotypes, and "All in the Waiting," a series of seven one of a kind monotypes, are visual poetic responses to waka poetry written by women poets from the Heian period in Japan, specifically, Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. Consisting of five sections of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables, waka are usually based on an image from nature that evokes a human emotion. It was the language of love, colored by dreams and the seasons.  The Heian period was a flourishing time for women poets, who introduced a special sensibility, bringing greater passion, intimacy, and emotional and philosophical depth to the art form. Their exploration of the human heart and spirit, of the transient nature of time, and of the relations between men and women, is still relevant today, a thousand years later, and infuses my work with meaning. 

 

The images from the series, "To any happy Flower," are drawn on Japanese rice paper cut to the size of shikishi, almost square poem cards, typically used for waka poetry. The rice paper was then attached through a chine-collé process to the supporting paper. The images from the series, "All in the Waiting," are similarly drawn on Japanese paper prepared (cut) in the spirit of “kakemono” (“hanging thing” or scroll) also often used for writing poetry. The rice paper was then attached through a chine-collé process to the supporting paper.