Andrea’s Bird and my Feather Copy
Artists who use Sumi-e style, try to capture the essence of nature in a the simplest brushstrokes. To do that well, the artists has to feel the core spirit as well as see it. My mother, who painted the songbird was a master at this. I inherited some of her sketchbooks in which this bird was painted as a quick study. She hand ground charcoal to make ink in a traditional japanese-developed way, looked carefully at the bird with her whole being, and put her brush to paper in a few quick deft strokes.
I cannot capture that simplicity in my cutting but i tried in homage to my mother and a bow to the sumi-e tradition that acknowledges close intertwinings with what we observe.