Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Poem

I liked this title and I don't know why. What it did was inspire me to get back to a medium that I hadn't done since art school: relief print. I decided to do a treatment of a poem in the way I'd done one in relief class. I took a haiku and did a very small print based on it. I don't remember the exact poem but it went a bit like:

Now, the fireworks
are over for the night
ah, how vast and dark.

Of course, you don't get to see the print. Only one has survived and hangs on the wall of a friend's condo. He won it at a raffle at a seminar at our aikido dojo.

Anyhoo. I haven't had time to do the actual carving, what with another trip to ride The Queen Latifah Trail in MA and some freelance web design work (Woo hoo! Firewood money!). So, what you get is a sketch for the print done in illustrator. It will be much cooler carved and printed. I think the composition is missing something. Perhaps the angles need tweaking. Any thoughts? The poem it's based on is below.



poor crying cricket
Perhaps your little husband
was caught by our cat

(by Kikaku)

Listening to: Fibber McGee and Molly episode: "Egyptian Good Luck Ring" (1940)

10 comments:

Janice Ykema said...

not sure but i think the floor tiles are off... (angle wise) or window.... ONE or the other needs to change. otherwise it will be stunning. :).Visually its nicely paced and spaced.. like the colours as well. Please post the finished piece.

ps.. (me too... once Ive read somebody ONE of my poems.. they understand how to read the rest... so I do understand).

Miz K said...

Charming and sad at the same time - very well done!

ElizT said...

I like the style and colours.

Swinebread said...

I like the colors. I think the second rafter is probably not necessary. It throws the perspective off on the tatami mats. I covered it up with my finger and then the space look more natural.

Just a thought...

Focus_ret said...

To me it is the disparity in size between the two rafters that throws me off. Maybe shrink the rafter in the foreground?

Are the bottom windows supposed to be taller than the upper windows? That makes their perspective look odd.

neilornstein said...

By all means tweak away
but it pleases me
enormously
just as
it
is
.

Gina Perry said...

Very nice. The subtle cricket in shadow is great. I agree with the other comments that the second rafter is tricking the eye and the window perspective is off a bit.

Eli said...

Great composition! The perspective on the floor is a bit wonky but it's a great vantage point and illustration!

Arkonbey said...

Thanks everyone for all of the criticism. I've really looked it over and am going to work on the perspective. I do think that I need to keep the far rafter to provide a balance with the weight of the near rafter.

I can't wait to get carving.

Andre Messier said...

I've posted a crappy scan of the other piece arkonbey referred to here if you want to see it. I'll post a better copy of it if I can figure out how to scan in a better copy...