The Struggle.

How long does it take to design an artwork?...how long is a piece of string?

I have spent the last 5 WEEKS (!!) struggling with a design for a new two panel textiles work. This is the longest I have ever taken to create a design and its killing me! I love to sketch and fiddle around with paint but large scale drawing and composition is just not my strong point. I'm so ready to move on to the fun steps of cutting a stencil, making print paste and dyeing but I can't until I've got this foundation step right.

It's been an eye opening experience. I've added sections. Taken parts away. Cut it up. Pasted on new bits. Painted colours in. Started all over again. Moved parts around. Made it bigger. Doubted the idea itself. Taken confidence. Almost reached an end point.

various stages of incompleteness

In my designing despair, I came across this heartening video. It's from an interview with writer Ira Glass, where he says that artists starting out need to keep on creating even though they feel what they are producing is inadequate.

Hopefully, the time spent on getting this design right will mean that the resulting artwork will be mostly sastifying. I will post images here as the work finally, at last, at length, gets off the ground.

Kacho-ga 花鳥画 - The Art of Birds & Flowers

There is a genre in traditional Japanese painting called 花鳥画 kachou-ga, which literally translated means 'a painting of birds and flowers'. It has its roots in Chinese painting traditions where themes of natural beauty were highly valued. I've been reading about kachou-ga because my textiles are also essentially paintings of birds and flowers.

There are some things that are inherent in a kachou-ga that make it more than a mere image of a flower of bird or animal. These things are hard to define but according to Uemura Atsushi, a famous Japanese painter from a lineage of famous painters, the following is a clincher:

"Depicting natural phenomena as is doesn't make something a painting. To produce a work of art, the artist must give shape to the world he imagines in his own mind and heart" (forgive the translation)

Folding Screen by Suzuki Kiitsu, "White Crane & Willow Tree"

Another Japanese painter, Kawaguchi Naoyoshi, says that if an artist is to paint kachou-ga , they should not be painting the true to life external appearance of a subject but incorporating their own feelings and spirit into the work.

Also, Uemura adds that a frequent ingredient in kachou-ga is 「余白」yohaku, meaning "blank space". He says that it is by incorporating blank space in a work, the artist is hinting at this otherworldliness.

From the series "Birds & Flowers of the Twelve months" by Sakai Houitsu. Left: October. Right: September.

There's still a lot to read about kachou-ga but these are some of the most fundamental ideas.

I'm currently planning new work that follows some of the kachou-ga  styles and ideas, this time depicting Major Mitchell's Cockatoos. I'm still in the sketching and designing stage.

Also here's a few images from this week at school. I put up all the pieces I had finished during the spring break to show my professors. They were very positive and encouraging which was nice.

dyeing paper 型染めで和紙を染めて見た～

During the spring break I planned out a little project to keep myself busy and also so I could spend my days in the warmth of the classroom and not the chilly box that has been my loungeroom.

I decided to have a go at dyeing paper. I had seen and admired work by Serizawa Keisuke (one of my Katazome heroes), where he dyed calendars on washi (japanese paper) so I knew it could be done.

I chose to make an all-over design, based on silhouetted gumnuts and eucalyptus blossoms. Because the stencil is quite detailed, I chose to attach a fine mesh called 'sha-bari' to help keep the stencil strong. The mesh is applied with a nasty smelling black lacquer, hence the black colour of this stencil.


This is the stencil I designed and cut to print resist paste onto my washi. It it made to be repeated lengthways.

This is the washi I bought to dye. Its a particular sort suited for dyeing.

At first, the thought of dyeing paper is a bit daunting because it seems so fragile but actually I found it easier than the same process onto fabric! It is recommended you apply a solution of a kind of binder to the washi before hand to increase its strength and to stop it getting all fibrous. After that dries you just go ahead as normal and apply the print paste. Then dye as normal, see below in progress


this piece of washi is about 35cm x 35cm. Here the resist paste has been applied and I have finished dyeing.

Ta-da! after a layer of clear fixative is applied and let dry, you just wash it out in warm water.

a close up of the finished piece of washi

this was a bigger piece, about 35cm x 50cm that I dyed in a different colourway.

It was a sastisfying experiment dyeing paper and was surprised to find it quite simple. I'll be interested to make more prints onto washi, perhaps inspired by Japanese scrolls. As always, many possibilities, its just taking initiative and actually doing it!!