Saturday, April 08, 2006

JU to you and you

The calligraphed piece below represents 100 characters for JU, longevity in Japanese/Chinese, and is a gift I made for a friend's 84th birthday present. The idea comes from Hakuin, the zen Buddhist monk-poet whose piece I looked at in a book. Each character looks different, each being composed of distinct strokes. However, they say the same thing: JU. I used Windsor Newton Payne's Grey watercolor on Arches cold-pressed paper. The envelope (bottom photo) is made out of construction paper and sewn with embroidery thread. The design is the Buddhist endless knot, which I cut out with my sharp utility blade atop a cutting mat.



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