A Cobra Among Lilies

Art - Recent WorkJapan

Mar 20

Written By Patrick Gannon

⊛ A Cobra Among Lilies ⊛ cut washi + chiyogami papers / wood ⊛ 19.4 x 6.6 in • 492 x 167 mm — ⊛ A Cobra Among Lilies
⊛ cut washi + chiyogami papers / wood
⊛ 19.4 x 6.6 in • 492 x 167 mm

Jagged leaves, sturdy stalk
Bowed-down head, whip-sharp tongue
Companionless in the forest vast

Singular in form
Resplendent in mid-morning light
Linked into the all-encompassing flow
Vibrating endlessly with ecstatic intensity

Arisaema Urashima is the Japanese Cobra Lily, and we have met.

Hiking in the mountains of Fukuoka a couple years ago, my wife and I stumbled over one of the quirkiest, most out of place, seriously eye-catching plants we’ve ever seen.

It takes a special plant or tree or rock formation to halt me in my tracks and make me take out my camera. I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots of this beauty. My wife even made me promise to make a piece of art based on it. And as you can see, I have.

Initially, this flower was going to play a small, background role in a piece starring more mobile, sentient actors. Then I started to do a little research, trying to identify the plant and maybe find a bit more photo reference (my shots failed to capture the intricacies of its shape, especially the curve of the blossom at the head). I fell in love with the name - it’s also known as the Dominatrix Jack-in-the-Pulpit, but frankly I can’t even begin to fathom what that means.

The images I found quickly convinced me that this blossom needed to be the focus of its own piece.

It turns out that the striking flower we found on that April day was still in its young, bashful form. As summer came on and it grew bolder, the green flower would take on an ostentatiously royal purple or maroon tone. And that tongue. Oh yes, the long whip tail that clambers up out of the stalk, jutting around 18 inches (45 cm) into the sky. It’s gloriously weird, a little disturbing, and uniquely glamorous.

Here are an odd pocketful of facts about the Cobra Lily:

Don’t eat it - every part of it is poisonous.
In late summer, it pops out brilliant red berries, as if it didn’t have enough to grab your attention
It actually wasn’t out of place at all, being native to Japan’s forests
It is apparently very easy to grow.
You can find out more here (among other sites)

The sketching stage went very quickly, and all the sketches look like permutations of the final art above. This is pretty rare. I usually like to knock out a couple pages worth of sketches - most which I will forevermore hide from the critical eyes of the world. This piece came together more-or-less formed in my head.

I knew the piece had to be minimalist (at least relative to my typical work), and that the flower had to be the sole, central focus. I knew I wanted to make it on a piece of kaman-style wood (and that wood is gorgeous). The stalk, leaves, and border are cut from one lush, dark green washi paper, shot through with purple highlights.

I played around with building the blossom a lot. There were multiple layers, with subtle color variations, before I realized that simplifying it down to one patterned layer was the best way to communicate the flower’s character.

The pinkish pattern at the top links and ties this piece into a series I call All Runs Together, an ever-changing, often-growing, modular collection of variously-sized pieces. The flow is the energy, spirit, soul, current, life-force, etc. connecting and bonding all life.