Revisitation • The River's Cascade, Under the Blossoming Plum
⊛ The River's Cascade, Under the Blossoming Plum • detail
⊛ cut washi + chiyogami paper / illustration board
⊛ 10 x 8 in • 254 x 203 mm
From great heights
gathered from every land and sea
the water plummets
with a roar deafening, breaks the rocks below
writhing and shimmering, rises
ripples, vibrant with life, constellate in the air
untameable, aged beyond numbers,
such generosity, such greed,
such hungry love unfathomable
⊛ The River's Cascade, Under the Blossoming Plum
⊛ cut washi + chiyogami paper / illustration board
⊛ 10 x 8 in • 254 x 203 mm
Dragons were the beginning and end of all my drawings for middle school-aged me.
There were heroes and knights, broken swords and shattered arrows. But always dragons.
I don’t draw a lot of dragons these days. Although I suppose there’s an argument to be made that a lot of the creatures I draw are descended from those first terrible reptiles. This particular dragon was the first I’d drawn since childhood. I’ve done, I think, two others since. I may draw at least one more.
Pretty much every year since then, I’ve made a piece based on the Eto animals. Rat, Ox / Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat / Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar/ Pig.
I started making art based on the Chinese / Japanese zodiac symbols before I moved back to Japan. That first Rooster was truly terrible. Hopefully you’ll never see it. The dog was much better. The boar was a moving card (a card which announced my move to Japan). They were crafted in a very different, much simpler style.
I suppose I’m waxing a little nostalgic because I just recently finished a new boar, one which sits neatly in with the rest of my Eto series. Alongside a shivering white dog, that very nearly brings the series full circle.
Monkey is the last simian standing. I’ve made plenty of monkey art over the years. Even one specifically for this series. But none are quite at one with their animal pals. So, I’ll be trying my hand at another soon.
And then there’s the dragon. While I like this slender wyrm, I’ve also been asked to make a more… substantial… drake. One with a bit more girth and mass and power. I have ideas. I just haven’t decided whether to pursue them or not.
It’s a curious feeling, knowing that a project I’ve been working on for so many years is coming to a close. I’ve played with creating a new, vastly different Eto series in a different style. Then again, there are a great many other things I’d like to draw and cut and create. Sketchbooks full of half-realized ideas and abandoned concepts. Exciting paths not yet discovered.
Is it better to move forward carrying the past with me? Or to enshrine it and move on to the new?
I should mention that this slithering, serpentine beast is part of the Kachofugetsu exhibition, viewable now at Arts Rush Gallery in Daikanyama.
