Our Clan is Harmonious

Aug 7

We weave the harmonies
of our voices
of our tools
of our hearts
Each member our own creation
Each accomplished
Each practiced
Each realized
We, tied together
One community
One family
One song to shake these skies

Family is the ultimate collaboration.

Community, when it comes together, can generate the most wonderful harmonies - no matter what type of primates they are.

One of my long-term goals has been to run a complete lap of the Chinese / Japanese zodiac, the 干支 (Eto). Generally, I’ve been making one a year, in honor of the following year’s critter. Thus this became, at the minimum, a 12-year project. There was kind of a slow start and some misfires early on - my style and focus hadn’t refined quite enough. I moved to Japan and everything clicked into place. The first few years roared by.

Then came the year of the monkey. Rat, cow (or ox), tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse and goat.

Early in my art career, I had made a lot of monkey-themed art. These simians are great stand-ins for human-type people, after all. They’ve got opposable thumbs and everything! I was absolutely brimming with confidence. So much so that I chose freedom and decided to break a couple of rules I had set for the series:

Up to that point each animal had been a lone wolf… metaphorically. Monkeys are social creatures, so it felt weird to have only one. These would be a clan.
It’s tough to fit a handful of monkeys on an A4-sized portrait canvas. I flipped the board, then made it longer and more cinematic.
All the other creatures had embraced a theme where they straddled the border of the physical and spiritual worlds, with a healthy dose inspired by Aristotle’s ideas of prime matter mixed in. I side-stepped that idea for a theme of collaboration and harmony. In love with the visual’s of sound waves, I added that ingredient to the stew, and the monkeys became musical.
Finally, I mixed in some really bright colors.

There’s a lot to love about the final simian squad. They are a fun, visually exciting bunch. One has hair like an electrocuted Elvis impersonator. I had a blast filling my sketchbook with monkey faces and bodies. The theme of working together and collaborating is one which I always come back to, in both my art and my life.

And yet…these monkeys are a surprisingly independent bunch who don’t really want to be lumped in with the other Eto pieces. And so, after completing the rooster, dog, and boar, I find myself with a monkey-less zodiac.

Happily, I’ve got until 2028 to round out my Eto with a new monkey.