selling on line

My sister heard a podcast from the public radio, some ex rapper selling his Sharpie drawings on the Internet to former rap fans.  "Its a good idea, JIm,  you should do this too!"

I get requests to buy things on line sometimes, but usually say no.  It doesn't seem right with something as personal as a painting to sell it to someone who has only seen a photo. 

Mostly I am an ink painter.  I use ink because it suits my hand and because it is the most sensitive, evolved materials humans have designed with for expressing a feeling, a line, directly from heart to hand to paper.  It moves fast.  It moves slowly.  Every twitch, every twist, every hesitation, is recorded directly on the paper.  It is honest, no tricks, lies.

But ink painting is not all I do.  Sometimes I etch. 

Etching is a different world altogether, indirect as can be, scratching lines on a piece of metal, covering it with a ground, scratching thru, letting it be bitten by acid, then scratched again and scraped and polished.  I found good results last year when I put it on my anvil and hit it with a hammer.  And when the copper plate is scratched, engraved, hammered and bitten it is smeared with ink then gently cleaned, rubbed and polished untill only what in the artists desires is left to be printed.  Then the plate is put on a press and squeezed tight between steel rollers to a moistened piece of paper, what comes out of the press is the result.

It is the art of Rembrandt, and the art of Blake.

Perhaps etchings are more appropriate to be sold on line.  Perhaps I will try.  And if i do, this will be my first.

Dragons in a Christmas Mandala

 

 

I found it last week in a book.  I had forgotten how much fun it was.  Prices, a better photo, and more information to follow if i decide to go thru with this.

Winter Lotus

I go to the pond when I am free these days.
Every day the lotus change.  They wither and dry.  Like soldiers on a field,  Some still, many fallen down, getting smaller, fading away.

 

  I come home and paint.

 But not only decay, there is the promise of life. 
I picked up a pod that floated on the water.  Out came seeds.

 

The measure of a man

The measure of a man, the measure of a life, How do you measure your life?  I measure my life not from birthday to birthday nor from January firsts.  I measure my life from show to show.  For over 20 years I have had exhibitions in October.  I have other chances to exhibit thru the years, but I measure my life from October to October exhibitions.

And now my years has done.  I am always in a turmoil as to what the next year will be. 

I am forced to take a break from paintingfrom the middle of the summer, to make scrolls and frames, to hang them on the wall, to greet visitors and friends.  Now it is done.  I have been away from painting for 2 1/2 months.  I have forgotten how to paint.  I have forgotten who I am.  November is a chance to start again and to find out who or what I have become.

Last Sunday I didn't do the things I was supposed to do.  Instead I hid in my studio and worked on this dragon.

 

 

thanks to all!

 

Thanks to all who made this years exhibition a success.  Ichiyo's shortcut through Yanaka.  It was a lot of fun to put it together and great to be able to share it with everyone who visited.  Now I go back to my studio and breath a quiet breath, sit in a clean room and wonder what will happen next.