doggies

guest post on my paisley world

LuAnn of My Paisley World honored me this week with an interview about Etegami. I hope you will take a look at it.  Though there's a mountain of information about etegami in my own blog, it is scattered over years and years of posts, thus sometimes hard to find. So I truly appreciate getting the chance to summarize the basic points in interviews like this one.

Below are links to a few earlier interviews, each emphasizing slightly different aspects of etegami, depending on the readership of the site that invited me. As I try to share about etegami to different audiences, even I am surprised by the multifaceted nature of Etegami.

Beads of Clay : "Virtues in Miniature"
Jojoebi Designs blog : "New Skills Festival"
Expat + Harem; the Global Niche:  "Etegami as a Bridge"
The Nihon Sun: "Etegami and the Civic Spirit"

There are many other links I wish I could list, but I can just imagine your eyes glazing over, so I'll quit here.

the bird caller

A Bird Caller. I'm sure you've seen one of these before. Doesn't every child own one at one time or another? It probably does as poor a job of producing bird language as current translation software does of translating between English and Japanese. I'm pretty sure the sparrows were telling me to shut up.

cyril and the olfactory tapestry

Inspired by a scene where Cyril the dog is poking his head out the car window on a trip to Italy. "...none of the human passengers had even the faintest inkling of how exciting was the olfactory tapestry that Cyril now enjoyed. The world as it reveals itself to the canine nose is far richer than we can possibly imagine, and includes not only that which is there-- which is interesting enough-- but also that which was there before." 

From The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith. Question: I left the dogs uncolored to emphasize the richness of the "tapestry," but do you think they need some kind of color?

 

cyril and the sound of verbs

This etegami was inspired by one of my favorite passages from The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith.   

The word Cyril meant, in his mind, that something was going to happen. It was a verb. He had no idea that it was him, that he was an object. He waited for some further sign, but none came. So he lowered his head and went to sleep. Before he dropped off, pictures came to him, and scents too. He saw a field, and a path. He saw a ball in the air, describing an arc across the sky. He smelled something rich and exciting; rabbits, perhaps. He saw a face peering at him. He saw water at the edge of sand. He heard verbs.

figgy idiom

To not care/give a fig is defined by the online Cambridge Dictionary as "to not be at all worried by or interested in something." Like not giving a hoot. Okay, okay; I took out the "not" for my etegami, and that version of the idiom does not seem to exist in the real world. Call it artistic license. :)

etegami newsletter-- may 2013 issue

The May issue of the Etegami Fun Club newsletter is out! Along with a thought-provoking quote from Kunio Koike, the founder of the modern etegami movement, this issue has sections about Etegami Get-Well cards, Frequently Asked Questions, and reader responses to the topic "What Attracted You to Etegami?"

If you signed up for it and can't find it in your email box, please check your spam/junk folder. If you still can't find it, let me know. If you are interested in signing up, send your request and email address to dosankodebbie (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) jp   The newsletter is free and only two pages long, so you don't need to worry that it will be burdensome to read. :)

illustration friday (wild)

a present from the post office

When I was an active member of Postcrossing and the International Union of Mail Artists, I used to make a lot of mail box-themed collages, partly because I adore the old Japanese mail boxes of my childhood, and partly because I've collected more used and new postage stamps (going back 50 years) than I know what to do with.

Needless to say, I use a lot of postage stamps to send etegami and other mailart to destinations all over the world-- as many as 100 a month. It is a pleasure (but not a surprise) when the local post office shows its appreciation of my patronage with little gifts. Most often the gifts are useful items like a box of facial tissues or plastic wrap. And sometimes I get lucky and receive a really special item like this vintage-mailbox-shaped "piggy bank." (happy dance)

time beings

I've started reading A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING by Ruth Ozeki and am getting quite caught up in the story. I'm only 20% through it, and I've already marked several lines that beg to be illustrated. I love it when this happens. I will try to send this one to Ruth if I can figure out where to send it to.

uneaten ducks

Issa's haiku are so down-to-earth. Spring makes me glad to be alive- to have survived winter- just like the uneaten ducks.