illustration friday (equality)

A reminder from one of my heroes, Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States of America. From his Second Inaugural Address which ends with these words:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

octopus

This is another re-post of one of my favorites. I drew it and then I ate it.

illustration friday (worn)

etegami recipe card give-away

I painted each of these recipes over two washi postcards taped together side by side. They are the originals of the illustrated recipes in my gallery on the They Draw and Cook website.  Some of them are also included in my mini-book An Etegami Sampler, which can be purchased from my Etsy shop.

The colors have softened quite a bit since they were first painted, and rather than keeping them boxed away in storage where they aren't bringing new pleasure to anyone, I've decided to separate the two cards that make up each recipe, glue the two cards back to back, and laminate them for giving away to subscribers of the Etegami Fun Club Newsletter. If you become a subscriber to the newsletter, you can enter the drawing.

I have at least fifteen different illustrated recipes to give away. I cannot promise which recipe you will get if your name is picked. The drawing will be open until August 1. Winners will be announced in the September issue of the newsletter which is scheduled to be emailed to subscribers on August 15. Please indicate your desire to participate in the drawing by commenting below, OR send me a private email.

illustration friday (children)

A rubber-soled, cheap canvas shoe that anyone living in Japan immediately recognizes as the type children use as indoor footwear while at school. The red-rubber tip indicates that its missing owner was a girl. The style and size tell us it was probably worn by a very young child, attending kindergarten or early elementary school. The child most likely came from a rural area where old basics like this are more readily available than trendier styles printed with popular anime characters.

The shoe is soaked with sea water. It was the only thing the tsunami left behind when it took the child. The words translate roughly to: What the tsunami left behind.

This is a re-post from my earthquake/tsunami series that I painted to mourn the lives and livelihoods that were lost in the triple disaster of March 11, 2011 (Japan).

shall not want

I did this one for a challenge on RedBubble, against a very tight deadline. I'm still out of breath.

the gentle-hearted loquat

Yesterday I received a rare and precious visit from a friend who is originally from Hokkaido but now lives in distant Yokohama. Among the many gifts she brought me from Yokohama was a pack of loquats (biwa), that small, oval, downy-skinned fruit with huge seeds and a very mild flavor with subtle hints of apricots or peaches. My friend made me solemnly promise not to eat the loquats until I had painted them. So I had to wait till today, but I've done my duty, and the loquats are no more.

The Japanese writing is the first line of a children's song titled "Biwa."  Biwa are a gentle-hearted fruit/ that's why they hug one another in clusters as they ripen/ in the shade of rainbow-tinted leaves that are like donkey's ears.