bugs, homework, and the beauty of clumsiness

Summer vacation has finally started for Japanese schoolchildren, and BUGS IN THE WILD HAD BETTER WATCH OUT. Bug-collecting is a popular choice for fulfilling  the "independent study" part of a heavy load of summer vacation homework. Kids armed with bug cages and bug nets will soon be invading the woods and meadows.

I've lost count of how often I've posted about the famous etegami motto, which boils down to "Clumsy is beautiful." It is such a hugely important component of Etegami, and one of the things that makes it accessible to everyone-- absolutely everyone. Some day I'll post pics of the early etegami of Koike Kunio (the founder of Japan's popular etegami movement), and you'll probably say "You're kidding, right?" 

Anyway, compare the bug etegami above to the photo of the actual bug that was my model. See? Etegami is not for showing off how well you can draw. I mean, if you come from a Fine Arts background, or have a natural gift for drawing, you don't have to pretend that you don't. But if you do not have that kind of background, and you actually never drew anything other than stick figures in your whole life until now, you can still do etegami. And it'll be fun.

illustration friday (obsession)

I have both rational and irrational fears of many kinds of bugs. But a little over a year ago, I forced myself to paint a millipede etegami to submit to a mailart call on the theme of "Phobias." Ever since then, I've become obsessed with drawing bugs-- even the ones that disgust and scare me the most. Cockroaches, mosquitoes, and centipedes, for example. (I'm still not brave enough to draw spiders.) As I paint them, I discover beauty in the colors and patterns of their construction, and that helps me overcome a bit of my phobia. Just a little bit.

The words are a quote from a poem called The Old Gumbie Cat by T.S.Eliot, from the book titled: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, on which, I'm told, the Broadway musical Cats is based. I've been enjoying the book immensely, and I see a lot of cat etegami in my future...