pranks on cats

You may be familiar with the videos making the rounds of SNS, that show a cat getting scared out of its wits when it becomes aware of a cucumber deliberately placed in its blind spot by some prankster.  I laughed the first time I saw one of these videos, but not after the second or the third or the twentieth. It's really been bothering me.

illustration friday (intention)

There was a time in my life, I regret to say, when I prided myself in clever repartee. It was never my intention to hurt anyone. I just wanted to be admired by people for my quick wit and verbal skills. Then one day, a colleague said to me in a thoughtful way, "I would rather be kind than clever." That quiet comment shook me to the core, and the memory served forever after as a check on my foolish pride (although not always with total success).

Like a maniac shooting
flaming arrows of death
is one who deceives their neighbor
and says, “I was only joking!”

(Proverbs 26:18-19)

japanese citron

A few weeks ago I received a box full of yuzu from a dear friend in Yokohama, far from the frigid, citrus-unfriendly climate of Hokkaido. She has a yuzu tree in her garden, and this is the second time she's shared this marvelous citrus fruit with me. Yuzu has uneven skin, with lots of irregular bumps and discolorations that make it the kind of subject etegami artists love to paint. What little juice the yuzu has is very tart, and used in cooking like vinegar or lemon juice. But it's the zest that we value the most. So WONderfully aromatic! I painted several etegami of this delightful gift fruit before I cut it all up, separating the juice from the rind, and freezing it for future use. The accompanying words are the Japanese version of the proverb I used in my previous post: Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed (Proverbs 11:25).

illustration friday (phenomenon)

It seems that the word phenomenon has a fairly wide range of meaning. One definition I came across was "an unaccountable fact." The words accompanying this image of a pear and apricot are from Proverbs 11:25. Like the oft-quoted phrase "The more you give the more you receive," they express a fact that is difficult to account for.

proverbial cows

Here is a series of etegami based on cow-related proverbs. Some may be familiar to you, others less so. Since cow faces featured prominently in Issa's cows, I tried to refer to the cow a little more indirectly this time. The one posted here at the top quotes an African proverb. I don't know which tribal group or language culture, but it obviously comes from one which values cow dung for its usefulness in daily life. I wasn't trying to be gross or anything. (Those black marks are cow hoof prints, by the way!)

Of the etegami and etegami collages shown below, the only one that doesn't come with English writing is the Japanese proverb that reads: Tsuno o tamete, Ushi o korosu, which translates roughly to: Killing the cow while trying to straighten its horn. It has a similar meaning to the English saying "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." (obsessing over minor things and screwing up something major).




I think I'm finished with cows for a while. But I would be thrilled if any of you want to send me your own hand-painted etegami or other mailart based on a cow proverb, song, or poem from your own culture. :D