animal groups (part 3 & 4)

animal groups

You've probably figured out by now how much I like word play and just about anything to do with language. I've been learning the less commonly known words that refer to groups of various animals. I know the common ones, like "flock of sheep" and "herd of cattle." But now I'm learning expressions like "dazzle of zebras" and "crash of rhinoceros" (did you know there are three correct plural forms for rhinoceros? rhi·noc·er·os·es also rhi·noc·er·os or -noc·eri)

Anyway, here are the first two in the new series based on those words. I suppose I'll keep adding more until I burn out. 

condiments for conversation

soy sauce

honeycomb

jam

I mixed sparkly gansai paints with ordinary gansai to produce a luminescent effect that doesn’t show very well in the scanned version. The actual etegami have a soft sparkle.

illustration friday (shades)

I was a professional translator for thirty years before declining health forced me to leave the rat race of industrial and commercial translating. Translating is in my blood, though, and I love it with an abiding intensity. But these days, instead of translating for clients, I translate for my own pleasure, and at my own pace-- mostly literature, which is another thing I love. It thrills me to examine all the shades of meaning for a Japanese word, and choose just the right English counterpart to fit the context. (I'm very good at it. ;p)

cantaloupe words

The latest in my slowly-growing series illustrating this thought-provoking (anonymous) quote.

engaging both the heart and the mind

Etegami is a combination of drawing and words. I know I say this a lot, but I'm beginning to think I can't say it often enough. Words are an element of Etegami that frequently sets it apart from other kinds of art-- even other MailArt. I don't just mean words as part of the design. Rather, words that complement the artwork (may even be visually stunning) but are also meaningful on their own, apart from the artwork.

If it weren't for the words aspect of Etegami, I probably wouldn't have defected from Chigiri-e or Woodblock printing or Pottery or any of the other arts and crafts I've dabbled in over the years. Etegami engages both the heart (emotions) and the mind (reason). I'm not saying other forms of art can't do the same thing. But no other art did this to me until I discovered Etegami. And yet, as meaningful to me as my choice of words are, they may signify nothing to you. Hopefully, though, I choose words that speak to the people for whom the cards are intended.

Today I combined a drawing of a lotus tuber with an old Japanese saying: renkon no ana ni unagi (literally: "an eel in the hole of a lotus root"). It's an expression that refers to things that don't suit each other. Maybe you can think of an equivalent expression in your mother tongue. Is there anything from your own experience that can be expressed by these words?