Nostalgic trip to Japan November, 2017

I lived in Japan for almost 16 years as the daughter of missionaries.

I grew up in Shizuoka where I actually attended Japanese school for 3 years.

Then, a small missionary school was developed where I went until it was time to go to high school in Tokyo. The American School in Japan. that's where I met my future husband, Dave Jastram, who was a missionary kid from Niigata.

We had returned to Japan for a visit in 1982 and now here it was 2018

 and we were finally going back for a long overdo visit.

Our only question was: why did we wait so long??

Here are some etegami painted after the visit. Great memories!!

In Shizuoka, we were treated to a very fancy meal at the location of

 the last Shogun's summer residence: Tokugawa Shogun.

 It was probably the fanciest meal I've ever had in Japan.

Translation: "Shizuoka Specialties. I don't know what I was eating but it was delicious!"

In Niigata, we stayed with my husband's high school friends.

They had an old fashioned pit in their tatami living room

and the gracious host put on a tea ceremony for us.

Translation "OK. Let's have some tea.

this quiet tea ceremony calms us"

There is an endangered species of bird called crested Asian ibis in the Niigata area which nest across the water in Russian territory. The two countries are working together to bring it back from close to extinction. These are little clay dolls representing the birds.

 

Daruma are usually round dolls but in Niigata they are a most interesting shape!

We went to the great Salmon museum near Niigata.

"The urge to return to your roots is strong,

and one of the joys of our lives."

The first attempts at salmon conservation and management occurred her

way back in the 1700s. Awesome!

Dave and his brother had a hankering for their favorite "sasadango".

 . Sasa dango rice cakes wrapped with bamboo leaves is a traditional sweet from the Nigata prefecture. 

 

The fish market was amazing!!

But kind of sad to see all these little fish in perpetual shock!

When our host asked us what we would like for lunch,

I quickly chimed in "sushi!".

Truth is, we'd been in Japan 1.5 weeks and hadn't had any sushi yet.

Our host took us to a wonderful sushi restaurant 

where we ate the best I've ever had.

And too much of it for sure :)

I had my son Andrew in mind when I painted this.

No need to ask him where he wants to eat out!

Wow, that was a LOT of sushi!!

 Every summer, we went up to Nojiriko (Lake Nojiri) 

to escape the heat of the Kanto Plains.

For many of us, it holds our dearest memories.

So wonderful to go back there and find it relatively untouched by time.

Japanese theme etegami

An acquaintance from Japan was running a restaurant in New York City.

It was called Yasha Ramen.

Yasha 夜叉 やしゃ. TRANSLATION: yaksha; demon gods from Buddhist cosmology

 She asked if I would paint some etegami and she would put them on the wall of the restaurant and sell them for me.

I was thrilled and began painting many Japanese themed etegami

You cannot tell by looking at this one but I used gold paint to make it quite metallic.

There are not many quotes about demons which are positive,

but this one by Andrea Bolt is perfect, I think!

Again I used gold on this demon mask. The saying is "feed your demon".

I added the "preferably ramen" because it would be in a ramen restaurant :)

I used the sharpened chopstick to make the details in this ramen.

The blobs that result from that add interest to the picture.

Painted this kokeshi doll

and found such a beautiful saying to go with it.

I have felt this way several times in life when I just wanted to sleep and sleep.

But when I finally woke up, I was ready to move mountains

This cute little kokeshi caught my eye

She is not svelte nor exotically beautiful.

But Eleanor Roosevelt reminds us of what true beauty is.

In true etegami, you accept your paintings, warts and all.

Even if you make a "mistake", it should be part of your art.

Well, this little girl ended up with a ridiculous eyebrow due to the

blobbing of the chopstick technique. but it certainly draws attention to her eyes!

On a sad note, the restaurant was shut down due to a gas leak and has never re-opened.

I had the etegami ready to send but never were they to be hung on the walls in NYC.

Those bare walls would have been a lovely place for etegami.Sigh

Happy Hippos

It all started with a photo of a hippo mama and her baby.

I loved the joy between the mama and baby.

Then, at a restaurant, my grown up son (34 yrs old)

gave me a new gnome for my garden:

a gnome with a bare butt burrowing into the ground.

For some reason, it made me laugh and laugh and laugh

til I almost cried

And I thought, how delightful that my son can still make me laugh!

I used more of a dabbing technique which gives the skin a little more texture, I think.

After posting it on Facebook, a friend from Hutto, TX remarked that her town was the only town in the USA to have the hippo as a mascot and she loved the painting.

This made me want to paint more hippos!!

Of course, I thought of Ogden Nash's famous hippo poem.

Barely fit, but there it is

And then, I thought to make another painting where the Hippo is the mascot for Hutto.

Little H's coming out of his mouth seemed to work nicely.

But the story doesn't end there.

I mailed them off to Hutto and unfortunately, there was postage due.

My friend didn't get to the post office on time so the letter was sent back.

I waited and waited and waited ( almost a month).

So I decided to repaint both etegami.

I've never attempted to re-paint but it turns out 

that it is a lot easier than the initial painting.

But there definitely are differences.

My Hutto friend ended up getting all four since the wayward envelope finally came back .
I figured no one else would need a Hutto Hippo etegami :)

Wildlife Calendar Etegami Challenge: 12 months of animals

Every now and then I challenge myself to paint things I might not try otherwise.  A beautiful World Wildlife Fund calendar gave me the perfect challenge: paint etegami of 12 different animals. A few were easy, a few were very challenging

January: The Arctic Fox

How to paint a white creature. I had previously tried using the brownish yellowish color that is true to the arctic fox, but it looked really...well..yucky!  Just a few strokes of grey did the job. I didn't capture the sweetness of the fox's face.. I will continue to search for a way to paint white creatures on white snow!!

I dedicate this to all of my "quiet" friends

Original from the WWF calendar

February: Penguins

Interesting to find a good quote for this one. But I was painting this during the Women's March and thought..marching is not enough. Learning and listening and figuring out what's going on is just as important.

The WWF photo

March: The Blue-footed Booby Birds

These birds are so comical and wonderful.

 I love the way they lift up their blue feet proudly marching on.

A friend whose house was flooded badly in Hurricane Harvey asked for this one.

She said one step at a time was the only way they could get through recovery.

April: The Red-Eyed frog

There is a project for children in Syria to bring them hope.  

There was a request to send artwork to the children in the shelters and daycares

 to cheer them up and let them know someone cares.

They asked us not to use words since the kids couldn't understand our language anyway.

This is one of three I made for the kids using symbolic stamps instead of words.

May: The Tiger

This is one of my favorites. The eyes really get to me, like they are staring right at me.

The words are from Katy Perry.

 I fell in love with that song and this tiger helps me understand it.

I sent it to a young woman who said it was perfect for her at that moment in time.

What joy to hear those words!

June: Elephants

Another one painted for the Syrian children.

Love is understood in any language.

I am sure the Syrian children cling to their parents in the midst of unspeakable violence.

But love remains unconquered

July: Sea Turtle

I learned this technique from my mentor and master etegami artist Debbie Davidson.

You paint the ocean color right over the entire turtle and then add a few colors.

Thus, the turtle becomes one with the ocean.

August: Jaguar

I have always loved cats. Even strangers have said that I have cat eyes.
True or not, looking into the eyes of these magnificent creatures is a joy indeed.
I didn't mean for this one to be looking right at the viewer, but he is.
So the words seem to fit.
The patterned spots were fun to paint!

September: Manatee

I seldom make up my own words, but this is my own prose.

In response to the fact that manatees are getting hurt all of the time

by encounters with boats and human pollution.

So many endangered animals.

It makes me sad

November: Rhino

I just thought this baby rhino looked so relaxed and happy.

This was painted with a sharpened chopstick which
every now and then lets loose a "blob".
I ended up giving this to my son when he finally got his B.A. at age 34.
I was so very proud of him that he never gave up.

December: Polar Bear

I am not particularly proud of this one.

It was my third attempt and none of them pleased me. 

But I present it anyway to show that sometimes, there are pictures that turn out..well..

you fill in the blank!

Owl etegami

Owls. What a fun subject for etegami.

Their heads in all directions and their eyes big and deep.

Have had a lot of fun with these owls!!

I love the expression on the owl at the left

and the squished eye of the owl on the right.

Dabbing colors on the white made for a feathered feeling

One of my favorites.

The line was very wobbly which makes the picture more interesting.

Eyes ALWAYS need a white reflection dot in them

Brings the eyes alive

A friend asked for this one.

She was going through a big change in life and felt that what she, too,

 needed was a new perspective!

I am always loving it when owls are facing different and odd directions.

The morning after Donald Trump was elected president.  I just couldn't believe it.

What a travesty!! I was NOT a happy camper!!

The Death of Koko the Gorilla

Koko the Gorilla touched my heart.  A great ape who could communicate with humans and share her innermost feelings.  From her we learned that animals truly have feelings and thoughts beyond what we ever imagine.

I painted two in Koko's memory.

This first one is a play on words.  The kaniji is Kokoro.

"Kokoro (Japanese: 心) means "heart; mind; mentality; emotions; feelings".

And  I see in Koko's care and love for the kitten "Ball"

as showing that gorilla's have Kokoro.

Kind of cool cuz her name is Koko.

The second etegami for Koko captures her intelligent face a little bit more.

I have been so disgusted as of late (and it is summer 2018) with politicians and others for their seeming lack to feel love and loyalty and gratitude.

I deeply feel that animals are better off than humans in many cases.

Especially Koko.