On January 19, my good friend Joan passed away. She had terminal cancer and chose a medically assisted death. She had done a lot of hospice volunteer work, so she was well-prepared. On that day, I started a new daily drawing practice partly inspired by John F. Simon Jr.’s Drawing Meditation practice, and partly by a commission project Joan asked me to do several years ago, a visual art version of the Buson 100 (originally conceived for haiku). Yosa Buson was one of Japan’s greatest haiku poets; however, he was also a painter.
雪折れも聞えて暗き夜なる哉
yukiore mo
kikoete kuraki
yo naru kana
Sharp crack
of a snow-broken branch —
black night
While this is a daily drawing practice, I’m doing them in increments of 100 (1 drawing per day), in gratitude to Joan (and to Buson).
There’s no pressure on me to make something great. Good, bad, terrible, beautiful are all fine in this process. The point is to just draw (or paint, or collage) something everyday on a small piece of paper roughly 4.5 x 6 inches. I’ve got a lot of 9 x 12 in. heavy paper that I want to use up by folding and cutting it into quarters. The size may vary slightly.
Here are my first three drawings:
#art #dailydrawing #pencildrawing #meditation
Jean Vengua 