Last but definitely not least, my third session gave me the opportunity not only to finally meet Julia, but to visit Valencia and enjoy a very nice time visiting the city with Julia as a guide.
This was a unique experience for me and a very enjoyable time!
This was a unique experience for me and a very enjoyable time!
The preliminary discussion with Julia made me aware that she had a special interest towards Kintsugi, not just as an art form, but also in terms of its metaphorical meaning.
So I immediately started to work on how we could somehow merge the "classic" calligraphy concept with something that alluded to Kintsugi.
I had already used the term itself for a special calligraphy work in the past - but this time I thought that it would be better to write something completely unrelated (I did look for kintsugi-themed haikus, actually, but this did not yield anything) and take things from a different angle.
So I immediately started to work on how we could somehow merge the "classic" calligraphy concept with something that alluded to Kintsugi.
I had already used the term itself for a special calligraphy work in the past - but this time I thought that it would be better to write something completely unrelated (I did look for kintsugi-themed haikus, actually, but this did not yield anything) and take things from a different angle.
I went again for something mentioning cranes because "Grulla" (crane) was Julia's nickname
鶴の毛の
黒き衣や
花の雲
(black feathers of a crane,
so looks your robe
clouds of cherry)
An haiku composed by Bashō as a farewell token for Sengin when the latter went to Ise on a trip
黒き衣や
花の雲
(black feathers of a crane,
so looks your robe
clouds of cherry)
An haiku composed by Bashō as a farewell token for Sengin when the latter went to Ise on a trip
Preparation Phase
So the idea was to just write something on her back (please disregard the actual haiku in the map on the left: it has the wrong example) and for the rest use special gold ink to simulate the fracture lines of kintsugi on her body…
I believe this would be the best choice, especially because Julia has various tattoos, so adding too many details (i.e. more kanjis) would probably end up making the whole "work" too "busy".
Julia not only proved a very good model, and very nice and friendly host for my visit, but she also managed to involve a professional photographer for the session itself - all the photos published below were taken by Selznick, who did an excellent job both during the actual writing/drawing part, but also with the subsequent poses. Thanks!
Writing Phase
Posing
