‘from sedge’ haiga5 for haiga-a-day at 19 Planets Art Blog
from sedge haiga5
My fifth post for haiga-a-day challenge on Rick Daddario’s 19 Planets Art Blog. I’ve ventured this time into creating my own artwork. I’m saying so as a caveat for the crudeness of this watercolor attempt. I mentioned that I did dabble in drawing ages ago but never did get an actual training. I had thought that reading a lot for the writing I used to do and interviewing great Filipino artists would work a miracle in me–what improbable thought, no? I guess I still do think it’s possible and so my daring to post this haiga:
from sedge
to sedge no stalk
firm enough
to hold a wing–
damselflies
A five-line haiku? I’m not sure this is legitimate. And if not, consider this a draft then, along with the childlike drawing!
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About
autumn wind
wondering about lilies
in a mountain pond
Tell me a writer who really gets a satisfying jornal, in Spanish a daily wage or its equivalent, and I’ll bare a spirit in constant bouts of doubtfulness. Does a writer earn more because of what he writes and how he does it? Or is a writer paid more or less because of who he is? Is it money or honor he expects to receive?
Ahhh … but money as wage, and praise or honor as reward would be too predictable, too common as Job lamented in the Book of Job. It is in these lines that read: “Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service, his times no better than hired drudgery? Like the slave, sighing for the shade, or the workman with no thought but his wages, months of delusion I have assigned to me, nothing for my own but nights of grief. Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’ Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’
Restlessly I fret till twilight falls. Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind. Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.”
Not money but joy is the ultimate wage as the passage implies. And joy is not hard to earn for it is in everyday life if we have eyes to see, a nose to smell, fingers to touch, ears to hear–a heart beating. This to me, is how a writer earns a daily wage. His wages then take the guise of treasures his heart can transfigure into a universe of thought that taps into other hearts, that causes a swirl in the depth of other souls, or that makes wings to sprout on leaden heels.
Sometimes not joy but rueful, poignant moments are my pick. Take what I earned once: On my walk home in my neighborhood, I caught two clumps of snowdrops–such tiny blossoms smaller than fingertips that do not look up but shyly droop close to black patches on the ground winter has frozen. That afternoon in the frosty wind, they trembled as if ready to turn away and run but how could they? For that poignant moment on seeing the wintry rain beat on the fragile snowdrop–as if pushing it to go home now, go to sleep–I earned my jornal, my daily wage.
Once on summer walk, the crackle of dried leaves just hit me both like the laughter of children and sobs long suppressed. Neither one of them would resolve the dryness, but I recalled how each does bring tears: laughter for joy, sobs for healing that comes with the release of a dammed-up pain. My jornal that day came as two haiku.
Fall has since shortened the day and the heart begins to crave for lost space that it doesn’t even recall which or where. I feel that most treasures have turned into mush so much so I wouldn’t be able to sift them off the ground. Yet I caught the dying day yesterday–so glorious in the gold of autumn it opened a flip side of serene heaven. Blades of grass coated in diadems of rain that carpet the lawns render royal walks poor by imitation. A burst of red maple against an inky blue sky humbled me, a soul bragging about her skill to recreate beauty in words.
I suppose I’m taking Job’s reflections to heart. I’d rather not gloss over each day and look beyond what’s there, right before me, or else fragile as is my breath one day “my eyes may never again see joy” to write. With what then will I compare the eternal joy, the ultimate wage I await?
Yet for now, as other eyes hanker to make the invisible visible, I put a tag on some moments of joy. Like on seeing the snowdrops, I paid myself $200 as my jornal.
What could have been yours?
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jornales 
it’s yours Alegra, call it what you wish – that’s legitimate enough for me. i think reading and interviewing great artists does help in our creative process. it can give us insight. our understanding of that insight may not show up in 5 minutes or 5 days but that exposure does make a difference and 5 years or decades later, suddenly something someone said may simply click into place and ah-ha – and our understanding becomes complete. it becomes validated. that’s when what the great artists have said or done, becomes yours. it becomes a part of what you do and who you are. because it is only valid if it has meaning for you. that’s the way i see it.
so imo – all that reading and interviewing – that is part of your experience, part of your building yourself into who you will become. it has a place and it will help you.
that said, skill and ability come with experience and practice in painting and drawing – and Doing – however that is not all there is to it. an artist can have great skill and ability and still lack spirit and heart and may be even soul in what they do, in what they create. some times we see ability and think that is the end goal. i do not agree with that. we can have great technical ability, yet if that is all we are showing in our work – then our work lacks spirit and heart and may be even soul.
one of the things i’ve found in mail art is that even when people (because it is an art embraced by all people, all levels of skill) even when they lack a great amount of skill, they always put their heart into it. most mail art artists do this. it is those people with great skill that have to be careful when creating mail art (imo) or they may just slip back into relying upon technical ability as the highest point of creating. i do not think technical ability makes a great artist. a great artist may have great technical ability but if their work does not have spirit and heart and soul… i do not think it reaches the highest level of art.
when i get the feeling that an artist is just showing off their skill – i loose interest in the work quickly.
your work here, may not have a great amount of experience behind it, but it does have heart and spirit and soul IN the work. that counts for me. skill comes with experience and time – and doing – but if you loose your heart and spirit and soul in that process what does skill matter? all you have to do to gain experience is keep doing it. to keep your heart and spirit and soul in the work as you keep doing it – that is the higher goal (imo).
yes, i like this. yes, you will learn things about how to do this or that in more powerful ways or more skillful ways as long as you keep working at it. …just make sure you keep your heart and spirit and soul in what you do and (imo) you will be fine – as well as gaining skill.
for me, heart and spirit and soul – that’s what makes it fun. …okay, some skill helps – but really i’ll take heart, spirit and soul over skill any time.