Spring in Nippon

As you may have noticed by the overwhelming amount of flowers on this blog, I love flowers. I mean, I LOVE them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a flower I didn’t like. Even flowers that are “ugly”, see Rafflesia, the largest and stinkiest flower in the world, bring something to the table, botanically speaking. Therefore, even those ugly things are kind of pretty.

Anyway, as a return to collage, I went with a frequent Inspiration. Oh, by return, I mean it’s the first time I’ve cut or glued in about 3 months. Something I go back to over and over are the patters, people, and animals of Japan. I think that the appreciation of nature, in all of its forms, is something that I appreciate about Japanese art & culture. You see similar themes over and over, no matter what type of art.

Many of the Japanese books and magazines we acquire focus on art and culture. I find children’s books, in particular, to be a good inspiration for pieces. The pieces in the gallery here are ladies from a book called Little Pictures of Japan, the link is below if you’re interested in your own copy. I picked mine up for 6USD at a used bookshop up the road.

I should mention that this book does belong to an adorable series of books and I’ve got at least 2 of them. The other that I own is called Nursery Friends from France and I’ve also created collage using this sweet tome. I think there may only be 3 in the set and I’m wishing I’d grabbed the other when I saw it a few weeks ago, but that’s how book buying be.

The themes in this series are transformation, flowers, love, and loss. Spring is a time of rebirth. Seeing what’s dead from the year before. It’s a time of duality and beauty. I think, maybe my favorite. Here’s to continued inspiration this Spring.