Giovane Cedar Art
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  • PAINTINGS 1
    • Waterfall
    • The Frog Poet
    • Ginkgos & Waxwings
    • Eagle's Pride
    • Spring in Bloom
    • Flower Moon in May
    • Northwest Rain Kosode
    • Snow on the Beach
    • It Only Takes One
    • Scattered Fans
    • White Circle of Silence
    • In the Spirit of Serizawa & Kubota
  • Paintings 2
    • Autumn Introspection
    • Bats' Lunar Playground
    • Foxgloves Reaching for the Sky
    • Plum Tree on a Snowy Night
    • Autumn Moon by the Sea
    • Chickadee in the Snow
    • Down by the Stream on a Lazy Summer's Day
    • Towhee & Currant in Spring
    • Sparrow's Spring
    • Autumn Grasses (Oribe Tribute)
    • A Tribute to Itchiku Kubota: Ozette Sunset
    • Cathedral of the Trees
    • Baillie Scott Trinity
    • Raven's Forest
    • Eagle Embraces Her
  • Paintings 3
    • The Guardian
    • Crows at Sunset
    • Cormorants
    • Skagit Scene
    • Dream Birds
    • Curious Crow
    • Hydrangea's Final Bloom
    • Pine Island
    • The Four Guardians
    • Circle About the Moon
    • Eelgrass Nursery Rhyme
    • Cedar Green Man
    • Serizawa's Kimono
    • Cats United
  • Paintings 4
    • Dance to the Moon
    • As Autumn Approaches
    • Echizen Crows
    • The Spirit of Fallen Camellias
    • Temple Hawk
    • Goldfinch Dream
    • Autumn Carpet
    • An Eala Bahn (The White Swan)
    • Horse Ema
    • Lucia's Maple
    • Eagles Spring Dance
    • Watts Chapel Tribute Memorial
    • Voysey's tree
  • Blog Page
  • Other Work
    • Paintings 5 >
      • Cedar Waxwing
      • Spotted Towhee
      • Stellar's Jay
      • Evening Grossbeak
      • Red Breasted Nuthatch
      • Black-Capped Chickadee
      • Cardinal
      • Camellias in Bloom Woodblock Print
      • Hot Otter Love
      • č’u•? is Seal
      • Loons & Horses
      • Hawk on a Pine 1
      • Elk Along the South Fork
      • Spirits of Ozette
      • Lingcod Guardian
      • Plum Blossoms in Spring
      • Journey Home From Ozette Island
      • Tsooes Sunset
    • Boxes >
      • Rose Tree Box
      • Celtic Bread Box
      • Creature of the Box
      • Kells Cats Chest
      • Miyamoto's Rice Box
    • Trays >
      • Dragonfly Tray
      • Kaiseki Tray
    • Karakami Square Series >
      • Karakami Square #1: Cherry Tree
    • Screens >
      • Eagles 2-Panel Folding Screen
      • The Four Seasons Screen Series >
        • Winter Screen: Eagle & Pine
        • Fall Screen: Canada Geese & Maples
        • Spring Screen: Cherry Trees & Finches
        • Summer Screen: Swallows & Willow
      • Frog's House Screen
      • Waterfall Screen
    • Peacock Sconces
  • Resources List
  • Catalog
  • Sold Paintings
  • Gifted Art & Personal Collection
  • Night at Marymere Falls
  • Eagle on a Pine
  • Skagit Landscape of the Mind: Full Moon at Midnight
  • Eggplant Harvest
  • Tomatoes & Wisteria Entwined
  • Running the Waves
  • When the Salmon Run
  • Autumn Deer
  • Dunlin Flight
  • The Fox Spirit (kitsune)
  • Crow on a Snowy Branch
  • Skagit Landscape of the Mind V: Winter's Cool
  • Trees IV
  • Water Rabbit
  • Swimming with Sea Lions
  • Ravens Watch
  • Sun-a-do
Picture
NORTHWEST RAIN KOSODE
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
SUMMER 2016
     The Pacific Northwest is famous for its rain, and we are so thankful that this is so (although the full effects of a changing global climate are still to be seen).  Water is life, so I’ve learned to celebrate the rain rather than to dread it.  The lush vegetation surrounding us is a direct result of our abundant rainfall.  This is especially true on the Olympic Peninsula.  While living by Neah Bay I recorded rainfall from 1983 through to 2002, and we averaged 105.81 inches per year during that time (with a high of 144.77 inches in 1997).  For most people that is much wetter that they are used to and prefer.  I know many who hate rainy days and sulk in the confines of their homes just waiting for the sun to reappear.  For those of us who love the gray of a rainy day, the rain is most welcomed.  Anyway, who’s going to stop it, and when it rains daily for months at a time, you just have to get out in it and on with living.
     I recently saw a design by Komox/Kwakwaka’wakw artist Andy Everson entitled Rain (see Karen & Ralph Norris, Contemporary Art on the Northwest Coast: Salish, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Makah, ©2010, p.127) and it inspired me to do a painting on this Northwest-defining subject.  I wanted to blend Northwest Coast native art with Japanese textiles in formulating my design.  The overall design is of a Japanese kosode, the smaller-sleeved precursor to the kimono worn by both men and women.  The border represents the kosode, and the design is arranged within it showing rain falling from clouds to form rivers and streams. I looked at many kosode designs from Hayao Ishimura and Nobuhiko Maruyama’s Robes of Elegance: Japanese Kimonos of the 16th-20th Centuries (©1988) to help with the composition and arrangement of the design elements.  The “raindrops” come from Northwest Coast Native art traditions and are a stylized design representing the spirit of life contained in each drop.  The clouds are also a stylized Japanese design that I first saw on the introduction to NHK’s “Seasoning the Seasons” TV program.  I love the intricate Japanese resist tie-dying technique of kanoko-shibori found on many kosode and other textiles.  Kanoko means deer and the shibori pattern of dots are meant to resemble the white spots of a fawn (see p.242 for this technique description and look at the many examples found throughout Robes of Elegance by Ishimura and Maruyama).  I have wanted to use a painted version of shibori and was able to do so within these stylized clouds.  I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods.   I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.
 
DIMENSIONS:           HEIGHT:  29 inches
                                    WIDTH:  29 inches

                                                            PRICE $690


Picture
Detail Showing Kanoko-Shibori Cloud Painting
Picture
Vintage Kimono Showing Kanoko-Shibori Clouds
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