Our grandkids are with us—Juni, 3 and PJ, 8. PJ and I like to collaborate on birds. I will draw a simple outline and he will paint, and tonight we did a blue-footed booby and a cardinal. I love the looseness of his paint strokes and the vitality they bring to form. I asked him about his signature chop and he told me it means “bird artist.”
Another collaboration with my 7-year-old grandson, PJ. I provided an outline and then he provided everything that makes it art — the colors (including for the background) and the handling of strokes. I LOVE this!
He is very French, don’t you think, with his little red beret?
My seven-year-old grandson PJ loves cranes and asked if we could draw one together. This is my favorite bird yet! And I love that he designed his own chop. I asked him what it meant. He said “bird artist.” My chop represents the sounds of the syllables of my last name. The top kanji translates as purification; the bottom one as dawn. Kimono artists we met in Kyoto over 25 years ago chose these kanji for me. Many Japanese words can sound phonetically close to a syllable of a Western name, so the particular ideographs chosen have significance. I love these for a daily practice, where every day is a new start.
