TOAST to a new chinese year ! in some translations 2017 refers to the year of the red fire rooster or the red fire chicken. i found a link that speaks of 2017 as the year of the phoenix, a mythological bird that recycles its own life. when it perceives its impending death, the phoenix ignites itself into a magnificent fire. in time, it reemerges from its own ashes - reborn, renewed, and very much alive, a beautiful symbol of rebirth and new opportunities !
what a beautiful start to this new year 2017 ! thank you 3x3 magazine for this award for my book cover design and interior illustrations of the story warhorse !! curious what it looks like ? just head over here for my entry in the 3x3mag | annual 13 ! :)
whatever belief you have, I wish you HAPPY HOLIDAYS
+ wishing for peace on this little planet of ours!
much love, xxx suana
je vous souhaite tout mes meilleurs voeux pour les fêtes | vacances,
quelle que soit votre croyance ou tradition et espérant et souhaitant
pour la PAIX sur notre petite planète !
bisous, xxx suana
I am delighted to see that Razia is discovering the world ! Soon she'll be read in China :))
Below you see Razia [UK], Razia [Japan], Razia [Canada/US]...
exploration drawing | day 1-10 | some snippets and details of pages from my current sketchbook : exploring and analyzing mark making and looking at still life in watercolor, pencil, pigment, ink and collage
“no spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face."~ john donne, the autumnal
“what in your life is calling you,
when all the noise is silenced,
the meetings adjourned...
the lists laid aside,
and the wild iris blooms
by itself
in the dark forest...
what still pulls on your soul?” - Rumi
contrasting experiences : city life memories and nature's abundance in the country with a very first- and second garlic harvest :)) expériences contrastées : souvenirs de la vie de la ville et l'abondance de la nature dans le pays avec une première et deuxième récolte d'ail :) )
wow! 3x3, the magazine for contemporary illustration, professional show winners no.13, granted my three book illustrations and the full cover for the book war horse by michael morpurgo an "honorable mention" [for the category professional show, unpublished] ! T H A N K you to the judges and 3x3 !!
the cover of the book illustrates the blood-stained episode of world war I and the terrified war horse with gas mask...
three different emotional scenes from three chapters from the book war horse written by michael morpurgo...
ill.1 :
[love/admiration boy for horse] : "... two heads appeared at my door. One was that of a young boy who looked at me for a long time, considering me carefully before his face broke into a beaming smile."
ill.2 :
[shame/guild/sadness old farmer] : "...'you'll look after him,sir ?' he said. 'you'll see he comes to no harm ? my son's very fond of him you see.'..."
ill.3:
[loss of hope and will to live/devastation, soldier and horse] : "if i have to die out here away from my home," friedrich confided to topthorn one day, "i would rather die alongside you. but i'll do my best to see to it that we all get through and get back home -- that much i promise you." [friedrich tries to pull joey away, yelling at him, but joey is too transfixed by topthorn's death, and upon trying to escape by himself, friedrich is struck by a shell and dies beside topthorn.]
i am still here ... sketching, looking, dreaming, putting it to paper in ink, washes and pencil ... an atmosphere ... of a time past ...
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up, as if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning "no."
And tonight the heavy earth is falling away from all other stars in the loneliness.
We're all falling. This hand here is falling. And look at the other one. It's in them all.
And yet there is Someone, whose hands infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
and drawing... et le dessin... still a work in progress where I am finding structure, tone, line, texture, contour...
details and structures of industrial activity...
here is the first phase of a structure of strange inventive architecture and beauty...
and finding little bits of an industrial past that once was a bustling harbour...
good advice and inspiration:
"Dear Stephen, The best advice I could possibly give you, and forgive me if this seems glib, is to work. Work. Work. Work. Every day. At the same time every day. For as long as you can take it every day, work, work, work. Understand? Talent is for shit. I've taught school for nearly thirty years and never met a student who did not have some talent. It is as common as house dust or kudzu vine in Alabama and is just about as valuable. Nothing is as valuable as the habit of work, and work has to become a habit. This I learned from Flannery O'Connor. Read her. Read her letters especially, and her essays. You will learn more about what it is you want to do from people like her and Ben Shahn and Eudora Welty than you will ever learn from drawing classes. Read. Read. Read. You are in the business of words more than pictures. You must understand words and the craft and art of putting words together to move men's souls and minds and hearts. Listen to music. Listen to Bach's Art of the Fugue and the Goldberg Variations over and over and over. Every day, day after day after day until you begin to sense, if not understand, what he is up to. Then try to implement what you intuit from Bach into your own work. I don't care if you don't like classical music. Do it. It is invaluable, but you have to listen, and then don't listen. Let it fill your mind at one moment and then let it flow over you and into you until you are paying it no attention whatever. Bach will teach you form and structure and rhythm and all sorts of things you never imagined. Second to the value of work is the willingness to fail. Faulkner said that to not fail is to be perfect and that if we ever did anything perfect nothing would remain but to cut the throat. Experiment and fail. Move on. Experiment and fail. Move on. Always keep in motion and finish the job even if it is not exactly what you hoped it would be, is not as good as it could be. It will never be as good as it could be. But each time you must try to make it as good as it could be. Its shortcomings will reveal themselves in time, sometimes to your embarrassment, but that's ok. It's part of the growth process. Failure is the foundation of growth. I've done over 200 books and not one of them is perfect. But.I would rather have the 200 imperfect books that comprise my history and mark the vectors of my path through my art form than to have one perfect book which would comprise nothing but its own perfect self and denote no vectors of a life lived, and an art form struggled with and occasionally, very occasionally, bested. More I cannot advise you except (as corny and prosaic as it may seem) put love first in your life, love of yourself and your work and of other people, and of whatever things of the spirit move and motivate you, and to have fun and maintain a fierce sense of humor. There is nothing so serious or important that it can't be laughed at, or even poked a little fun at. Practice safe sex. Don't do heavy drugs. Don't get drunk and drive a car. Eat your greens. Get plenty of sleep. ...my very best wishes. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. " -Barry Moser
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