Carpe Diem #1247 Abstract Painting (the logo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the last episode of this modern art month here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to write and share Japanese poetry. It was a marvelous journey along all different kinds of modern art and I have read really wonderful Japanese poetry. This month was great and after this month you also know a little bit more about my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands.
In my hometown we have a lot of beautiful art works all around the city, in almost every park you can find art. That art is not only modern, but also more "normal" for example the following:

This beautiful sculpture of a horse rider was a gift from our friends in Dimitrov (Russia) and it stands in a park just around the corner of the local hospital were I work.

Horse rider (Vladimir Soerovtsev)

And this is just one of the many art pieces in my hometown, but that's not our theme for this last episode. This last episode I just leave you with the painting that's on the background of our Kai, the logo of this month, an abstract painting. Just look at it, take it in, become one with it and become inspired.

Abstract Painting Oil on Canvas

tunnel of love
embraced by the dragon
to keep safe

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this month and I hope to inspire you next month with only beautiful images, because next month we will have a whole month full of Imagination ... because "one image says more than thousand words" and we don't even have to use that many words ...

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 6th at noon (CET). I hope to publish our new "weekend-meditation" later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Vision Quest Revived #1 day 3 Issa's silence

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What joy it was this revived Vision Quest. It was a joy to create it and a joy to read your responses. Today is the last day of our "revived" Carpe Diem Vision Quest. For this third day I have a nice haiku by Issa for you. I love the haiku written by Issa, they are beauties and sometimes written in a childlike way ... but isn't that what we need? That child inside has to come to life again, it makes us more open for the beauty of nature .... seeing nature for the first time like a child that sees (for example) snow for the very first time. That's what haiku needs I think, that's what "living in the moment" means. Everything we experience, notwithstanding how often we have experienced it, we experience for the the first time ... seeing it like a child.

Enjoy it like children

Be like a child again. Look at the world around you through the eyes of children and experience the beauty of it.

naku na mushi damatte ite mo ichi go nari

don't sing, insects!
observe a period
of silence

© Kobayashi Issa

Imagine the scene Issa describes ... would it be possible? Just a small moment without the song of insects, that deep silence ... that's a feeling .... everlasting.

laughter
resonates through the street
chestnuts

© Chèvrefeuille

Can you imagine the scene? Look at it like a child ... isn't that awesome?

This third (and last) day of our "revived" Carpe Diem Vision Quest is NOW OPEN for your submissions. You have to respond within 24 hours, because than you "learn" the essence of haiku (only haiku) ... that one moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water. Thank you for participating in this Vision Quest.

Carpe Diem #1246 growth (unknown artist)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the penultimate episode of our CDHK month about "modern art". We have seen all kinds of modern art and today I have a nice piece of "modern art" that, in my opinion, is very close to the mean theme of haiku, tanka or  other Japanese poetry form, ... nature ...

I will leave you only with the image ... I found this image on Pinterest and I couldn't retrieve the artist who made it, but it was featured on Ofdesign.

Metal structure "growth" (found on Pinterest)

nebula
rises
free at last

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our last episode of this month later on. I hope to publih our new prompt-list later on too.

Carpe Diem Extra Augustus 29th 2017 results of the sunflower kukai

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here are the results from the Sunflower Kukai. I am a little bit late, but there were several circumstances that needed my attention, so therefore I had not enough time to gather the results of the Sunflower judging.

The WINNER (with 11 points) of the Sunflower kukai is Lolly Williams with the following haiku:

end of summer
a spider threads all its hope
on a sunflower

And our RUNNER-UP (with 5 points) of the Sunflower kukai is Dolores Fegan with the following haiku:

amber petals
set ablaze by evening sun
lighting the garden

Both CONGRATULATIONS with this result ... both haiku are really beautiful.

Here are the points:

Haiku 6: 11 points
Haiku 15: 5 points
Haiku 5, 9 & 12: 3 points
Haiku 16, 18 & 22: 2 points
Haiku 10, 11, 25 & 30: 1 point
All the other haiku didn't receive points

Than ... I have another announcement. Maybe you can remember that I started the new kukai "Departure" and that that kukai would close on July 23rd 2017. However there were only four poets that submitted haiku for the "departure" kukai, so I have decided to re-open the "Departure" kukai right now to give those who haven't submitted yet the possibillity to submit a max of three (3) haiku for the "departure" kukai. I will close the submission-period on September 15th 2017 10:00 PM (CET),

You can submit your haiku to: carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com please write kukai departure in the subject-line.

Carpe Diem Vision Quest revived #1 day 2 deep silence

!! only 24 hours to respond !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday I started Carpe Diem Vision Quest revived after several years and today I have a wonderful haiku by Basho to meditate and contemplate about ... reach out to the deep inner wisdom ... on a quest to find the deeper meaning.

Here is the haiku by Basho:

shizukasa ya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe

deep silence
the shrill of cicadas
seeps into rocks

© Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694)

Maybe you can remember this haiku, because I used it in earlier posts here at CDHK. And here is a quote by Basho to help you to become inspired on your vision quest:

[...] "Haiku is a profound meditation on the power of poetry to express the inexpressible and convey the unspoken eloquence of all that is."[...]

hot summer night
through the open window
the sound of waves

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... find your path on this Vision Quest ... Try to create a new haiku (only haiku) inspired on this haiku by Basho and his quote. And remember ... you have to respond within 24 hours. I know that's very short, but it can help you to improve your "in the moment" skills.

Carpe Diem #1245 Head Above The Water (by Henk Hofstra)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to take you again to my hometown Lelystad The Netherlands. Recently I showed you "Exposure" and today I love to show you (and I hope to inspire you) another beautiful piece of "modern art" in my home town. Let me tell you a little bit more about my home town.

As you maybe know the Dutch people are masters in water-engineering. We fight against the water, because we are a country below the water. My home town is the capital of Flevoland the 12th (and youngest) county of The Netherlands. Flevoland is created by engineers, they created land from the water, The Zuiderzee. I live in what we call the polder and my home town (and the whole county) beneath sea level. The polder is surrounded by dikes to protect us from the water. Many of the city art pieces have to do with the polder, say to keep or feet dry or our heads above the waters.

Henk Hofstra has created a piece of art that shows you that. This piece of "modern art" is called "Head Above The Water" and it shows a head that "rises"from the water and on top of it you can see a statue-like person. That person is "water-engineer" Cornelis Lely (1854-1929) who created the plans for the so called "Delta Works" or the reclaiming of land from the sea. By the way my home town was named after Cornelis Lely.

Head Above The Water (by Henk Hofstra)

I think this piece of "modern art" shows what the Dutch are famous about ... the continuing fight against the water.

no longer do the
waves scatter on the shore
keeping dry feet

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a very strong haiku, but it tells us what the Dutch are famous about.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Vision Quest revived #1 deep silence

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Maybe you can remember our "vision quest", that special feature we have had here at CDHK (started in 2014) a three days challenge to write a haiku in response on a shared haiku. Maybe you can remember that you had only 24 hours time to respond. I love to do a "vision quest" again, because it helps you to improve your haiku writing skills. What do I mean? Well ... haiku (as we know) catches a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water, or in an eye-blink. That's what I love to try in the "vision quest", creating haiku in an eye blink.

For this first revived edition of the CDHK Vision Quest I have a wonderful haiku for you which I wrote for the Winter Retreat 2016 to inspire you:

the sound of rain
on the tin roof of the cabin
deepens the silence

© Chèvrefeuille

Let me first tell you a little bit about the idea of the "Vision Quest".

A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures. The ceremony of the Vision Quest is one of the most universal and ancient means to find spiritual guidance and purpose. A Vision Quest can provide deep understanding of one's life purpose.

A traditional Native American Vision Quest consists of a person spending one to four days and nights secluded in nature. This provides time for deep communion with the fundamental forces and spiritual energies of creation and self-identity. During this time of intense spiritual communication a person can receive profound insight into themselves and the world. This insight, typically in the form of a dream of Vision, relates directly to their purpose and destiny in life.

In many Native American groups the vision quest is a turning point in life taken to find oneself and the intended spiritual and life direction. The Vision Quest is often used as a Rite of Passage, marking the transition between childhood and full acceptance into society as an adult. A person’s first Vision Quest is typically done during their transformative teenage years. When an older child is ready, he will go on a personal, spiritual quest alone in the wilderness, often in conjunction with a period of fasting. This usually lasts for a number of days while the child is attuned to the spirit world. Usually, a Guardian animal or force of nature will come in a vision or dream and give guidance for the child's life.  A Vision Quest helps the teenager to access spiritual communication and form complex abstract thoughts. Through this Rite of Passage the child becomes an adult, taking responsibility for themselves and their individual contribution to a healthy society. The child returns to the tribe and once the child has grown he or she will pursue that direction in life. After a vision quest, the child may become an apprentice of an adult in the tribe of the shown direction (Medicine Man, boat-maker and so on).

 

I like the idea of a Vision Quest to find the purpose of your life. Three days being one with nature and nature alone. In deep contact with nature, feeling the vibrations of nature's spirits. And that's what I hope this Vision Quest will do with you. Maybe not that deep, but I hope it will give you the possibility to improve the "one-moment" skill of haiku.

in deep silence
surrounded by nature's spirits
finding the path

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you will participate in this Vision Quest, three days of writing haiku (only haiku), within 24 hours. The Vision Quest takes three days so you have to create three haiku, every day one haiku.

 

 

Carpe Diem #1244 In Utero (by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our Modern Art month is almost over. We only have four days to go in which I am trying to inspire you through modern art. This month we have seen the most beautiful pieces of modern art and I have read wonderful responses.

Today I have a wonderful "modern art" psychedelic painting by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci for you. This painting is titled "In Utero" and it's a beautiful painting in which greenish colors are very Obvious, but also the figure(s) in the painting have a kind of ghostly image ... as I think is what psychedelic means.

Guglielmo Alberto Nacci (Saatchi Art)

And this is what he tells about himself and his ideas at the website of Saatchi Art:

['...] "I am a self-taught painter. The passion for drawing manifested itself since my childhood. I started using oil at the age of 18. The starting point of my artistic path are the introspective experiences of adolescence. Through painting I tried to give voice to the chaotic turmoil full of unravelling intuitions and contradictions of adolescence.

The search of Truth obsesses the life of many. But that same obsessing search distracts attention from the very object. Truth is all around us, Truth is right in front of our eyes and it manifests itself with Beauty: the Perfection of Nature. 

Artists are translators. "Our language interpose itself between learning and the truth as a dusty glass, a deforming mirror. The Eden language was like clear window, through which a light of full comprehension flowed". (George Steiner, After Babel). "Beauty is truth, truth beauty, - that is all, Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know''. (John Keats)" [...]

I like the idea "artists are translators" I think that's so right ... in our haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form we translate the simple all day beauty of nature ... yes we are translators.

In Utero (oil-painting by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci)

A wonderful painting ... very much in tune with the most important theme of haiku ... nature, but also in tune with humanity and battles humans sometimes have to fight with theirselves or with others. What do I see in this painting ...

The nude person looks translucent, he touches the "invisible wall" between him and a part of the garden in which he is walking around. It looks like he is searching for a way to escape, maybe he is lost or he has had a sad experience, a crime or he has lost a loved one. He looks desperate, but as he would find the gutch to look around him than he would see door (in the right of the painting) or maybe that window through which the moon can be seen ... I think with this painting Guglielmo Alberto Nacci has given an image to his quest for the right path, or the path to find his purpose ...

I love this painting ... I would love to be part of that painting to feel the emotions caught in it. It brought memories back, sweet memories by the way ...

painting on the wall
the touch of it makes the mystery
a new world

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... I hope you did like this (delayed) episode, I enjoyed for sure creating it and I am looking forward to all of your responses.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until September 4th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Utabukuro #2 solar eclipse August 21st 2017

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday August 27th 2017 7:00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new "weekend-meditation". This weekend I have an Utabukuro episode for you in which I ask you to share one of your favorite haiku or tanka and to write an all new haiku or tanka inspired on it. Last Monday August 21st there was a total eclipse of the sun that was only visible in the US. I followed this eclipse online and was again amazed by it. It's a wonderful phenomenon almost magical. In ancient times eclipses were signs of the gods, and humankind was very afraid for it. Especially in cultures like the Maya who worshiped the sun it was an ordeal. Of course nowadays we know that it is just a natural phenomenon, but it is an intrigued phenomenon. Even now we see all kinds of ideas and thoughts when an eclipse occurs. For the eclipse of August 21st that was also true. there are groups, religions and other spiritual groups that say that this total eclipse, only visible in the US will have a major impact on the US people. They say this will change America ... so ... let's see what is going to change in the upcoming time.

For this episode of Utabukuro I have chosen a wonderful haiku by Basho in which he describes the mystery of a total eclipse, but before that I love to share a Japanese legend/myth about the sun eclipse.

Amaterasu emerges as the rising sun (Woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada)

Amaterasu is the sun goddess of the Shinto religion. It is believed that Amaterasu sent her grandson Jimmu to Earth 3,000 years ago to be the first ruler of Japan, beginning the divine family of Japanese emperors.

Amaterasu was given rule over the sky by Izangi when he handed to her his holy necklace.
Later, in a competition with her brother Susano, Amaterasu gave birth to three goddesses, who with Susano's offspring, are collectively the ancestors of Jimmu.
During this competition, Amaterasu was unwilling to admit defeat. This caused Susano to furiously wreak havoc throughout the heavens and the Earth. Amaterasu fled into a cave, and her absence caused darkness throughout Japan.
Amaterasu's absence caused much dismay on Earth. As the crops died off and the people suffered, the gods decided they needed to return Amaterasu to her position in the heavens. They sought the help of several deities, and performed rituals and sacrifices outside of Amaterasu's cave. They also hung a mirror from a tree outside of the cave.
Hearing all the commotion, Amaterasu came forth and asked why the gods seemed to be rejoicing. They replied that they had found a new mistress who would be the sun goddess' replacement. Amaterasu came forth in curiosity, and peeked out of her cave. She immediately saw the mirror and was drawn to it. Having never seen her own reflection, Amaterasu thought she was looking at her majestic replacement. As she stepped forward to examine it, she was caught by one god and the cave was blocked by another. Amaterasu's presence illuminated the fields and life returned to Japan's land.

A wonderful story ... I like the Japanese mythology and this is a very nice piece of it.

As I was preparing this episode I realized myself that this sounded very familiar, so I ran through th archives of CDHK and found another episode with almost the same theme. That episode was part of our first anniversary month back in 2013. Sorry ... for the replay, but a lot of you weren't part of CDHK at that time, so I hope you will forgive me.

Actual photo of the Total eclipse of August 21st 2017 by Jeff Davis

For this episode I found two nice haiku, one by Issa and one by Basho. The one by Basho is my favorite, but maybe that's because of the fact that his haiku about the sun eclipse isn't a  well known one. Of course you may choose your own favorite. That can be a haiku or tanka by a classical or non-classical haiku-poet or even one by yourself.

Here is the one by Issa:

This haiku is about a lunar-eclipse which occurred in 1819 as it was Harvest Moon (the full moon of September, or the 8th Lunar-cycle):

kake yô no rippa mo sasuga meigetsu zo

eclipsed splendidly
as one would expect...
harvest moon

© Kobayashi Issa

And here is the one, my favorite, my Basho (my sensei):

fire-uhitte heiroo atto za moomanto avu ikkurippusu ai nootasu yoo feisu

fire-white halo

at the moment of eclipse

I notice your face

© Basho

Solar Eclipse as seen from the International Space Station (ISS)(image found on Pinterest)

And here is my humble offering for this episode of Utabukuro, two haiku themed eclipse:

amidst the day

disastrous twilight falls

the world in fear

a halo of pearls

as the moon blackens the sun -

mid-day night fall

© Chèvrefeuille

Well ... a lot to think about and to meditate on. So I wish you all a wonderful weekend and I am looking forward to your responses. This Utabukuro episode is open for your submissions next Sunday August 27th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until September 3rd at noon (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #1243 In The Beginning (Paul Klee, 1916)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Yesterday I told you already a little bit about Paul Klee, one of Robert Delaunay's inspirators, and I promised to share a painting by Paul Klee. Well ... I will do what I promised. Today I have a wonderful painting by Paul Klee for you, but let me first tell you a little bit more about him.

Paul Klee (1879-1940), a Swiss-born painter, printmaker and draughtsman of German nationality, was originally associated with the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, and subsequently taught at the Bauhaus, the widely influential German art school of the interwar period. Klee's diverse body of work cannot, however, be categorized according to any single artistic movement, or "school." His paintings, which are at times fantastic, childlike, or otherwise witty, served as an inspiration to the New York School, as well as many other artists of the 20th century.
Klee was fundamentally a transcendentalist who believed that the material world was only one among many realities open to human awareness. His use of design, pattern, color, and miniature sign systems all speak to his efforts to employ art as a window onto that philosophical principle. (Source: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-klee-paul.htm)

Paul Klee, 1911 (image found on Wikipedia)

I have to admit that I had never heard from him until yesterday. So today I searched for examples of his work to use here. He has created wonderful paintings, but I was caught by his "In The Beginning", a painting he created in 1916. As I saw that painting I immediately thought back at our episode on "sacred geometry" in which I gave you a sneak preview in to the matter of "sacred geometry". I think Paul Klee would have loved the idea of "sacred geometry". Let me give you the painting for today.

In The Beginning by Paul Klee

Look at the painting ... what do you see? The first thing that catches my eye is "Nautilus-shell" shape, the basic form of all and everything, light ... as we saw in the "sacred geometry". This "Nautilus-shape" is in the middle of the painting and in a way it brought the first verses of Genesis in mind:

1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis Chapter one verses 1-4/ NIV)

Than I see the colors of the rainbow, also mentioned in the Bible. I love how this painting tells us in a way the start of Creation ... awesome.

Paul Klee says about this painting:

[...] 'Everything vanishes around me, and works are born as if out of the void. Ripe, graphic fruits fall off. My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will.' [...]

"My hand has become the obedient instrument of a remote will", that sounds almost like he paints through the energy of Spirit or something ... sounds great.

Do you create your haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form as an obedient instrument of a remote will? I think that happens sometimes ... a haiku "pops up" triggered by something around you. You write it down as if your hand is not yours ... That's the power of haiku ... the power of nature ...

first sunbeam
reflects in the mirror
shimmering rainbow

© Chèvrefeuille

Sorry for the delay of this post, I had a busy day at work. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 31st at noon (CET). For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1242 Rhythm – Joie de Vivre (Robert Delaunay)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode in our journey through modern art is all it's differences. Today I have a beautiful painting by Robert Delaunay for you. It's titled "Rhythm - Joie de Vivre" and it is part of an abstract paintings series of three paintings.

Rhythm Joie de Vivre (Robert Delaunay)

What can I say about this painting. It's a wonderful piece and somewhat older than the other pieces of modern art we have seen here already. It's a rare, but masterly painting by Robert Delaunay, with explosive colors and monumental format. In 1930/1, Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) painted a majestic ensemble of three abstract works entitled Rhythm – Joie de Vivre.

Robert Delaunay

Robert Delaunay (1885 – 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colors and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee. His key influence related to bold use of color and a clear love of experimentation with both depth and tone.

shifting shapes
colors like the rainbow
breathtaking

© Chèvrefeuille

I think this painting by Delaunay is really nice, you can see a lot of things in it, it can be a snail, or flowers or even somewhat strange alien presence. I like the way he has used the colors in this one and they look very similar with the art of Paul Klee, which I hope to bring tomorrow.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 29th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1241 Exposure (Antony Gormley)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of CDHK. We are exploring "modern art" this month and try to create art ourselves with haiku, tanka or another Japanese poetry form. Today I love to invite you to virtual visiting the harbor of my hometown, Lelystad The Netherlands, were we will find a wonderful and somewhat strange piece of "modern art" created by Antony Gormley ... Exposure ....

Exposure (Antony Gormley) 

This is what Antony Gormley tells us about "Exposure":

[...] "My concept of how sculpture works in the landscape is that it is a still point in a moving world. The whole idea of EXPOSURE is that this work, made at a particular time, rooted to ground, reacts over time to the changing environment. One of the known environmental changes that is happening is the rising of the sea level through global warming. It is critical to me that at the time of its making this work reacts with the viewer, the walking viewer, on the top of the polder and that the surface that the viewer stands on is the surface that the work stands on. The work cannot have a plinth. Over time, should the rising of the sea level mean that there has to be a rising of the dike, this means that there should be a progressive burying of the work."[...] (Source: Antony Gormley)

Exposure as seen from the dike (photo by Chèvrefeuille)

I am a big fan of this sculpture, but there are a lot of people who don't like it.

My hometown has several harbors, but at the most important one you can observe this statue called 'exposure'. It's a great steel structure and it shows a squatting man that looks over the IJsselmeer (a large lake, a former sea called Zuiderzee) the result of the Dutch reclaim of land from the waters. In my hometown 'exposure' is sometimes called 'the shitting man', because it looks like someone who's shitting in free nature.

Batavia Harbor, in the background (to the left) you can see Exposure too (photo by Chèvrefeuille)

"Exposure" is guarding our harbor and it's a wonderful piece of art. You can say that "exposure" is the business card of our town.

guardian angel
looks out over the harbor
a shitting man
constructed out of steel
exposed to the weather

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course I had to try to create a new poem inspired on this beautiful piece of Modern Art, but I couldn't come up with something, so I decided to "re-do" an "oldie" as you have read above.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 28th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode later on, but I don't know yet which piece of modern art I am going to use, ... for now have fun!

Carpe Diem Looking Back August 2017-#1

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a (re) new feature here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. In this feature I will look back in time and sometimes into the future ...

Recently the Autumn Retreat closed and I am so happy that this retreat was another wonderful success, of course I had loved to be creating more haiku myself for the retreat, but ... well time isn't always on my side ... and my muse has vacation too sometimes ...
I have read really wonderful haiku, tanka, troiku and troibun (troika + prose) and I enjoyed reading them. I realize that I haven't read the last say 20 entries, but for sure I will do that soon.

Waves sculpture (modern art photography)

Our "modern art" month is running towards its end and I have the idea that this "modern art" theme is not easy, not easy at all or it's the time of year (holidays / vacations), because the response looks somewhat less than other months.

As you maybe remember several months ago I started "Wandering Spirit", the story of Yozakura, the unknown haiku poet. I will publish a new episode of this story later this week and I hope you all will like it again.

Next month, making the future, to look back at later this year (smiles), we will have a whole month of Imagination or images for your inspiration. I am busy to gather the images and the backgrounds towards them. So I hope to publish our new prompt-list next weekend.

As I look back into time than I see a structure of waves in our visitors numbers and that makes me happy. Earlier this year we reached our one million milestone and I really hadn't thought that I could do it ... with the beauty of haiku.

In the years of CDHK I used very often novels by Paulo Coelho to create our prompt-list and I think those months were exciting ... so I will do that again.

Of course there is our upcoming anniversary month October and I hope I can inspire you all and amaze you all ... because I think this anniversary month will be one festive month in which I will take the Tardis (Dr. Who) to visit several places to which I have sweet memories ... five year CDHK I didn't thought that could be happening .... and now ...

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host.

Carpe Diem #1240 Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (Barnett Newman)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you have had a wonderful weekend and that you have found the inspiration to respond on our "weekend-meditation". I thought I had done an earlier post about "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue", but I think it was on one of my other weblogs. I had hoped to create an easy episode today, but I think it will be not that easy.

We are exploring modern art this month and today I love to challenge you with the abstract art of Barnett Newman who painted "Who's Afraind of Red, Yellow and Blue".

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (Barnett Newman)

"Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue" is a series of four large-scale paintings by Barnett Newman painted between 1966 and 1970. Two of them have been the subject of vandalistic attacks in museums. The series' name was a reference to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the play by Edward Albee which had premiered in 1962, which was in itself a reference to Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, the 1933 song immortalized in Disney cartoons.

Barnett Newman started the first painting in the series without a preconceived notion of the subject or end result; he only wanted it to be different from what he had done until then, and to be asymmetrical. But after having painted the canvas red, he was confronted with the fact that only the other primary colors yellow and blue would work with it; this led to an inherent confrontation with the works of De Stijl and especially Piet Mondriaan, who had in the opinion of Newman turned the combination of the three colors into a didactic idea instead of a means of expression in freedom.

Maybe you can remember this painting which I shared several years ago;

Mondriaan (painting by Chèvrefeuiile)

And this was the haiku which I created inspired on this painting:

morning dew shimmers, 

the sun climbs into the sky -

colored cobweb

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope I have inspired you.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CET) and will remain open until August 27th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, exposure, later on .... for now have fun!

Carpe Diem Writing and Enjoying Haiku #5 creating beauty

!!! Open for your submissions next Sunday August 20th at 7:00 PM (CET) !!!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our "weekend-meditation", our weekly challenge. This week I have chosen for a new episode of our "Writing and Enjoying Haiku feature" as inspired on the book by Jane Reichhold with the same title (as you can see in the logo of this feature).

For this episode I choose the title "creating beauty", because in my opinion every haiku (or tanka) is a small piece of beauty. I think every haiku poet gives his / her own feeling in his / her haiku and because of that every haiku (or tanka) is a beautiful gem. That's one of the reasons I created Chèvrefeuille's Publications, because I think every haiku poet deserves to be published without exception.

Woodblock Print "Snow Rose"

What is the creative beauty of haiku? (or tanka)?

I think the beauty of haiku (and tanka) is mostly in the smallness, both are short verses, and in those short verses there is need to tell a lot and that's not always easy, but every haiku poet succeeds in it ... so that's the beauty, the creative beauty of haiku (and tanka). Is that the only thing that makes haiku creative beauty? No certainly not .... it's the theme of it nature, shortness of life, spirituality, the strong form, the relaxing sound of the 5-7-5 syllables (those sound like the waves) or the 5-7-5-7-7 form of tanka. But it is also the beauty of the poet, or the beauty of the reader. Haiku is a symbiosis between the creator and the reader ... you can (maybe) say haiku is the Creator and we the haiku poets and the haiku readers are only the instruments for the Creator ...

Haiku, it's a short verse, but you can only create them from the heart, from the soul not from the mind ... haiku you have to sense, feel, touch, smell and so on ... haiku it's a symbiosis of all senses, the poet and the reader ... haiku is TOTAL ART ...

In several posts here at CDHK I have said it already I think ... haiku is ART ... and it's a beautiful Art. Maybe we can play with the lay-out:

waves 
                       run to and fro
                                                      to the beach

                                                      back and forth
                      grass waves on the wind
green ocean

Just two examples, not good haiku maybe, but as an example for playing with the layout of the haiku. Both haiku show "in a way" the movement of the waves and the grass.

Of course you know the one-line haiku, let's take a look at one of the above haiku-examples, but now written on one line:

back and forth grass waves on the wind green ocean

Or maybe we have to try it in the classical way vertically written, as you can see on the image below:

Basho's "Old Pond" vertical

The above image shows you Basho's "Old Pond" written 'vertical' and with a drawing/painting ... a haiga ....

There are so much possibilities with our beloved haiku ... be creative .... play with your haiku or tanka, change the lay-out or create a haiga ...

Haiku (or any other Japanese poetry form) is creating beauty ... So your task for this "weekend-meditation" is to create beauty, play with the haiku, play with the tanka ... enjoy writing haiku.

This "weekend-meditation" is open for your submissions next Sunday August 20th at 7:00 PM (CET) and will be open until August 27th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode around that same time. For now .... have a great weekend and enjoy the creative beauty of haiku (or tanka).

Carpe Diem #1239 shifted flowers (unknown artist)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a wonderful month we have. All those pieces of beauty we call "modern art" and we really have seen wonderful art works. Yesterday we had the "crossed house" or what do you think of that beautiful episode we had on "sacred geometry" ... well I think all the art was gorgeous and with today's episode I hope to do that again.

This episode I have titled "shifted flowers", it's a painting by an unknown artist, at least I couldn't find the artist's name or better said "I couldn't decipher the name on the left down side".

I think this painting is gorgeous and I will try to explain why I have chosen the title "shifted flowers". In this painting you can obviously see flowers, but they are fainting away into a formless scene of colors.

And that brought an old haiku in my mind. This one I created in the "Baransu" episode of our first series of Haiku Writing Techniques:

the old pond
yesterday ... Irises bloomed
only a faint purple

© Chèvrefeuille

This haiku describes in a way the painting of today.

shifted flowers

A short episode, but to say more would be a "sin" ... this painting speaks for it self.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 23rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new "weekend-meditation" later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1238 Crossed House (Manuel Clavel Rojo)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In this month of modern art inspired themes at CDHK I have today another wonderful piece of architecture, but first this: I have already started with the preparations of our upcoming month of Carpe Diem. September will be an awesome month I think and that month I have chosen to make it myself a little bit easier. How? Let me tell you. Maybe you remember our special feature Carpe Diem Imagination in which I shared images for your inspiration and sometimes I told you a little about the image. Next month I will create a whole month with Carpe Diem Imagination episodes ... so I am already gathering images to use. I think September will be an awesome month too.

Okay ... back to our episode of today. Today I have a very special piece of modern architecture. This piece of architecture you can find in Murcia Spain and it is created by Manuel Clavel Rojo architects. It's the so called "Crossed House". The crossed house has two floors, and it seems that both parts can move separately from each other ... and maybe it's really "moveable", but I couldn't find information about that. The architects choose for this "form", because than the house could catch the most of the sunlight and the wonderful views of the landscape around it.

Crossed House

Let me tell you a little bit more about this modern art architecture:

On a site in the higher part of a residential zone in the environs of Murcia is located the singular, crossed house with views to the adjacent mountains, the "Sierra de la Pila" and "Valle del Ricote". From the ambiguity, being on a site of a future densely built-up area and at the same time enjoying today’s unsurpassable views, was born the idea of the project: to orientate the lower level of the house to the garden's intimacy and grant to the user at the superior level the delight of its views considering future edification and the influence of solar radiation.

This conceptual setup is materialized by a geometrical operation, the rotation of two elements, as if it were two construction toy blocks that are stacked and handled easily. The stacked oblong volumes, of a length of 20m and a depth of about 5m, are rotated by 35 degrees so that the extremes orientate to the most favored views and generate at the same time cantilevers of about 10m length.

These cantilevers, together with the rotation between both volumes, provide the necessary sun protection of the facade and pool residence.

The expressive power of this formal configuration, very elementary in principle, is further enhanced by a subtle distinction between the two volumes: the edges are rounded according to the orientation of the main openings of each level reinforcing this way the autonomous nature of the volumes. Thus, on the ground floor rounded transversal edges frame the big opening to the southeast, upstairs such treatment is applied to the longitudinal edges framing the views of the rooms at each end of the volume. This also apparently reduces the contact surface between the two stacked volumes and reinforces the oblong nature of their geometrical form.

Crossed House at night

The contact to the ground is solved using again the same mechanism of rotation. This time a third, buried volume corresponding to the pool deck rotates with respect to the two volumes of the house to resolve the transition between garden ground and dwelling.

The surface's treatment of the concrete volumes provides a contrast between the outside with a rough finish created by a shuttering of sand blasted pine strips and an interior of smooth finishes. (Source)

An awesome building ... but can we create haiku inspired on this one, or will that be more like a senryu?

Here is my attempt:

sunbeams
caught in the windows
a rich landscape

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 22nd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our next episode, Shifted flowers, later on. For now .... just have fun!

Carpe Diem #1237 Fractal Art (by PSSolutions)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today I have a nice piece of so called "fractal art" for you, but what is "fractal art"? Until last month, as I was preparing the prompt-list for this modern art month I hadn't heard of "fractal art". What is it? It sounds like a kind of "digital art", so I had to find a description of "fractal art" and I found that on Wikipedia.

Fractal Art:

Fractal art is a form of algorithmic art created by calculating fractal objects and representing the calculation results as still images, animations, and media. Fractal art developed from the mid-1980s onwards. It is a genre of computer art and digital art which are part of new media art. The mathematical beauty of fractals lies at the intersection of generative art and computer art. They combine to produce a type of abstract art.

fractal art made with "electric sheep"

* Electric Sheep is a distributed computing project for animating and evolving fractal flames, which are in turn distributed to the networked computers, which display them as a screensaver.

Fractal art (especially in the western world) is rarely drawn or painted by hand. It is usually created indirectly with the assistance of fractal-generating software, iterating through three phases: setting parameters of appropriate fractal software; executing the possibly lengthy calculation; and evaluating the product. In some cases, other graphics programs are used to further modify the images produced. This is called post-processing. Non-fractal imagery may also be integrated into the artwork. The Julia set and Mandelbrot sets can be considered as icons of fractal art.

It was assumed that fractal art could not have developed without computers because of the calculative capabilities they provide. Fractals are generated by applying iterative methods to solving non-linear equations or polynomial equations. Fractals are any of various extremely irregular curves or shapes for which any suitably chosen part is similar in shape to a given larger or smaller part when magnified or reduced to the same size. (source: wikipedia)

Modern Art has evolved during the ages and as we can see in the above image ... "computer-art" looks awesome and with the computer you can create wonderful art work.

The above "fractal art" you may use if you like to for your inspiration, but the "planned" "fractal art" was the following. (the image was found on Pixabay):

Fractal Art created by PSSolutions

I wonder if this kind of art can be explored and be done myself, because I love this kind of modern art. To create a haiku, tanka or other Japanese poetry form inspired on this "fractal-art" will not be easy.

summer thunderstorm

electric waves dance around me
finally coolness

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 21st at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode, Crossed House (Manuel Clavel Rojo), later on. For now ... have fun!