Thursday, February 12, 2009

Contemporary Suminagashi

This blog is about the process of Painting On Water™, a contemporary version of the traditional Suminagshi. I started using the term Painting On Water™ 20 years ago at my first exhibition at Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, to describe the medium that I used to create my artwork.

Suminagashi (su-mee-Nah-gah-shee)
is an ancient art of flowing ink on the surface of the water, originated in China over 2,000 years ago. Like many traditional art forms, it was passed onto Japan and practiced by Shinto priests in the 12th century.
In China, it was known as "Flowing Sand Paper."

In 1989, I was inspired by this nearly lost traditional art. It was an opportunity that I could make a contribution: to draw on my knowledge of science and traditional Asian cultures to create paintings that blend the disciplines of art and science, as well as the expressive traditions of east and west.


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