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| 6/8/13 watercolor, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook |
The Japanese are very much into the four seasons of the year
– philosophically, poetically and commercially. If you go to Hiroshima in March
or April, you will see nothing but cherry blossom icons. In the humidity of August, refreshing motifs of the natsu mikan (summer oranges) will help you forget how much you’re
sweating (not). Visit Kyoto in autumn, and everywhere you look, both in reality
and in merchandise packaging, maple leaves will be turning.
I don’t think of myself as being very Japanese in most ways
(as I get older, I keep seeing myself turn more and more into my mother, but
that’s not the same thing), but the symbolism of the changing seasons appeals
to me.
Now that it’s June, I was finally able to sketch this stand
of Green Lake maple trees in full leaf. In the past year, I’ve sketched them
five times – twice in the fall when they were blazing for months – so I’ve now completed
the cycle: Four seasons of maple trees. Like Hokusai’s 36 views of Mt. Fuji
or other artists who have depicted the same scene multiple times, maybe this
stand of maples at Green Lake will become the one thing I sketch over and over,
never tiring of it, its seasonal cycles giving me a sense of completion.
See the other seasons:
Autumn: Oct. 11, 2012, and Nov. 5, 2012
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