The Palm Reader

The Palm Reader

2011

Pencil and seals on paper

When I lived in Japan (around 2008-2009) I used to walk the same way back from the train station to my host family’s house every day. One evening as I walked past the closed shops I saw a man seated at a foldable card table with a small lantern covered in palmistry signs. He seemed a surreal figure, unnoticed by passerby.

Street palm readers aren’t really that uncommon, but the atmosphere stuck with me and I drew this some time later. I guess the passage of time rendered the memory somewhat more unreal than it actually was.

Sakura

Although, from what I’ve seen online, the cherry blossoms seem to have hit their peak in Japan already, here only the crocuses have begun. I long for the flowering trees but while we are waiting I am working on a more colorful painting of the flowers. For today this older sketch will have to do.

There had been some possibility that I would be going back to Japan next year, but now it looks like it will have to be delayed again ( being a graduate student with a husband who’s job area has no openings in Pittsburgh isn’t the best for the bank account).  There was a time when all I could think about was going back, but I’m slowly starting to reassess my goals for the near future. There is no point in being miserable where you are, and there are a lot of good things here that I should take advantage of.

So I will wait, and see.

Memento Mori

Memento Mori

Pencil and seal

Looks like I need to re-scan this.

Succulents

Pencil on watercolor paper, 2013

There is something weirdly appealing about succulents- they are such fleshy plants. Apparently I’m not alone in this thought, as I looked up the Japanese word and discovered 多肉植物, literally “fleshy plants.” Excellent.