Special Feature: Three Sets of Sumi-e Haiga

Ion Codrescu was born in Cobadin, Romania. His PhD thesis focused on Image and Text in Japanese and Western Haiga Painting. He has won numerous international prizes for his haiku and haiga. His poems, essays and articles have been published in 18 countries and 13 languages.

In an interview with Reeds Contemporary Haiga, Dr. Codrescu spoke about haiga painting:
“… Most of my haiga are created as ink-brush paintings and watercolors. It’s not technique that makes your art traditional or modern. The most important aspect in your art is the expression of your own style that you find only after many, many years of work in your studio, after much hard practice. I think the ink-brush painting technique works very well with haiku poetry and with my spirit, too. I am at home with this technique. Rice paper of good quality and the ink give me a lot of joy when I work in my small studio. For me, the way a line of ink is born on wet or dry rice paper is a magical moment. I watch the solitude of that line on the emptiness of the rice paper and dwell in the mood as the ink penetrates the paper. The first line directs the composition for the next lines, washes, values, positive and negative space. The forms are born as something alive. All has a rhythm, a harmony, and a unity. The rhythm of the brushstrokes and the calligraphy of the poem must be full of energy and life.
My Japanese sumi-e master helped me understand the differences and similarities between the Eastern and Western calligraphy. Eastern calligraphy is rich in its brushwork, structure, and texture. I like to create the calligraphy in different ways: on wet or dry rice paper, with thick or thin brush strokes, long or tiny lines, with fast or slow rhythm in writing letters, with continuous, strong, clear or interrupted strokes, or just suggested letters. I also like to make strokes that appear into the image and disappear into the emptiness, strokes that start in the image and continue to vanish into the calligraphy. I think the calligraphy in haiga must be a choreography of a poem, as a part of the composition, and not like something we add.
… No other technique gives me as much satisfaction as ink painting because a unity exists between the way I create the image and the calligraphy by the same tool: the brush.”