Etegami

Well, at least until now. 

This past weekend I watched a favorite YouTube collage artist’s video on etegami.  (Just so you know, the channel is Book and Paper Arts, and Kelly is amazing!.)

The art form of etegami rose in Japan in defiance of the structured forms of traditional Japanese artwork.  The forms that come to mind when we think of Japanese art.  Art like this …

There was a bit of artistic rebellion in the 60’s led by calligrapher Kunio Koike.  He was weary of expectations that a Japanese artist must adhere to tradition.  Those structures felt artistically oppressive to him.  He began experimenting with new ways to create the sharing of postcard New Year’s greetings that is part of his culture.  As captured wonderfully on the website Beyond Calligraphy by etegamist Debbie Dosanko:

He longed for an art that did not require particular talent, years of training, or masters to demonstrate the “correct” form. He envisioned an art form that could be spontaneous, honest, and personal without being self-obsessed.

He described the process as art in its “everyday clothes.”  He created the slogan, “Heta de ii. Heta ga ii,”- “It’s okay to be awkward. Awkwardness has charm.” His postcards kept to the traditional style of having an image and text.  But the result was like this adorable etegami image with ants (his art) …

There are rules to the style.  Only a couple of colors.  Common images – with the encouragement for them to be something you can put in front of you and be inspired by.  Simple messages (and the messages don’t have to be aligned to the image). 

Most important is the way they are drawn.  You hold your elbow up in the air perpendicular to your working surface, and you dangle your pen/brush/marker from your fingers, point downwards.  The purpose is to create a flow where an image is not perfectly produced.  How magnificent is that?  The idea is to limit your control and to permit what happens to be in the flow and unpredictable. 

I had so much fun doing my first piece!  Inspired by the cup I drink my morning tea in.  The result is sloppy, happy, and with its little message.  If I had tried to draw a true-to-life image of my cup, it wouldn’t have turned out looking anywhere near as good, as I don’t have the talent that is required.  Kunio’s viewpoint is that it shouldn’t take a certain talent to create.  It should just take joy.  Surprisingly, it was the letters that were the most difficult to do.  

I swerved from tradition as I used Posca pens instead of watercolors, as I was too lazy to find and fiddle with my watercolors (that are in a dusty box someplace).  And my little etegami does not include an important part of it … the hanko (the signature) which is a little red stamp with initials or an image that represent the artist.  I made myself one today – and printed out a sheet of them to affix to my etegami going forward.