THF Haiga Galleries: Photo Haiku of E. S. A.

E. S. A.

The Haiku Foundation honors the work of contemporary masters of the dual art of haiga: visual image wedded to haiku. This month’s featured artist is E. S. A.

E. S. A. is a retired civil engineer, and artist, with additional with degrees in philosophy and art history. The northeastern United States is his home. He discovered and became fascinated with Japanese art and culture in 1969 on an R&R trip to Japan from another southeast Asian country. Except for reading Mishima, very little Japanese culture was taught, or even mentioned, in U. S. high schools at the time. This visit opened a a beautiful new world to him. The artist wishes to remain anonymous.

Artistic Statement:
These haiga are a project combining traditional  senryu, and the visual art of Japanese woodblock printing. The hanko and date seal and other markings on the images were designed  and produced by the artist in Adobe Illustrator. They give the images the look and feel of a woodblock print. The image subjects are common everyday things most everybody is too busy to notice. The goal is to provide a visual image easily accessible to anyone, as the original Japanese prints were, but to use the poem to point out something that is universal. None of this work has been published. The poet creates these haiga when he thinks something needs to be said and sends them out to family and friends.