Haiga Showcase: Dian Duchin Reed
One of the joys of haiga is that there are many possible relationships between the image and the haiku, as Stephen Addiss points out in his marvelously illustrated book, The Art of Haiku: Its History Through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters. As he says, “It is not merely meanings and styles, but how they are visually combined in space that gives haiga its special flavor.”
For me, creating new haiga involves exploration and discovery, and the paths that lead there are endlessly fascinating. Lately, I’ve been playing with scale and white space, with the nuances of meaning color can invoke, and with series, as opposed to singular haiga. I do this not in hopes of arriving somewhere, but simply for the pleasure of the journey.
—Dian Duchin Reed
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Commentary
By Ron C. Moss, Haiga Editor
It is a pleasure to showcase Dian’s work again as she continues to build a body of haiga that evolves with quality and finesse.
“too fast to catch” features a delightful dragonfly floating in “white space,” a time-honoured Eastern technique in traditional ink painting. Immediately pleasing to the eye, the meditative space allows the image and words to dance with each other. All the works in this series use this same creative approach.
“stars on the water” demonstrates once again the power of using just enough words and a minimal image, without the clutter of over-complicated components. Dian brilliantly captures these delightful jellyfish, and the senryu offers an excellent link and shift from the image.
In “searching,” we soar with the bird, and the flight gains meaning through Dian’s thoughtful haiku. It again demonstrates the importance of the poetic component in a haiga.
“facing my fears” is indeed something to face up to if you dare. The spider seems to be scurrying across the page and away from the poet’s words. A senryu that gives us pause for thought is always a good thing, and everything in this haiga—in the whole series, in fact—is very well constructed and a pleasure to view.
About the Artist
Dian Duchin Reed is an award-winning writer whose poems, articles, essays, and photographs have appeared in many publications. She began her career as a photojournalist and has published her work in American Forests, National Geographic World, and Garden Design, among other magazines. Her books include Medusa Discovers Styling Gel (poetry) and Dao De Jing: Laozi’s Ancient Wisdom (translated from the Chinese). Her website is dianduchinreed.com.