Beats of Haiga

Beats of Haiga is a series of paintings that are

responses to the haiku poems of the American

beat poet Jack Kerouac. A central emphasis of

these paintings is the process in which I reference

the Japanese art of Haiga. HAI comes from haiku,

previously known in Japan as haikai or hokku,

three-line poems of 5,7,5 syllables, respectively.

GA is the word for painting, so Haiga literally

means haiku-paintings.

In haiga, the poem does not just explain the

painting, nor does the painting merely illustrate

the poem. Instead, they add layers of meaning to

each other. This form of aesthetics derives from

the nature of haiku itself as a poetic medium

developed in Japan over the past 500 years. Haiga

painting does not present elaborate images, but

rather suggests shapes and forms to be completed

in the viewer’s imagination. It is not necessary to

depict exactly what is described in the words.

Instead, some aspect of the haiku might be

painted with a few swift lines, such as grasses of

the fields, or simply the play of sun and shadow.

Haiga offers me the opportunity to complete the

work within my own mind’s eye.

Haiga is more than the sum of its parts—poem,

painting, the combination of the two, and

whatever further experiences, memories, and

images these may suggest to each viewer. This

multiplicity arising from apparent simplicity is the

outstanding characteristic of haiga, making it a

unique genre within the history of Japanese art.

Jack Kerouac is mostly known as a prose fiction

stylist. He is famous for his bestselling 1957 novel

On the Road and for having inspired the beat

generation. In 2003, Penguin Books released Jack

Kerouac, Book of Haikus, which was edited and

introduced by Regina Weinreich. This text has

provided me with numerous resource materials and

examples of Kerouac’s haiku. Kerouac successfully

adapted haiku into English with his “American

haikus.” Finding that Western languages cannot

adapt themselves to the “fluid syllabillic

Japanese,” he sought to redefine the genre: “I

propose that the ‘Western Haiku’ simply say a lot

in three short lines in any Western language.

Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of

all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet

be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Passtorella.” It

is the inventiveness of Kerouac that has drawn me

to use his haiku as a catalyst for these paintings.

Through the combination of haiga and the haiku

poems of Kerouac, I have been compelled to

produce this work. As an artist I see this as a new

and inventive approach to my creative research,

where paintings are built upon concepts of text

until a resolution is found within a piece. It is a

process of forming a relationship with the written

word that is compelling and interesting.  My main

goal for this new work is to capture the simplicity

and airiness of haiku, since this is the major goal of

haiga. I also hope to make people more aware of

the mature beauty that can be obtained from

these writings and visual images.

All paintings in the exhibition are oil on canvas,

with combinations of oil pastel, graphite, and

spray paint.

This exhibition is funded in part by the Office of

the Dean of the Graduate School of the University

of Minnesota.