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.