green egg i am

I've stolen some time in between Year of the Dog promotion events and illustration responsibilites to paint an egg for the Open Field Egg auction (www.openfields.org). It's similiar to Robert's Snow with different artists creating works of art to be auctioned off for charity, except it's an egg (not a snowflake) and the money goes to a school (not cancer research).

Even though my time is tight, I really wanted to do this. This year's egg auction is in honor of beloved children's illustrator Trina Schart Hyman (she founded the event). Trina participated in the first Robert's Snow, shortly before her death--ironically from cancer. Her snowflake was probably one of the last pieces of art she created. The least I could do was to paint an egg for her namesake auction.

So what did I paint on my egg? Well,I searched for inspiration during my visit at the Portland Chinese Garden. They had tai chi lessons, brush painting classes, children folk dancing...and rain. And lots of it. The sun only shown on one day of my stay.

But, after spending so much time in the rain, I slowly began it appreciate its beauty. I loved how the colorful umbrellas seemed to look like enormous dancing flowers in the garden and how the raindrops fell from the tiled roofs like strings of pearls. And when the children began to do the traditional Chinese parasol dance in rain, the images seemed to swirl in my head and came out as this little haiku:

When the raindrops fall
The umbrella flowers bloom
And I dance around

This poem I quite enjoyed and wrote down on a scrap piece of paper. Back on the east coast, I recited the poem to Robert. His reaction was not one of awe. "That's very girly," he snickered.

However, even with such fervent encouragement, I used it as inspiration for my egg...and I will just hope for Open Field's sake that others find it more appealing.