Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2013SYR14
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
February Snow
poster information
Description
February snow
falling ashen embers leave
cold fire on my tongue.
My writing process goes all over the place. I know what the illustrators gravitate towards so I decided I would pack the haiku with a lot of visual images that would give them a simple line to illustrate. I thought about the typical February snow in Syracuse and our gray winters. I started thinking about this dual image of fire and water. So, the ashen embers were flakes coming down. At one point, every kid tries to stick his tongue out and catch a snowflake. Hence, the cold fire, because when it's cold, the chill feels like fire. I decided to just create a simple set of images that I know, visually, would appeal to them. I don't know who illustrated it, but I'm obviously dying to see it.
I chose several poems, but I didn't really have a mental image for some of my original selections. This haiku is the one that actually spoke to me the most because I could imagine doing exactly what the poem describes. Initially, I was a little stumped as to what to do, but it started getting colder in Syracuse and I took inspiration from what I saw around me.
Even though we didn't really get to communicate with the poets on a one-on-one basis, I thought the process went really smoothly. I'm actually using this piece in my portfolio because it's one of the more well-designed pieces I've done. I really liked doing the sketches repeatedly and reworking my idea because I was able to see my progress from start to finish.