Sumi-e
is a Japanese brush and ink technique which employs a subtlety of color
and a wet on wet medium in order to achieve its unique flavor. Depth
is created by utilizing thin and thick, heavy and pale strokes.
For this work I used the traditional materials, scraping ink blocks against a wetted textured palette stone to make ink. However, the paper is an acid free 100% rag paper which I favor due to its longevity and versatility.
The subject of the work “oar fish” really exists. It is the classic creature which spawned a legend. Forty feet long and crowned with red spines, this is truly an unique fish, even today embodying the visual impact of a sea monster.
Like a SCAdian, the oar fish
has a dash and flavor of times gone by, it lives in the here and now, but
gives homage to dreams of earlier times, when the world was inhabited by
nobler more mysterious denizens.
Alayne Alexandra Nyvern Nightwatcher is an early period Celt.
Her family sent her to a convent at an early age to appease the newfangled Christian God; but, when all her brothers failed to survive beyond youth she was called her back to carry on the family.
Bringing with her all the wonderful knowledge of her sisters, including calligraphy and illumination, Alayne married dutifully and produced two sons. (She was rapidly widowed, since her true love is a seljuk turk who would not be born for several hundred years following her death.)
When not busy organizing her tribe to fend off the invader du jour, she tends to villagers’ ills, livestock and indulges herself in her various interests.
Pam Parisi is an artist who has put in two and a half decades as a SCAdian. She is married to a saintly man, has two wonderful sons, and has done calligraphy and illumination for thirty years.
SCA Awards: AoA, OSC, Burdened Tygre