Happy new year!
I don’t quite know where 2016 went (maybe somewhere in a hand basket??) but all of a sudden it’s New Year’s Eve and I’ve only just finished my New Year’s cards, or 年賀状 for 2017, the year of the rooster. (For more on the tradition of sending New Year’s cards in Japan, check out this post.)
I like the first one most; the pun came to me after reading William Gibson’s tweet: So many *ucks will need to be given, in 2017. Start growing yours now.” Yes, I punnified the f-bomb to “Give a Cluck,” both to reflect the theme of the year of the rooster, and perhaps out of some shyness. (I’m not sure why I’m shy about the f-bomb now — having posted etegami about “decorative gourd season, mother*uckers” here….) I am thinking of how to illustrate a card with Gibson’s original words… give me time.
I’ll hang this one in my office reminding me that there’s a lot to give a *uck about this coming year.
This rooster was painted on handmade paper I bought in Japan. I drew it based on one of my first Christmas tree ornaments, from the mid 1970s, but took a lot of liberty with the color scheme, ignoring the original’s red.
The last two riff off a line from Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” a line I have used a lot in the last year on cards. I steered away from the rooster of the Chinese zodiac with the blue bird, looking hopefully to the sky. The last one is a card I made multiples of, sending to many friends and family.
etegamist 