“Ema are traditional small Japanese wooden tablets left at shrines with an image
on one side, and a wish or a prayer on the other. To help Japan relief efforts,
spread awareness, support and hope, artists are creating ema with their own
positive heartfelt imagery for auction to benefit Artists Help Japan Earthquake
and Tsunami Relief Fund at Give2Asia.”
There is a massive output by artists wanting to help with their time and skill-sets, many creating original designs, selling posters and donating percentages of the proceeds. This auction donates 100% of proceeds and when I was invited to take part in this auction, I jumped at the opportunity and am honored to be included among the impressive list of visual artists who have and are currently participating.
See the auction here:
Help Japan Projects:
http://artistshelpjapan.blogspot.com/
Here’s my humble ema: “Meeting Friendly Soot Gremlins”
4.75″x6″, pencil, sumi ink, watercolor, paper, wood, embroidery thread
This didn’t turn out in any way how I planned, not to say that I’m not happy with what it ended up becoming. I started out with loosely penciling out the little cluster of girls, one of which took the spot of where the large black soot gremlin is now placed. I then started inking in the outline of said girl’s head with my little brush and ink, not knowing how it would act on wood… I suspected and should have known that what happened would have: of course the ink bled into the grain of the wood, turning an otherwise simple little girl’s head into a creepy, vertically bleeding mess! This was where I panicked and quickly ran to try and wash off the board with soap and water, which, of course, didn’t work.
I stared at the mess unhappilly for a while before deciding not to scrap it and start over. I have a penchant for “messing up” work, then working around it to try and use the mistake to advantage. I added more ink, and, hey! It became … that thing. The plan of using ink to outline the girls scrapped, I used pencil for the job, added pink watercolor cheeks and fingers, and lastly, painted, cut and glued on the falling cherry petals.
You can bid on this ema tablet here. 100% of the proceeds go straight to Give2Asia. This entire project is a great way to give to a very real cause and as a thank you, aquire a beautiful little art-piece! While payment goes straight to the Benefit Give2Asia Earthquake & Tsunami 2011 Fund, I’ll be shipping the tablet out from home, so it will be thoughtfully packaged, probably along with a little something special. There are more tablets up for auction here
stasia's studio 
