Secondary Textbook Courtroom Illustration

Wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy new year. Thank you very much for a strong and incessant support all through 2017. This year, the last publication is Legal Maze, a secondary textbook published by Macmillan Education. I owe it to Anne Spudvilas's kindness and support (*she's a courtroom artist, excellent portraitist and amazing picture book illustrator -- yes, my superhero and our superstar in Australian publishing industry!). In this project, Macmillan and I wanted to include any background people in Australia, race, gender, age, occupation etc, etc. We're the Australians and same human beings. I set the female judge in an active Victorian courtroom, specifically, a county or supreme court demonstrating the positions of the judge, jury, accused, solicitors, witnesses etc, etc. We enjoyed this project so much. 

I hope I will grow as an artist and person in 2018. 
Friends, Happy Painting! 

Credit, Macmillan Education. 

Back to Swimming

Good news. My fractured toe is healing well. I'm back to swimming! Swimming and exercises are recommended by a GP, but be careful not to hurt it again. Many people / regulars talked to me. It was very nice to see kind people. One lady, "You know me! This is my grand son!" showing her little boy with a full smile. Oh, sweet! Other families, "I haven't seen you for a long time!" "You will come, Sat, too?" etc, etc. Oh, it was wonderful. I really appreciate their friendship. Everyone was in a full smile on the beach. 

Sketching waves is so refreshing like swimming! Invitation to a ball at a beach. Dancing waves are in mint blue dresses in the afternoon. I love hearing their chatting, too. Come over! 

Now, it's nearly at the end of a year. How is your life in 2017? I'm still busy with projects though, I've enjoyed the projects and a journey of art. Thank you for a strong support. 
Friends, Happy Painting!  

Prof Ingrid Piller elected for Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Congrats, Prof Ingrid Piller, on your being elected for a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities Nov 2017, the highest honour for achievement in the humanities in Australia! Ingrid, the encounter of you, your teaching and the work with you are my inestimable treasure in life. Just the other day, I saw her and enjoyed a chat on the way to a bus stop in a campus. Here, the review of their team and a world leading sociolinguistics blog, Language on the Move2017. Ingrid has set up that blog in 2009 and today, it has grown up to a cutting-edge research blog. Great team! Linguists and people in linguistics have been backing up me since I started an art career. I deeply thank for anyone who has supported me this year. 

Iroha poem and Japanese letters

I felt like drawing children in kimono. Do you like it? A girl in kimono is practising writing Japanese hirakana, "Iroha," a poem. Young Sadami enjoyed only writing rather than Iroha. Once upon a time, children memorised the poem to learn Japanese 50 sounds. The Iroha poem cleverly uses only once each letter and has a profound meaning of life like "Ecclesiastes," vanity of vanities. If I freely translate the meaning, here we go. 

"Like the scent of flowers perishes, my beauty has gone. 
Who can last forever on the earth? I walked out of deep mountains. 
In a daydream, I still felt the world clearly without being drunk."  

いろは歌 The Iroha-uta 

いろはにほへと ちりぬるを 

わかよたれそ つねならむ 

うゐのおくやま けふこえて 

あさきゆめみし ゑひもせす（ん） 

Many interpretations of the ihorha are available, because an old Japanese omits a subject. The hidden subject could be the crucial difference between Japanese and English in syntax. English always requires a subject in a sentence. Besides the unclear subjects, the old Japanese and poems do not show an identified punctuation. Once, young Sadami failed to remember the iroha (*Too young to get the meaning, but how many even grown-ups could understand the old Japanese today?). 

Anyway, I enjoyed writing on paper with sumi-ink! I might as well retry it one day. It's interesting that I can find some Chinese ink sets in an art supply that are different from a Japanese style. 
If you like kids in kimono, I'd post them from time to time. 
Friends, Happy Painting! 

Australian Linguistics Society 50th Anniversary

My sketches of linguists will celebrate the Australian Linguistics Society 50th anniversary in the video presentation at the annual conference hosted by the Department of Linguistics in Sydney university where I studied. Graffiti are not bad in lectures that opened my door to art! Thank you, Lecturers, for your tolerance. Although an under-achiever, linguistics has enriched my life. 

I've met many linguists working for endangered languages. Above, Prof Michael Walsh is the expert of Aboriginal people's languages. His moustaches and beards were very historical and impressive. Kind Michael always welcomed me in his office at Sydney uni. 

I met a linguistic giant, all-round player and my super hero, Prof Anna Wierzbicka in a 2009 linguistics conference. Her deep and wide publications and research areas are really stunning...! This enthusiastic lady will never stop. Anna questions, "How can you explain astronomy, genetics, or ethics to children using words they understand; not only in Australia, but in other places” which is her recent research interest. Can we retell “Big stories of science and humanities in new and more intelligible ways"? 

Anna's challenge is my always concern. I want to know the methods and really want to make it happen in picture books. I've chosen a universal language, drawing, not written words. I feel, wordless picture books are the right approach to tackle the issues addressed by Anna and my big interest. Wow, what a lovely linguist and lady Anna is!!

Dr. Anna Wierzbicka  ( I used colour pencils in the 2008 conference). 

Once, I did volunteer work at ALS annual conferences, when I was at Sydney uni. During the conferences, we, students went out for coffee at a break. There was a market near to the uni. I could not help, but buy a big secondhand book, "Rembrandt" and held it tightly.... I was so happy with it!!! Other students teased at me, "Sadami gonna be a famous artist!" No!! I strongly denied it. I just loved Rembrandt's drawings and wanted to see his work at hand. In a shy manner, I looked down to the ground, holding the book on my chest. I had never, ever thought to be a visual artist. But I've become an artist. Unfortunately, the adjective, "famous" is inappropriate to me. That book silently stays in my studio. It reminds me of linguistics and uni days.... Once, I was an ALS member. I thank for lecturers who have encouraged me to be an artist and backed up me.  

I hope the conference will go well from 4 to 7 December and participants will fully enjoy them all. I've loved linguistics and shared time with linguists. Honestly, their brain level is super-smart that amazes me, dunce! But linguistics has allowed me to think of life and society. Linguistics also has assists me to analyse texts given for illustration. Today, when I say, "My hobby is linguistics (sociolinguistics and syntax)," often people laugh. Me, too laugh, although I'm quite serious?! Hahaha. 
Friends, don't forget, Happy Painting!