TAE22

Neither Here Nor There
6 1/4" x 4 3/4"
(mixed media)


Donated to TAE22 (Twitter Art Exhibit)
To benefit The Encephalitis Society
Exhibition opening June 25, 2022
York, UK

Haiga - Night Watchman

Haiga by Dan Hardison

Cattails
April 2022

In the Night

Gathered as a family watching television, a passing siren fills the air. More sirens follow and they stop down the street. A phone call confirms - the Institute is on fire. A school building over a hundred and twenty years old, it has been some twenty-five years since students graced its halls. Even in its sad state of neglect, it is majestic with stonewalls and castle like towers and turrets.

        tattered leaves
        covering the ground . . .
        faded dreams

We walk the two blocks and watch from the sidewalk. The massive walls engulfed in flames crash to the ground in a spray of sparks. Nothing can be saved. It is just a decaying old building lost to time and flames, but for a six-year old, it will remain forever.

        for a moment
        the world stands still . . .
        daydream

— Dan Hardison

Cattails
April 2022

Top photo: Columbia Institute postcard (unused 1930-1945)
Bottom photo: 1959 Aerial photo after the fire at the Columbia Institute

More about the Columbia Institute

Haiga

Haiga by Dan Hardison

Contemporary Haibun Online
Issue 18.1, 2022

Exhibition

The title on the card reads “Towards Sirius.” The brightest star in the night sky seen in a cascade of color. This title reads “Aphrodite.” The goddess of love, beauty and pleasure, but I am thinking Mae West, the American actress, singer, and sex symbol of early cinema.

        sun and clouds . . .
        a disagreement
        unresolved

You never liked to title your paintings, but gallery directors said patrons preferred titles. You wanted the viewers to draw their own conclusion without being influenced. They should experience their own feelings and emotions. After all, it is the viewer who brings a response to the work and we will each see it in our own way.

        colored
        by emotion . . .
        sunset

— Dan Hardison


Above Left: Philip Perkins, Towards Sirius, 1966, oil on canvas
Above Right: Philip Perkins, Aphrodite, 1944, oil on canvas

Exhibition, artist's book with haibun by Dan Hardison
Exhibited in the Art of Reading exhibition.
Tifton Museum of Arts and Heritage, Tifton, Georgia
March 5 - 27, 2022