secrets of james

Secrets of James Won't Get Out of Bed....


Breugel, Death of the Virgin, 1564.


That chair is the same barely noticeable chair in the foreground of the Breugel painting. The soft blanket on his bed is washi, Japanese paper, that I made myself at a four-day papermaking workshop in Gifu, Japan - we did everything from scratch; pick the mulberry, boil it, grind it.


Not sure who the artist is right now, but saw it in a show in Japan, I think. I'll check the postcard info and update later. The open window is used in the image below, Death lurks everywhere.


The open window above the sleeping boy is the same as the open window over the sleeping old man (in the previous image). The cat chasing the mouse across the bed was inspired by a creepy Victorian image - I have since lost - of a sleeping girl whose bed is covered with scampering mice. I had a cat that looked like that when I was a boy. Shout out to Mittens!!

See the book on the Breugel chair? The chair in Breugel's painting also has a book on the seat. The book in my picture is The Kuddle Kittens, by S. Sheldon, the unpublished comic of an old Philadelphia friend, Steve Sheldon.

Look how tiny my cut-paper mouse is!

RELATED: my washi teacher was also a Noh master, and gave an impromptu outdoor fireside performance. it was INTENSE!!!