Artist Johanne Leveille incorporates her practice of Shodoo and passion for Japanese culture into the Daily Ephemera Workshop (fall, 2014)
This September I held a one-on-one daily ephemera workshop with student artist Johanne Leveille, a CYW list-member and friend. Johanne and I have kept in touch these past few years and finally found time to take each other’s workshops. In the summer, after visiting a Shodoo art exhibition of hers, we decided we loved each other’s mediums so much we’d exchange workshops. Johanne teaches Shodoo (pronounced Shodoe), the practice of painting Japanese words. Not exactly calligraphy (although it does resemble it), Shodoo captures the visual essence of a word; it’s like a pictogram or hieroglyph. It was a valuable experience learning from Johanne because not only does she instruct this Japanese ritual, having studied and lived there, she’s also very knowledgeable in the country’s cultural aspects making the class a much richer experience. Excited by what I had learned from the workshop and her deep passion for Shodoo, I encouraged her to come to my workshop holding the medium close to her heart to see if she could utilize some of its aspects in her daily ephemera collage journaling.
Johanne Leveille's journal pages are inspired by Zen gardening and Shodoo. The characters on the top left page signify the words filial and kindness or a positive feeling related to thoughtfulness.
Like many students, fearing she hadn’t done enough collage, Johanne wasn’t sure how she’d fare in the class; even still, she diligently collected items for her journal over a month and was courageous enough during the class, to challenge herself using collage bits I’d offered her as well. Creating three pages in about an hour, she was surprised and pleased at how much she’d accomplished in such a short time. I was sure her minimalist style which was so evident in her Japanese painting would make its way into her collaging, and it did! Johanne’s speed was facilitated by the fact that she had practiced a painstaking form of Japanese collage called kimpaku and that she was familiar with gluing various Asian hand-made papers. Integrating her understanding of Ikebana and Japanese gardening into her pages as well, she created a fascinating rose/maze garden. She also brought Japanese word forms into play too by blending characters with each other creating cool hybrid mixes with them… such an amazing and innovative gesture! How many times have we as artists used Japanese or other exotic characters or words in our pieces without knowing what they meant! I’m so guilty of this! Although it’s fun to use foreign languages to create mystique in our art, it’s even better when we can use them to their full effect by understanding the meanings behind the words. I think Johanne’s ability to use her intimate knowledge of Japanese writing is something unique she can use to extend the boundaries of using text and visuals in collaging; I hope she’ll experiment with it some more. She’s made a great start by committing to journal twice a week. Just recently she shared the addition of eight new fabulous pages in her journal with me! Finding the process both uplifting and stimulating, she sent me this spontaneous poem she wrote inspired by the workshop:
SENRYU
Collaging away
Pictures, paper and colour
Vivid expression
Other Related Links:
Tapestries of Time: Refrigerator Door Art
Daily Ephemera Collection List for Journaling
Creating Collage Using Daily Life Ephemera
Going Gaga for Magazine Textures
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