The 108 paintings in this project are based on haiku poems by Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), who is considered to be one of the four greatest masters of the Japanese haiku tradition. Issa’s short poems explore nearly all aspects of human experience with delightful brevity. In my selection of poems for this project I favored those that had qualities I would enjoy translating to visual form. The paintings are 8" X 8", acrylic on 300lb paper. The book version of this project features 100 paintings and haiku.

(most of the work in this project is available for exhibition or sale — contact markwmcginnis@gmail.com)
click on book cover >Amazon