Emanations

Emanations 2, Julie Schwerin, 2024

Julie Schwerin (she/her - Sun Prairie, Wisconsin) is an associate…

Suminagashi, (literally “floating ink”), is a Japanese marbling technique which uses India ink to paint on water. My process involves placing ink on the water’s surface with a brush and introducing an agent to disperse it. Various factors, such as the amount of dispersant, water temperature, air currents, dust particles, brush angle, and contact time influence the ink’s spread and the resulting image. Suminagashi is a meditative practice, where the need to control outcomes is released, allowing the ink to paint freely. This unconventional creative process lacks preconceived notions or a specific goal. I discover the generated results after the fact—a process that yields surprising gifts.

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art suminagashi

Julie Schwerin

Julie Schwerin (she/her - Sun Prairie, Wisconsin) is an associate editor at The Heron's Nest (www.theheronsnest.com) and a member of the Red Moon Anthology Editorial team. She was instrumental in establishing several haiku installations in the Midwest. The most recent: Words in Bloom: A Year of Haiku at the Chicago Botanic Garden which featured the work of other poets on signs throughout the garden. Her most recent book, still growing wings, was the 2024 winner of the Backbone Press Chapbook Contest.