today's catch

today's catch
basted with black ink —
gyotaku

. . . . . . . . .

I just took my first class in gyotaku, the art of fish rubbing, which began in Japan in the mid 1800s. You put ink on the fish and then rub the paper into it. For this rockfish, I added watercolor later. One printer called these prints "using templates from the hand of God."

After the rockfish, I tried a butterfish. Our instructor had the fishmonger remove the eyes of the former, but we were on our own with the latter. I really could have gone through life very happily without knowing how it felt to stick my finger in a fish eye. The things we do in the name of art...