Haiga

 Haiga is the art of combining brush painting, haiku, and calligraphy. The traditional haiga, which originated in seventeenth-century Japan, requires all three of these elements. Contemporary writers and artists experiment with the form, combining haiku with photography, collage and other mixed media.

Susan Murata was educated formally at the University of New Hampshire in speech. Informally educated through Life, Work and Raising Children in places from New York City to the coast of Maine, she has honed her observation skills—producing condensed poetry and lyric prose. She began focusing on haiku and haiga in 2011 and  has been published in Illya’s Honey, Tiny Words, Notes from the Gean, and Frog Pond.  Susan currently lives in Marlborough, New Hampshire with her husband, Gary, and Amos the cat.

David Cunningham graduated from the University of Maryland, where he encountered two passions: ballroom dance and photography. He has joined these two together through his business EnMotion Photography – Capturing emotion in motion. He has photographed for Dance Legends, Teatro de Danza, and Georgetown University. David also enjoys nature and landscape photography when he travels with his girlfriend Georgina – Susan’s daughter.

Margaret F. Rozenberg has worked as a commercial artist for 15 years, and has illustrated two children’s books. She has been enjoying the link between poetry and visual art, increasingly, these past few years. Margaret shared her painting in an online haiku forum and challenged other members to write a haiku that would turn her art into haiga. Susan responded with the haiga featured on the cover page of this issue.