Japanese Canadian Vegetables & Flowers: Haiku, Letterpress, and Printmaking
Sunday, October 16, 3 to 6pm
at WePress (#202 – 268 Keefer Street, Vancouver, BC)
free drop-in workshop for all ages

In a special new series of workshops for all ages, participants will create haiku (3-line poetry), and use letterpress and block printmaking to create artworks that celebrate the vegetables and flowers of significance for Japanese Canadians. Many of these plants were grown in family gardens in pre-war days, and in small gardens that families created outside of their makeshift shacks in the camps when Japanese Canadians were incarcerated during World War II. These plants were also grown on larger plots of land established in the camps.

From daikon to chrysanthemums, participants will choose a vegetable or flower and can create a haiku poem or use one provided. The short poem will be printed by letterpress or stamping in combination with a vegetable or flower block provided by WePress or that participants can create themselves (the completion of your own block will depend on when you arrive and how much time you need, but there will be pre-made blocks available for anyone to use for printmaking).

We are also asking those that have stories of Japanese vegetables and flowers from their own experiences and families, to please bring them to share. We are collecting stories as well as the artwork created in these workshops to share online.

This is the first workshop in a series which is produced in collaboration with the Powell Street Festival Society and funded by Metro Vancouver.

This event is part of the Vancouver International Art Book Fair’s Artists’ Books Week. http://2016.vancouverartbookfair.com/artistsbooksweek