Simulating The Four Seasons
Summary
It was in September 2018 (Australia’s springtime) that I worked on this project. While cherry blossoms are not as abundant in Australia, I came across several trees in my neighbourhood. I thought to myself, "What if I could digitally create this arresting beauty of the blossom?"
Matsuo Bashō, the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan, wrote many beautiful 17-syllable Haiku poems. Though very short and subtle, these poems carry sophisticated meaning and emotional depth. Therefore, I decided to pick four poems of Basho from the book "The Four Seasons" (1958) to include in my work.
As I did not know precisely how the final artwork would look like, I kept iterating the cherry blossom tree and posted several versions on my Instagram to see how people reacted to it. Besides, George Santayana, a Spanish-American philosopher once said: "To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." Therefore, the concept gradually evolved from "spring blossom" to "four seasons."