Wabisabi - Blog Posts

“Much has been said of the aesthetic values of chanoyu- the love of the subdued and austere- most commonly characterized by the term, wabi. Wabi originally suggested an atmosphere of desolation, both in the sense of solitariness and in the sense of the poverty of things. In the long history of various Japanese arts, the sense of wabi gradually came to take on a positive meaning to be recognized for its profound religious sense. …the related term, sabi,… It was mid-winter, and the water’s surface was covered with the withered leaves of the lotuses. Suddenly I realized that the flowers had not simply dried up, but that they embodied, in their decomposition, the fullness of life that would emerge again in their natural beauty.”

—

Kakuzo  Okakura

Robin Fifield ©2025.

spiral - the journey

ink on paper // hand embroidery on skin

(2019)

"I see you behind the bamboo trees"

hand-stitched, ink on used tea-bag

— Tamembro (2019)

and the day goes.

hand embroidered on linen

— Tamembro (2018)

and the day goes.

The Leaves Speak

Leaves monoprint, hand-stitched on used tea bag

(August 2019)

— Tamembro