ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST
Annie Bissett: ART
WITH HAIKU SPIRIT
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With this edition, the
World Haiku Review begins introducing feature illustrations for its
cover and contents page by select artists whose works not only reflect
excellence, but which are imbued with "haiku spirit". For this feature's
premier, WHC's World Haiku Review is pleased to present the illustrative
work of American artist, Annie Bissett.
The illustrations selected for the cover
and contents pages of WHR 5-1 were created by Annie Bissett as projects
with the illustrator's blogsite, "Illustration Friday," and are
personal pieces Annie Bissett has done her pleasure.
She says that she considers these pieces as visual haiku. She is
pleased that our editors have made the same connection, and that
they have selected two of them for World Haiku Review. |
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts,
USA, and raised in upstate New York, illustrator Annie Bissett returned to
Massachusetts in 1979 and began her career in Boston. With a major in
English and a minor in math, her ability to visually synthesize data and information
led her to focus her
career in the area of “information graphics.”
She first worked in textbook publishing and then learned computer graphics at
PCWeek magazine where she became Assistant Art Director before setting
off to begin a successful freelance career. Her illustration clients are diverse
and have included The Washington Post, National Geographic Society,
The Wall Street Journal, Fidelity Investments, and Johns Hopkins
University among others.
Several years ago, after nearly 15
years of working digitally, Annie began to explore different mediums,
looking for a warmer and more organic expression for her own personal
artwork. She experimented with collage and spent more time simply drawing
with a pencil. Some digital work based on her pencil drawings can be viewed
at her website,
AnnieBissett.com. In her personal work,
Annie seeks to capture the essence of a particular moment in a spare but
graphically strong image, much like a visual poem or haiku.
Annie has also been nurturing an
ardent interest in Japan. She has studied Japanese language for 4 years at
Smith College and recently, because she received so many comments that her
latest illustration work looks like woodblock prints, she took an intensive
with New Hampshire printmaker Matt Brown in Japanese-style woodblock
printing. To literally look over her shoulder as she learns to master this
difficult but beautiful medium, visit her woodblock website,
Woodblock
Dreams.
Three
verses by Annie Bissett, composed on her trip to Tohoku last year:
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