Jennifer Griebel, an art therapy major, learned about haiku and haiga (a type of haiku-painting) through courses with Dr. Randy Brooks at Millikin University. She is currently combining the art of photography and haiku into haiga for a James Millikin Scholar honors project and will graduate from Millikin in May 2004. You can enjoy Jennifer Griebel's haiku at the Millikin University Haiku web site.

Ms. Griebel shared her painting with the students at Harristown Elementary School as they prepared to paint watercolor paintings in conjunction with their haiku. The students enjoyed imagining the "river fog" and liked the fact that so much is left out of both the haiku and the painting. By not including everything, there is room for the reader to imagine all the things that must be going on just off the page of the painting and beyond the words of the haiku.

The Harristown students liked the way the "river fog" seems alive and how, with just a few strokes, Jennifer was able to "put us there" on the dock, listening for early morning sounds on the river. She showed how just a few leaves suggest a whole tree overhead, and just a few bamboo stalks suggest a whole grove along the river.

If there was time, students in most classes painted two paintings based on their original haiku. First, they tried using only black—imitating the Japanese sumi-e style of painting only a couple of things to suggest the whole scene. Then they painted with all the colors they wished to use for a second painting.

See the index of student paintings and haiku included in this web site, or enjoy the paintings integrated throughout the Harristown Haiku Anthology.

—Dr. Randy Brooks                       
Millikin University