A Little Bit of Joy in a Red Bottle

I’ve always liked the old style Chinese character for joy, as it depicts a person holding two sticks with bells or some other noisemakers on them and dancing happily. Joy is sound and joy is dance and happy is the one who can make both. I thought it fitting to print this on my painting of imaginary red lidded bottle. I have been trying to create an entire palette of colors on this things and this was my first round red one. The joy on the bottle is tempered however by prints of the character for wisdom in the background of the painting. It is the wise man who knows when to contain his joy.


Update: It is also the now visually impaired artist who chose the wrong seal for the background print. It is the seal for “excellence” and not wisdom. They look a little bit close. Oh well.