"When birds burp, it must taste like bugs." Bill Watterson

The Zen Chicken is interested in the bug in the foreground of this drawing. This is a very fast ink drawing that flows into a chicken calligraphy. The bug was a little afterthought to emphasize the gesture of the chicken curving toward us. Prints Available

“Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.” ― Haruki Murakami, 1Q84 This Zen Chicken is in the act of meditation but colorful thoughts are flitting around in his stream of consciousness. Prints Available

“Everyone can get the gold of the Sun.
(Tout le monde cueille - L'or du soleil)” ― Charles de Leusse
This Zen Chicken is a Polish rooster made with gooey gold and silver acrylic gouache, gesso, and rubber stamp feathers.
Original painting on 12x16 inch 140 lb. hot pressed watercolor paper. Prints Available

I like light, color, luminosity. I like things full of color and vibrant. - Oscar de la Renta -- This Zen Chicken is inspired by other artists working in monoprint layers and the CMYK color palette. Original drawing on 12x16 inch 140 lb. hot pressed watercolor paper. Prints Available

“It’s important that people understand dinosaurs are still among us,” says Mark Norell, chair of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “They’re represented by at least 13,000 species alive today.”

The birds of today are descended from feathered dinosaurs. Ginkgo trees are also prehistoric.

Contemporary influences are seen in the street dabber black in splatters, the rubber stamping, and the stencils.

This Zen Chicken celebrates the prehistoric plumaged fauna of his predecessors and the flora through which they hunted.
Prints Available

Schiaparelli/Dali designed the iconic “Lobster Dress” which debuted in Schiaparelli’s Summer/Fall 1937 Collection. The Lobster dress is a simple white silk evening dress with a crimson waistband featuring a large lobster painted (by Dali) onto the skirt. It is rumored that Dali wanted to apply real mayonnaise to the lobster on the dress but that Schiaparelli objected.

This zen chicken of the sea is inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli's famous lobster dress and my appreciation of the beach and high fashion.

Drawing: Ink, Stencil, Acrylic and Gouache on Paper. 12 x 16 inches on hot pressed 140 lb watercolor paper. Prints Available

Creativity is that marvelous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition. - Max Ernst

India ink and ink wash, rubber stamps in archival ink on 12 x 16 inches 140 lb. Stonehenge hot press watercolor paper.
Prints Available

“Earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

12 x 16 inches Ink and rubber stamp on 140 lb Stonehenge Watercolor Paper. Prints Available.

Exuberance is better than taste. -- Gustave Flaubert

Zen Chicken with Geometric Tail is Ink, watercolor, and rubber stamp on 140 lb Stonehenge hot pressed watercolor paper. 12 x 16 inches. Prints available.

The ginkgo tree is from the era of dinosaurs, but while the dinosaur has been extinguished, the modern ginkgo has not changed. After the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, the ginkgo was the first tree that came up. — Koji Nakanishi
16 x 12 inches India Ink and acrylic paint stencil on 140 lb Stonehenge Watercolor Paper.
Prints available.

Why don't you get a haircut? You look like a chrysanthemum. -- P. G. Wodehouse
India ink calligraphic drawing of a rooster surrounded by polygons and woodgrain rubber stamps with two rubber stamped chrysanthemum flowers above his head.
16 x 12 inches on 140 lb. hot press Stonehenge watercolor paper.
Prints Available

Blooming Rembrandt Tulip Zen Chicken on 12 x 16 inch 140 lb. Stonehenge Watercolor paper. In collection of Henry Tarin, August 2018 Prints Available

Splatter painted India ink form on wet paper with pointy tail feathers.

A fellow artist said it reminded her of mascara.

“Inner beauty is great, but a little mascara never hurts.” — Unknown author

Prints Available

In qigong class our wonderful teacher, Bret, tells us to connect the crown of our heads to heaven and connect to the earth beneath our feet. This zen chicken is practicing this technique using color to radiate upward and downward.

"Practicing qigong is so simple and so powerful. You cannot do it wrong. You can only do it good, better, or best." -- Chunyi Lin
Prints Available

Zen Chicken Word 2018
22 x 30" ink, rubber stamp, watercolor and acryl gouache on 300 lb hot press watercolor paper
Prints Available

"A rose is a rose is a rose." Gertrude Stein
This zen chicken with roses has many layers. India ink, gesso, rubber stamps, watercolor and acrylic paint on 12 x 16 140 lb. Stonehenge watercolor paper.

"My My Zen Chicken" is an india ink wash drawing with rubber stamps added. 7 x 5 inches on rag paper. For Sale Saatchi Art Portfolio

This is a wild attacking rooster coming at you. You better run or get your ankles pecked.

I was in a very good mood when I made this guy. He is active and crazed and fun to draw. I hope you feel the creative energy attacking you when you look at him.

"A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing." -- Muhammad Ali

Mad Vermilion Zen Chicken in graphite, acrylic paint, and rubber stamp in archival ink. 16 x 16 inches on 140 lb. watercolor paper.

Chicken print with air plant. Vermilion comb added.

Diffused India ink wash with added rubber stamp arrows, eye, and tail. 16 x 16 inches on 140 lb. watercolor paper.

Column topped Zen chicken gets the blues and tries a natural remedy. Prints Available on Saatchiart

“In Japan, a number of time-honored everyday activities (such as making tea, arranging flowers, and writing) have traditionally been deeply examined by their proponents. Students study how to make tea, perform martial arts, or write with a brush in the most skillful way possible to express themselves with maximum efficiency and minimum strain. Through this efficient, adroit, and creative performance, they arrive at art. But if they continue to delve even more deeply into their art, they discover principles that are truly universal, principles relating to life itself. Then, the art of brush writing becomes shodo—the “Way of the brush”—while the art of arranging flowers is elevated to the status of kado—the “Way of flowers.” Through these Ways or Do forms, the Japanese have sought to realize the Way of living itself. They have approached the universal through the particular.”
― H.E. Davey, Japanese Yoga: The Way of Dynamic Meditation
Zen Chicken as an Ikebana container 2018
12 x 16 " ink, rubber stamp, and acryl gouache on 140 lb hot press Stonehenge Watercolor paper
Prints Available

Zen Chicken 2018 with color ladder comb. Ink and acrylic gouache paint on 22 x 30 inch watercolor paper.

Blue ink swoosh zen chicken 5 x 7 inches on watercolor paper. This painting was converted to a wearable art necklace by Henry Tarin.

Chicken painting turned into a necklace.

Zen Chicken as an Ikebana container 2018
12 x 16 " ink, rubber stamp, and acryl gouache on 140 lb hot press Stonehenge Watercolor paper

Zen Chicken takes an Ikebana Class 2018
12 x 16 " ink, rubber stamp, and acryl gouache on 140 lb hot press Stonehenge Watercolor paper

Rooster with human eye rubber stamp. Hommage to Man Ray's Unbreakable Object. 22x30 inches on 140 lb watercolor paper

Zen Chicken and the Color Ladder 2018
22" x 30" ink and watercolor paint on 300 lb. hot press watercolor paper

"Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

Zen Chicken drawing/painting/prints are based on creative contemplation and the practice of tai chi combined with odd, eccentric, or humoristic tangents. Viewers are invited to become part of the art as an added component. The artist invites augmenting the pieces with captions, literary connections, or having a conversation with the chickens. Quiet or laughing meditation with the Zen Chickens is also welcomed. This artwork as insight-entertainment. Each Zen Chicken opens manifold layers of potential meaning and referential aesthetics..

Original drawing on 12x16 inch 140 lb hot pressed watercolor paper.

Honoria Starbuck currently lives and works in Austin, Texas in the US. She creates one Zen Chicken a day as part of her creative process.

Prints Available

Love & Zen Chicken is composed of ink wash and rubber stamps. 12 x 16 inches on 140 lb. Stonehenge hot press watercolor paper.

Eye Eye Eye Aye Zen Chicken
12 x 16 inches on 140 lb. Stonehenge watercolor paper

Ink wash chicken body with hand carved rubber stamps of fashion croquis for a tail. 12 x 12 inches on cold press Fluid watercolor paper

Chandelier Zen Chicken composed of ink wash body and rubber stamps/ 12 x 12 inches on 140 lb cold press Fluid watercolor paper

Blue Roller Zen Chicken 16 x 16 inches on 140 lb cold press watercolor paper

India Ink drawing of a rooster with polygon shaped rubber stamping on his tail, beak, and feet. 7 x 5 inches. For Sale Saatchi Art Portfolio

"What! Zen Chicken" is an india ink wash drawing with rubber stamps added. 7 x 5 inches For Sale Saatchi Art Portfolio

India ink drawing of a chicken leaning to the left. 5 x 7 inches on 140 lb rag paper. Sold

Feibai “flying white” is an effect in brushstrokes when the drier tips of the brush begin to separate, causing the stroke to appear as a set of thin parallel lines. Ink and rubber stamping on 140 lb Fluid cold press watercolor paper. 12 x 12 inches

Calligraphic India Ink empty zen chicken with rubber stamp eye. 11 x 14 inches in sketchbook. 2017

Poster for Zen Chicken Exhibition at Spellerberg Projects 2018

Grid of Zen Chickens installed in Spellerberg Projects Masur Building site January - March 2018

Nine 12 x 12 inch Zen Chicken drawings in Spellerberg Projects Masur Building exhibition January - March 2018

This Zen Chicken with calla lily stencils is inspired by a lovely wedding I recently attended. There were thousands of beautiful calla lilies at the wedding. This Zen Chicken is running in the wind because the bride's dress was covered in feathers. Prints Available