"I've always seen a certain sadness about these women. In return for patronage while she devoted herself to the study of traditional Japanese art and culture, the geisha was required to abandon everything else in her life, including any hope of husband or family."

Sorrow of the Geisha

Rick Whipple is one of America's most well known and established illustrators. His cover image for this year's Blackbook 03 section, "Harajuku Girl" is another image in his Japanese series and an extension of his body of work with people and environments - "People on Planet Earth." He was selected as the singular artist in America to communicate the largest non-smoking print campaign ever to teenagers for the next three years for RJReynolds. His web portfolio can be viewed at blackbook.com/whipple.

"Some of the people I paint are real people; some are people I have imagined. I wonder sometimes if these faces I have made up might actually exist somewhere on the planet. Maybe they are people I have seen but don't remember, and I have just recorded their faces in my mind."

Rick Whipple

"For the geisha, preparation for a public appearance was a complex ritual, often requiring the efforts of several assistants. The perfection of physical beauty was an important part of the creation of this unique cultural icon."

Kyoto New Year