1988: Athens Spring

May 1988
Athens, GA

Dear Friends:

The late spring weather has been sunny but rather cool – cooler than usual for this time of year. Unfortunately, there has been title rain again this year and the water levels are dangerously low. San Francisco and the Bay Area, where I have spent a few days recently, experienced a record heat wave with temperatures in the 90s and causing many complaints by the locals. But it seemed quite comfortable to a Georgian. The winter was generally mild in Georgia with only one ice and snow storm that created some minor problems in my life.

As has been the case in recent years my time in America has gone by very quickly – partly, at least, because I manage to keep very busy. My stopover in Hawaii in December was very enjoyable with my solo show at EAS Gallery a high point. I also gave lectures at the Honolulu Academy of Art and at the University. I find my stopovers in Hawaii, with its tropical climate and vegetation, many Japanese influences and friends who share my Japanese experiences, a perfect transition between Japan and the mainland. This year I returned to the island of Kawai once again, saw Carol Yotsuda there, enjoyed the beaches and the less-developed quality and attended many of the films offered by the Annual Asian Film Festival which, although famous in Honolulu, has just recently come to Kawai. It was a marvelous opportunity to see unusual films from Japan, Korea, China, etc., that do not play in commercial theatres.

The abrupt change from tropical Hawaii to wintery Wisconsin always comes as a shock. I keep some winter clothes there so I can stay warm once I arrive. My mother always plans a full schedule of activity, so we keep busy for the five or six days that I am there. This year we had a beautiful blizzard one night and I bundled up and went for a long walk in the deep blowing snow at 1:00 a.m. The following day traffic was slowed down by snow clogged streets and drifting snow. But Wisconsin folk are used to functioning under these conditions and most guests managed to arrive at dinner that night that had been planned some weeks in advance.

My mother and I arrived in Athens about a week before Christmas to begin preparations for a family holiday. We were greeted in Atlanta by the two Seika College Hitoshis, Ujiie and Nonomura, and whisked back to Athens. We got busy immediately, cutting a Christmas tree, getting it up, shopping, cooking, putting up decorations and preparing for the arrival of the rest of the family. Page and Jeanne arrived a few days later with Babak, Page’s high school friend from Iran who always spends holidays with us, and a few days later, Char’s mother, Mimi, from Ohio. That was the first Christmas that either of the grandmothers had been in Athens. We had a wonderful holiday season including a church service with music on Christmas Eve and a big traditional turkey dinner on Christmas Day. The guests left in several stages, some before New Year’s, but my mother stayed into January. She left Atlanta in the middle of an ice and snowstorm and had no problems, but I had to stay in Atlanta two more nights because it was impossible to drive on all the roads from Atlanta to Athens. Fortunately, the University was also closed due to the storm so I did not miss any classes. (I was teaching my History of Fabrics and a weaving class winter term.)

In February my solo show opened at the Madison-Morgan Cultural Center in Madison, Georgia, about 45 minutes by car from Athens. Madison is a beautiful town with many neo-classic homes from the pre-Civil War period (before 1860) and a wonderful red brick Victorian Era school house that now houses the Cultural Center. I had a gallery there where I could show most of my work from 1985, 1986 and 1987, about 40 pieces. The work was arranged in chronological order from the early works to the latest (finished just weeks before I left Kyoto in December). I was pleased with the total impact and with the opportunity to share the work with family, friends, colleagues, and students, most of whom had only seen photos. The opening, on a Sunday, was held in conjunction with a performance by a Japanese dancer who combined traditional and contemporary styles, was a huge success attended by a record crowd. The show was up from early February to the 3rd week in April. I went down to Madison to give several lectures and gallery talks about the work in March and my mother was able to see the show in April.

1987-88 has been a Banner Year for my work – an almost embarrassing harvest of riches. I had two works accepted by the Art Institute of Chicago and two works accepted by the Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto for their permanent collections. Four works were included in Mildred Constantine’s show “Pioneers in Fiber” (which some of you may have seen in Japan on its Asian tour) and four works for Lloyd Herman’s “Threadworks” which will open in America this fall in Baltimore and then travel for several years including time in Africa. I have just returned from San Francisco where I went for the opening of my solo show at The Allrich Gallery. I was pleased to see Lia Cook, Ana Lisa Hedstrom and other friends at the opening. Finally, I was very honored to be selected as a Fellow of the American Craft Council and to receive a Creative Research Award from the University of Georgia for my recent work done in Japan. All of this is heady stuff – but enough!

In March I had visitors from Japan – or contact with Japanese friends by phone which made March “Japan in America” month. Sugaya Tomio, Tokyo freelance crafts writer, was in Athens for a few days in March. He visited local potters, saw aspects of Athens and the South, partook of home cookin’ and gave a lecture on Japanese ceramics at the University. He traveled to other locations in the U.S. as well, including the ceramics conference in Portland.

Early in March Ando Hidekata, son of Ando Hiroko, Nagoya, having just completed his first year at Keio University also arrived. So with Nonomura, Sugaya and Ando the house was filled with the sounds of Japanese, or occasionally for my benefit, Japanese-English. But Hidekata was determined to learn some Southern English and did quite well with “y’all” having heard it many times in Georgia. As Hidekata is a real nature buff we went on a weekend trip to South Georgia to the Okefenokee Swamp with its “black waters” and alligators, then the “Golden Isles” of the Georgia Coast with birds and historic ruins. Another weekend we went north to Tennessee to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to see the mountain flora and fauna and do some hiking. One day we did a 17 km hike that was exhilarating and exhausting (for me with blisters on my heel) but thoroughly enjoyable. While in Athens Hidekata attended my friends’ classes at the University in English and American History which he found interesting and challenging.

By mid-March Hidekata’s younger brother Jiro had arrived at a cousin’s in North Carolina, and since I had my spring vacation, we picked him up and drove to Ithaca, New York, to visit Page and Jeanne at Cornell University where they are both students – Page in law; Jeanne, Japanese Literature. After a long day’s drive from North Carolina, we arrived in the Ithaca area in a blinding nighttime blizzard. Although we had to stop completely, the storm only lasted 15 minutes, but it was an exciting 15 minutes. It was very cold and snowy the whole weekend we were there, but it didn’t slow us down at all. We had a long walk in the snow to see the Cornell campus with its cliffs, ravines, streams, and ponds, drove to the Taylor Winery for champagne tasting and visited the Corning Glass Museum.

Next, we three were off to New York City where it was cold but not snowy. We did a non-stop tour of the city including Harlem (the boys were awed), Columbia University, Macy’s, the Empire State Building, the U.N., MOMA, the Craft Museum and the Met, lower Manhattan, and Battery Park. At night we had dinner with friends at an Italian restaurant, saw CATS on Broadway followed by a late-night spontaneous jazz concert in Times Square and attended the “Music Man” at Lincoln Center. We had just a little bit of time left for eating and sleeping after shopping at Sales Fifth Avenue and Tiffany’s, etc.

Then we drove to Washington and found the city looking beautiful in the fresh green of spring and filled with blossoms, sunshine, and warm, shirt-sleeve weather. We hit all the major highlights of the Mall including the monuments, government buildings and the museums. While the brothers explored the Air and Space Museum, I visited the new underground Museum of African Art and the Shakler Galleries of Asian Art. I found both of them outstanding while the boys were excited to see the space craft, Zero fighters, etc. At night we explored Georgetown and another time attended the opening of “Interlacing,” a fiber exhibit at The Textile Museum that I had work in and had dinner after with a Washington friend. Jiro left for Japan from Washington with his uncle and Hidekata and I drove back to Georgia, and he left a few days later for Japan and his second year at Keio.

April found me busy teaching my seminar on Japanese Textiles, a weaving class, busy with students finishing their programs and many departmental committee meetings. Responsibilities at the University keep me quite busy while I am in Athens, especially spring term when there are many essential meetings.

Now I have just a few weeks remaining to prepare for my departure from Athens on June 10. I have found a new Japanese student to stay in my house when Nonomura leaves, sometime this summer. So the Japanese connection in Athens continues while I return to Japan. Page and Jeanne will be in Los Angeles this summer where Page has a job after his second year of law school at an international law office there. So I will spend about a week there with them exploring the city and the area again after many years. We will be able to attend the ACC Fellow Award dinner while I am there.

I will arrive in Tokyo on June 17 and spend about 10 days there, at that time staying at International House in Roppongi. After a stop in Nagoya, I will be home in Kyoto by the end of June ready to begin on a new series of works that will change somewhat from the earlier series. I have a solo show scheduled in late November at the Fuji Gallery in Osaka. Once again, I look forward to my return to Kyoto, the city, my work and my friends.

Sincerely,

Glen Kaufman