2012: Nobori

December 30, 2012

Big Canoe, GA

Sunrise at Big Canoe The east, seen out of the kitchen window, is bathed in a pink glow shading into a morning blue above the distant and dense barren trees. The sun rises in majesty. In the west, seen out of the window wall of the great room, the first rays of the rising sun flood the same distant mass of barren trees with a golden glimmering. As the sun continues to climb the blanket of leaves in the foreground take on new life punctuated by the stark dark verticals of the nearby forest. As the sun rises further shadows are created, with the tree trunks producing a perfect right angle with their shadows. My friend Jerry, who spends some time here, refers to the house where all of nature is experienced as The GK Temple. So apt!

Most of my time in Georgia fs spent at Big Canoe where nature thrills and the studio beckons. The winter months were uneventful, but activity picked up in March when I drove down to Savannah to see cousin Mick who escapes winter in Wisconsin and enjoys southern life with daughter Lisa and husband John Hall. I also always spend time when in Savannah with my former student Lee Heidel, wife Ginger and daughter Camille. We all attended the St Patrick’s Day parade with front row seats on their church steps. The crowd there is as entertaining as the parade itself: a grand event.

In late March I was off to Kyoto for my now usual spring sojourn. Life there is ultra-rewarding with my well-established routine of morning river walks, busy schedule of gallery and museum visits, Flea Markets and serious studio work. There were some special highlights as well. Invited to visit “Repros” a jazz club in the Gion area with friend Koichi where we had a front row table entertained by Japanese vocalists and Detroiter Kimmie Horne who brought the house down. Then a chance to see Kabuki super star Tomasburo at Minamiza theater and a torch-light Noh performance in the grounds of the Heian Shrine, plus a performance of friend Ima Tenko and her Butoh group on a shrine stage west of the city. I had the opportunity to meet and tour around Kyoto a group of foreign tapestry artists who were exhibiting their work at the Kyoto Art Center. Friend and owner of GalleryGallery, Keiko Kawashima, organized this major event at 3 different venues and included both established and younger Japanese artists.

Summer was spent at Big Canoe with a few trips back to Athens as needed. The routine here is also well established with early morning trail hikes, afternoon work outs at the fitness center, followed by a couple of hours at adjacent the swim club with its sand beach and cool, picturesque lake surrounded by mountain views. In August I traveled north, first spending time with cousin Mick in her new studio apartment at Fairhaven Center in Whitewater, just 15 minutes from our old hometown of Ft Atkinson. I drove to Kohler and spent a delightful time with nephew Kurk Anderson and his whole family. Once again, we visited the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, where the shows are always outstanding. Then on to the UP of Michigan to spend a relaxed week with my sister Karol and husband John in their impressive “self-built” log house. Niece Kris Lent and daughter Maya joined us there for the UP State Fair where the animals, rides, performances, food and grandstand event filled our day and night (including a windy storm).

I returned to Kyoto in mid-September to prepare for my “duo solo” shows at GalleryGallery. Both of the exhibitions, in separate spaces, had been in process for the last two years.

Blowin’ in the Wind I have long been intrigued by the use of fabric outdoors in Japanese culture including both maku (fabric walls) and nobori (banners). In 2003 I created installations inspired by maku, while the current installation is informed by noborj, which are ever-present on the streets and byways of Japan. Perhaps some of the early uses of nobori were in the Heian and Kamakura Periods when they were used to identify clan allegiance, especially in warfare. They were carried by foot soldiers on vertical poles as well as mounted on the backs of cavalry on horseback. In each case they identified a specific clan by color or mon (crest). At a later date, perhaps in the modern era, Japanese nobori became the ad man’s dream and were placed outside business establishments of many sorts. They can be seen fluttering in front of restaurants and fast-food shops, real estate agents, DVD shops, and promoting many other businesses. Now they are often digitally printed on polyester.

I brought nobori made of colored silk kimono fabric inside the gallery space without a strong “in your face” conceptual context. Fabric at rest and in motion (the wind), color, and the relationships between the individual elements, the walls, the floor, and windows were all concerns of this installation. The colors and the placement of the nobori changed every day. On October 27, Butoh dancer Ima Tenko performed in the gallery space reacting to the environment in her unique way. Color, space, and movement are the essence of the work. The photo for the card was taken on a beach at Lake Biwa north of Kyoto in May.

The title, “Blowin’ in the Wind” is from the song written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and performed by him and many other artists. The song poses a series of questions about peace, war, and freedom. Quote, “The answer, my friend, is blowln’ in the wind”. Either the answer is clear and direct, or the answer is as hard to catch as the wind. I relate to the uncertainty in this work and in the many aspects of our lives. Eight versions of the song were played during the 2 weeks of the exhibition.

Collage Suite consists of a series works that employ simple compositions with a strong graphic impact. Materials used consist of handmade washi (Japanese handmade paper), fragments of calligraphy and old fabric, covers and pages of old books, thread, and other materials. These items have been collected and stored away over my many years in Kyoto. Nori (glue) is an important material used to create a stable composition. {collage (From the French: coller, to glue} Stitching is also used to create lines that relate to the shapes of other materials. All of the materials used reflect a life in Kyoto over these many years. Thus, the works are a visual journal of my time spent in this city, which I love and enjoy. I have been influenced in many ways by the 30 years that I have worked and lived in Kyoto, which I consider my second home. These works are a humble celebration of this rich life I have experienced there.

One of the reasons for the two shows was in celebration of my 80th birthday. I have celebrated birthdays in Kyoto for most of the 30 years that I have been there in October. The 60th year is a special one in which we return to infancy and are presented with items of red apparel. The term for baby, aka-chan, translates as “little red one”. The kanji (Chinese characters) for 80 form a shape like an umbrella and I received a beautiful bamboo one as a gift. Parties started in mid-October and ended recently when Lee was home for the holidays — a total of over 2 months! Now I can comfortably settle into my senior years.

Page (who celebrated his 50th this May) and Jeanne have closed their on-line book business due to a decrease in sales, in part as a result in e-books, and have re-immerged as an on-line fashion enterprise. They purchase high-end clothing, bags and shoes at deep discounts and sell all through Amazon’s warehouses. No more individual order packing and shipping with the usual pre-Christmas exhaustion. Jeanne continues het private piano lessons and Page keeps busy in their home yard vegetable garden.

Grandson Lee finished his 3rd semester at the US Naval Academy with his usual top grades and busy non-academic activities. He’s placed in the top 2 – 3% of his class of 1290 all 3 semesters. Last summer he served one ‘block’ at the Los Alamos Lab working on laser experiments and another ‘block’ on the USS Ohio ballistic missile submarine cruising from Seattle to Honolulu. He’s taken 3 semesters of Japanese and has requested a study program in Japan next summer. I always look forward to spending time with him’ over the holidays. Recently we saw Les Misérables and spent a day at the High Museum with lunch and viewing “Fast Forward” an exhibition covering the period 1913 – 2013 with works from the museum collections. That evening I had the pleasure of spending a delightful time with a dear friend from our 1960s Michigan days, Eleanor Palmer (now living in E Grand Rapids), and her sons Spencer and Bradley and their families. Eleanor’s memories of those years in Michigan are filled with happiness and joy.

Best Wishes to all for good health and happiness in 2013, The New Year of the Snake.