2016: Pink Snow

March 2016
Kyoto

Been busy here since arrival.  Cherry blossoms were just getting into full glory as I arrived and enjoyed ventures around the city …. near by and elsewhere both day and light-up nights in old sections of the city.  Now the pedals are falling like pink snow and that has its charm as well. On a Saturday a festival of sorts along a riverbank with music, food and other entertainments.

On the go with museum openings and exhibits with friend Kiyo.  In Osaka, a retrospective of “Self Portraits of Yasumasa Morimura: My Art, My Story, My Art History”. He becomes Leonardo, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo and a host of others.  Check him out on Google!  It was a wild adventure that brought works I had seen in various other venues over the years.  The Frida room was a knockout!  Today I’ll join Kiyo for the opening of “The Art of Zen From Mind to Form” at the National Museum here in Kyoto.  These plus gallery shows seen here in Kyoto.

Began studio work in the first couple of days continuing my “Lost & Found” series, plus new small works series to compliment the red juban garments, plus my wrapped handles of old Japanese flea market tools.  It’s been great to get back into the “studio swing”.

Just in from an hour of gardening.  Lots of weeds to pull at the entrance garden and time for some color.  The geraniums I potted last fall stay barely survived and I hope to nurse a couple of them back to health.  In the meantime I bought 6 marigold plants in a nice variety of oranges, rusts and a mix of the two.  3 new pots near the front door.  If Juan will keep them watered over the hot summer, I should be able to enjoy them in the fall as well, (This has seldom worked in the past for reasons which I never quite understand.  But now with a new guy I still have hope!)

It was really cold and windy on Monday and Tuesday and I had to ferret out my warmer clothes.  We enjoyed the Zen Art show opening with lots of portraits of Zen monks, calligraphy of docs and letters plus the tiger panels and some simple ink landscapes.  Also wood sculpture.  Some ceramics, lacquer, metal and wood and a single textile: a very large kesa (priest’s robe with 9 squares separated by black fabric).  These are shown in many of the priest’s portraits as well.  After the museum we walked a short distance to Koichi’s cafe’ and Inn.  Darien, the Aussie guy who manages it, greeted us and we were amazed by the baked goods available.  I chose the fruit cake and Kiyo had a blueberry muffin. Darien made them and the cake was outstanding, warm with whipped cream and a fresh mint sprig along with my latte with heart motif!

I did get busy in the studio during the first week back.  Actually, I am continuing the L&F series with new small stuff I still collect with the limitation that the objects fit within a standard black 5.5” x 5.5″ tray-frame from the ¥100 shop.  I’m not sure just when I started to rent one of the 100 cases in the “Showcase Gallery” at GalleryGallery, but these small works keep me current with new material to show there … plus some old work that fit a theme:  “Pink and Cute”, “Black”, “Keys”, “Nature”, etc.  I’m about to install a group of this new work of mixed impact, some cute some not.

I’m working on a new series, “Wrapped Tools”, which involves a great variety of tools with wooden handles, found cheap at the monthly flea markets, wrapped in various amounts/lengths with a wide variety of natural thread, yarns, twines in dyed and natural colors and textures.  This work goes quickly and I’m having lots of fun.  I’m still considering how to mount these items either as singles or in groups.  Some will be shown as 3-D objects.  All for the future.

But what I need to be concentrating on is my installation of red silk juban (kimono undergarments) scheduled for GalleryGallery in October.  Installation will take a long time as the garments have been folded (carefully) in boxes for the years I have been collecting. The major wrinkles will have to be dealt with at the time of hanging.  A space “full of RED”.  I hope to have Ima-san in performance at the closing but have not seen her yet this trip.  I have an idea I would like to have some small, framed works with the scraps of red fabric I have that will complement the juban installation.  This is still in the early stages of development.