take 2...

It still needs a little more work, but I couldn't finish until bits were dry (and at 10:30 last night, I was too tired to wait for it to be!). Painting like this is so different from what I've done before in the U.S. I love the way the fude (brush) feels as it gently coaxes watery images out of the paper.

Can I borrow a cup of sugar? ;)

My Neighbor Totoro

Today I went (back) to see Oga Kazuo's artwork at the museum. He's done many of Miyazaki's films, including "Tonari no Totoro" - the one that features this house. I really wanted to see this amazing artwork again, not only because there were over 600 mind-blowing pieces, but also because today is my grandma's birthday (she would have been 93), and I think she would have liked the show, too.

January 26 was the Chinese New Year, and each year Nagasaki City puts on a Lantern Festival to celebrate.

I've seen and taken many photos of this before, but this time I was especially interested in the paintings on fabric (silk?), since they closely resemble the style of painting I currently study. Their ethereal quality makes them hard to resist. They're in such contrast to all the crashing color and vibrant noise that is so typical of a night at the festival.

BUT....all complaining about having to wear ear muffs around the house ASIDE...

Sometimes we really get lucky and get doused with beauty...

The other day we went up into the mountains and ate at this soba restaurant. Afterwards we cleaned the old art museum you see here...

making nengajo

I have this knack for forgetting either my computer or my power cord lately... (my battery now lasts only about 19 minutes when fully charged...thinking that's probably not a good thing, but ...) and this weekend I had my Japanese test up in Fukuoka, so just now getting to posting the latest -

I'm currently working on my nengajo (New Year's card) in my painting class. This page of Japanese is of kichigo (lit. "lucky language" = good fortune expressions) and the one with the numbers is the one I'm using as part of my nengajo design. I'm using a very old and very primitive style of lettering called kinbun. My design basically expresses the wish for the recipient to enjoy long life and prosperity.


In this photo you can see some of my reference materials and the priliminary sketches of the design, which is composed of four elements to be carved onto a ~5cm x 5cm x 8cm stone. After my teacher ground the stone so that the top was flat, I painted the top orange (it's the same ink teachers use to correct calligraphy students' work) and then, using sumi ink, I painted the characters on the stone backwards (so that when I ink & print it, the design comes out the right way). Backwards? Heck, I can barely write this stuff forwards!


Anyway, I then carved away all the orange bits so that the letters and frame remained. Good thing it's supposed to look primitive :)
If you look closely in this photo, you can see my stone resting on a practice paper from the calligraphy class - do you see the orange swirly lines? That meant that part of the calligraphy character was done well. You can also see my chisels in the upper part of the picture.

My kyoto sensei is an artist!

Wow! I had the neatest experience last week. In my Japanese painting class, I'm working on designing and doing my own nengajo (New Year's card). People send nengajo out at the end of the year and I believe they are all delivered on New Year's Day.
My teacher gave me a list of kichigo ("lucky/good fortune" expressions) and in deciding on which to use for my card, I asked the Japanese teachers here at school for their recommendation. Suddenly they got the kyoto sensei (assistant principal) involved, and he started showing me books he's made of all the inkan (stone/wood carved stamp or seal) he's done!


Here are some of his designs - oh - sorry - I forgot to put in something for a reference to the size of these. They're quite small, these are at most about 5cm long...so that makes them really difficult to carve!


I don't know what these say, but I'll print out this page for Kyoto sensei, and maybe he'll make a response... :)

Kominkan Matsuri

Yea! I'm an exhibiting artist for a few minutes! My painting teacher hung the painting I did of the higanbana flowers in the little matsuri show in the neighborhood where she lives. It's amazing how much better my work looks mounted and framed :)



Here's the room with the art, calligraphy, and flower arrangment displays. It was actually surprising to me how many students take extra curricular calligraphy classes. It's nice to see the young ones taking an active interest in such a traditional art.


It was fun learning how to sign my name in a "scripty" kind of hiragana (bottom right). I spent most of the last class practicing, because I only had one chance to sign my work. I also reworked my inkan a little bit, so you can see that printed in red underneath my name. And I think that the signature is supposed to go on the left side, but I thought it was more balanced on the right. It's good to be the gaijin :)

Man, I have a goofy smile in that photo. My teacher was taking it with my cell phone camera, and the kids behind her were teasing her & making funny faces because my teacher was squinting so much to take the photo. These kids were later climbing all over me (I made the mistake of letting one climb up on my back so she could see the performance on stage) and playing with my hair, and asking me a million questions. Hilarious. Elementary school kids are the same everywhere I guess.
Sorry the photos are so small...I'll be stuck with my cell phone camera until my other one gets fixed...IF it can be fixed... :-(

Well...I'm definitely not bored lately!
I've been helping my students practice their speeches (never ending task) and now I'll be heading to my Japanese ink painting class. Here is my teacher's mom (the one who always makes and gives me tasty food) showing one of her calligraphy scrolls to some ladies from the neighborhood.

Hope you are all well and enjoying Fall's cooler temps and harvest!

inkan

Here's my first "art" inkan (personal seal ~ my 'signature'). I have another one (that's registered in Japan) that has my full last name on it in katakana, and I have to use it when I "sign" for important things. This inkan, however, only includes part of my first name, "rei" (which is really To-RAY-shi in Japanese). This kanji for rei has to do with beauty. So, since I think beauty is such an important ideal, I thought this would be fitting.
It's carved out of stone, and reeeeeally difficult because of the tiny surface and shape of the stone. I honestly think this is a little kawaisou (pitiful), considering my previous block printing experience, but this uses completely different materials than anything I've tried before. I'm itching to go back in and carve a little bit more to make some of the lines a little stronger/thicker, but my teacher won't let me because it's so much more precious to be "imperfect"...

Funny how when the sun comes out everything can magically feel a little better.
(of course, I never underestimate the power of prayers and nice emails, either...thanks :) )
***
This week in my painting class I actually painted from a live subject. I usually paint from a book (twisting every step of the way...but I'm not the teacher...), however, this week my teacher let me paint some higanbana, a flower that's blooming now (& the one in the previous post). I'm going to need more practice with this subject, but I thought you might like to see my first attempt. The red thing is my inkan (name seal). I'll photograph that and explain it a little better in another post.

Here's a photo I took of my workspace at my teacher's house. It's a really interesting place. From what I understand, my teacher lives with his parents in one (Japanese style) house, the grandparents are in a separate one on the same property, and then they have this painting building. It looks like they might have a garden on the property, too.
In my workspace you can see my practice paper on a piece of grey felt, my ink well, water (brush rinse), the porcelain container that holds water to add to the ink to get various shades of grey-black, fude (brush - it almost sounds like "who-day"), blotting towel, my subject, higanbana, and, of course, some delicious tea and treats (this week it was homemade veggie tempura) from my teacher's mom.

In the US, the "big" high school events seem to be things like Homecoming and Prom, and they are somewhat exclusive (usually the upperclassmen participate more). In Japan, it's been my experience that the "big" school events are the "Bunkasai" (Culture Festival) and "Taikusai" (Sports Festival). These events involve the entire student body in various ways, culminating on the festival days, which happen to be last weekend and this weekend for my school this year.

In this little slide show, you see the drawings the students did of their homeroom teachers. The numbers you see in the pictures are the year & grade of the students - ie: 3-1 = third year, class number 1. Which translates to class 1 (out of 8) of the senior class. I wish you knew the teachers in the pictures - it would make them even funnier. My favorite is the one of the two teachers sitting at a table in a "snack bar" (not like those in the US - Japanese snack bars are basically places where men pay for female employees' (hostesses) drinks so that they'll keep them company).
Note - the teachers in that picture are both male...

You can click on the slide show to see the pictures & comments in my Picassa web album.

Just a couple of reference shots for my sketchbook...



Here's a museum at the botanical garden I visited on a school field trip in Sapporo. It was nice to see something different than the traditional Japanese for a change.















These maple leaves will be turning scarlet soon to herald the arrival of fall...I'd like to see this pattern in fabric.




















Here's a little nod to Weston -
(since I didn't have any peppers :) )
Actually, I'm thinking this could be inspiration for a new kind of potato chip...

It's funny how we can "see" things, and then through the help of the camera, we can "see" things differently. That's probably why I like photography so much. That and because it's kind of a legacy of sorts from my dad, I guess. Speaking of Dad, I paid special attention to this glass ball sculpture because Dad used to have several of these green glass balls around the house. He made really cool macrame hangers for them and hung them about. I think he got the glass balls from his USCG stint in the Pacific. Well, here I am on the other side of that ocean and obviously some other artist thought that they were an interesting medium, too. I'm not crazy about my compositions here, but I was fascinated in the material (the green glass) and it's reflective, refractive, and transparent qualities. It was also kind of a natsukashii (nostalgic) moment for me because they remind me of "home" (a little ironically, since I think they actually originate in Japan!).


Here's what the sculpture looked like in the hotel entrance way.

I think my Japanese painting teacher is part Italian.
It seems that every time I go over to the studio for class, she invariably brings me several treats. Actually, she's not even technically my teacher, her painter son is. She does the Japanese calligraphy classes.
I'm actually a pretty unremarkable painter, but I still like going because it's good to be making some kind of art again in a classroom situation, and taking this class in this setting is "so Japanese". It's called suibokuga (basically ink painting), and I know you've seen examples of it. Very ethereal ink washes of very "Japanese" scenes and objects. When I'm brave enough to show off one of my paintings, I'll put it up.
As for the food here - I know the white stuff is onigiri (rice balls), and the other has something to do with potato. I'll let you know after lunch :)


Here's an example I found on the web of a painting and some of the supplies used in suiboku-ga. In the next class my teacher is going to show me how to make a name stamp (inkan) so I'll be able to 'sign' my paintings.
(sorry to steal the image here without proper acknowledgment of the source, but there are some not so family-friendly images that pop up there - so I thought I should skip it)