Sunday, July 19, 2009

Distractions



I finally updated my etsy store!

I haven't felt much like writing lately. Things go like that... It's always about finding balance and the right rhythm of life because I always do too much of one thing and not enough of the other.

My university major was in psychology, so I can't help but psychologize. Psychology is so interesting! If you get a chance, read Oliver Sacks' "Musicophilia." (Here's a clip on PBS where he explores themes from the book.) Or anything else by Oliver Sacks for that matter. He's kind of my hero.

My own narrative, is always accompanied by a meta analysis of the narrative from physiological and sociological perspectives. My brain has too much space devoted to figuring out how people think. No wonder I'm happiest when I'm playing taiko or playing with paper - the simplicity of "don" and "blue looks nice with yellow" is grand.

When I was young and things got hard at home (my parents are socially challenged non-traditional first generation arranged-marriage Japanese who moved to Canada without money later in life), I could never understand why my mother would just start singing or fall back into drawing flowers when she couldn't answer my questions. I get it now. Not only do Japanese of her generation not talk about anything, but after years of grating tension without resolve - it really was the best option. That and religion...

It's an escape.

For some people it's tv or sports. Mine is cutting out dots.


Saturday, July 4, 2009

The Canvas Project

Imitate


My most recent project is working on 5 mini canvases (3" x 3") from the Art House Coop. (Click on the link to see my portfolio.) Hopefully one of my canvases will be displayed amongst hundreds of other artists' works at the Atlanta Airport from the end of July through the beginning of September. If you happen to be there, look out of me!

The project's instructions were to make anything, based on 5 words that were chosen randomly for me.

Argentum


Wild


Savant


Shimmer


Honestly, I sat on these for about 3 months totally stuck on the concept. Then it hit me - I should do them the way I always do my art. My art is based on plants, people, bright colours, and layering paper. After that, the rest came quickly.

Am I happy with them? Yes. Because I made them without overthinking, they are a good representation of what I do. And this is significant for me! I've spent such a long time trying to figure out what is me.

My favourite one is Savant. I like to think of people as having a garden in their minds. Some have very simple straight connecting branches that rarely change. While others have a constantly growing tangled mess, which yield some thorns and some flowers.