Late Bloomers

I went to go and see the artichokes on 7th Street today.  If you don't know, I'm kind of obsessed with them.  (Previous blogposts here.)

I was surprised to find some blooms amongst dried up flowers on one of the plants, because I think they normally bloom in the summer.  Hello late bloomers!

I very much relate to late bloomers.

Wikipedia says, A late bloomer is a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual.

And may I add, not just to others, but to the self?

I remember learning in my art class that the painter Henri Rousseau was a late bloomer - he didn't start painting until he was in his 40s.  Interesting that I held onto that tidbit of info...  Looking him up now, I found this painting of a bunny!  Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature."

Here is the classic, "The Dream."  I wonder if he liked artichokes...

Wednesday Night Doodle

Encyclopedia of Inner Life

I'm slowly filling the pages of my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project.  This is the second time I've done this project.  The first time I found myself rushing at the very last minute to put stuff down and not think about whether it was "good" or "bad."  This time I'm thinking about it a little differently, as a place where I can turn off my brain and let the materials go to work.   And find out what I think is "good." 

I just finished page 4.  I have 26 pages to go...

I'm addicted to Work of Art, season 2 (a reality art show).  The artist Sucklord just said this, which I think I can relate to:

"I spent my whole life developing myself to being who I am, and now at this stage of the game to push myself into directions that I wouldn't otherwise go into was interesting, but at the end of the day confirm for me that the voice that I have is the voice that I should continue with."

I don't know if I can say the same for myself and taiko, but that's what makes taiko special for me - in a different way from art.

Happy Birthday to Me

For my birthday, Adam took me to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  I have lived in this area for almost 10 years and I had never been there.  It was fun to talk about what we liked and didn't like over lunch.  The Bravo television show, "Work of Art" has spurred an art interest in him.  What did you think of this show?

It feels so good to be surround by art.  One day I want to make something big, really big, like a huge Calder sculpture.

For now I'm happy to play with my scraps.  I find pleasure in playing with repetition and variation.  It's like playing a song.  Or watching flowers grow?

Artists Talk

These quotes are from the documentary "Art City" made by Chris Maybach. 

My art is quite different to both of these artists and I don't know that I related to everything that they said.  I just thought they were interesting...

"All of my work is above the line.  I don't paint anything depressing.  To live above the line you have to think, 'I want to be good.  I want to be good every minute.'  And you only pay attention to things that you like.  And when you go to the museum you only look at thee paintings you like.  You don't look at the ones you don't like and stop and criticize and all that.  People think that they have to understand art but that's not right.  Understanding is the mind contradiction and correction and that's all below the line." - Agnes Martin

 

"Some people characterize my work as visual poetry.  And when it comes, 'Well, is it painting?  Is it drawing?  Is it sculpture?  Is it big?  It is small?'  They kind of bore me.  Why can't someone just make something?  Doesn't matter if it's on paper or concrete or what have you - the fact that something is made, where there had been nothing before." - Richard Tuttle

Memory

When I was in kindergarten, my auntie gave me this necklace. 

(Here I am, wearing it happily...)

When she died in 2005, I missed her a lot.  So I put this necklace in a shadow box by my door where  I see it everyday.

I see that scrapbooking has become an obsession for some people but I could never make myself follow that trend, even though there is a multitude of materials and tools that are out there.

I prefer to scrounge around in my dusty boxes of memory for my inspiration and sort through cast-off paper and fabric scraps for materials.  I got this tendency from my mom.  The scrounging and the sentimentality.

Each tiny object is connected to a flood of memories - a trip to Bali, getting engaged in Darwin, a dear missed friend and hours spent at a bar in Guerneville getting over reverse culture shock...

These little pieces were art made by someone, somewhere, like me.  An artist hoping that their work would be made special in its association and connection to memory and other people.

Artists I Like Right Now

I'm taking a break from talking about my art and taiko. It's important to see what else is going on out there, I truly believe that.

I'm really interested in two artists right now, that other people have introduced me to. One is Henry Evans, a botanical printmaker. I love how expressive and how simple his work is.

I love what he has to say about choosing subjects:

"Within any given range of subject matter, the artist can usually find, as I have, an enormous assortment of individual subjects to draw. For reasons not too easy to explain, some subjects are more appealing to the public than others. Equally mysteriously, when an artist is drawn to a subject, and perhaps puts more of himself into it, the public tends to respond more deeply, more enthusiastically. Some sort of mutual-encouragement syndrome seems to develop. When you manage to convey your all-too-human feeling in a work of art, certain people who see it will vicariously experience some of the intensity of your involvment and will become absorbed by, and possessive of, what you have done. When this is combined with a very familiar or sentimentally loaded subject, the response is even stronger and the desire to possess the picture seems to increase."

I understand this, but only through experience. The less I worry about what I think others would like to see and just think about what I want to happen in my art, the more people seem to respond to it.


Also, talking about the process of cutting and fitting blocks:

"I sometimes look at the work of other artist in galleries, museums, and friends' homes. Much of it seems intentionally casual, and I confess I am sometimes a little envious of the happy carelessness of other artists. I am quite convinced that there is some virtue in "good clean work," but I'm not sure I could tell you exactly what it is. The artist must listen to the voice inside him. Mine seems to abhor carelessness. The voice is always there, so I guess that's the way it has to be."

(From Henry Evans Botanical Prints: With Exerpts From the Artist's Notebooks, 1977 - Thank you Megan!)

The other artist that I like instinctually, but have to find out more about is Rex Ray.



Do investigations into other people's work, to find out more about your own.

Influences

Wassily Kandinsky said "Music is the ultimate teacher."

The first time I saw a Kandinsky painting was like the first time I saw taiko. I said, "I want to do that." I was surprised to find out later that Kandinsky started out as a musician and that his decision to pursue art full-time developed gradually.

I don't know if I could choose to do just music or art. For me they are interconnected. Especially with taiko and the visual aspect of the performance. I enjoy choreography and making shapes with the body. The making of art involves falling into rhythms with my hands. Folding, cutting, drawing. It's visual but also very kinesthetic.

Some people suggested that Kandinsky had synesthesia. His paintings were often named after musical concepts, like "Improvisation" or "Composition." I don't think I'm synesthetic, but have always found the concept fascinating. (Since I was little I've always thought that numbers and colours were connected.)

In The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard Cytowic says, "Cross-modal associations are a normal part of our thinking although they occur at an unconscious level. In synesthetes, it is as if these associations poke through to awareness, like the sun poking through dark clouds so we can see it and feel its warmth."

He also says, "Not everything we are capable of knowing and doing is accessible to or expressible in language. This means that some of our personal knowledge is off limits even to our own inner thoughts. Perhaps this is why humans are so often at odds with themselves, because there is more going on in our minds than we can ever consciously know."

I know about being at odds with myself!

These days I am trying to bypass the thinking part when in creative mode. I think this is sometimes where people go wrong in their art-making (can I say wrong? It's probably not pc.) Just because something is yellow doesn't mean it goes well with something else that is yellow.

Bypassing the thinking in taiko is a little harder, but also a goal.

I'll stop here before I have to get into the discussion about aesthetics... Yes, it is subjective.

I haven't done any tributes to Kandinsky. I just like his paintings.

Art in the Family

Both of my grandfathers, Seiki Shuto (top) and Akira Chiba were artists. It is rumoured that neither cared for the other's art. My grandmother Yuki Shuto was a busybody who kept the house in order. My mother says I'm just like her, but I don't see it...

I'm a combination of my mother and father, both also artists. My mother is a watercolorist who cannot keep to a daily routine. My father (who dabbled in pastels but is primarfily a flutemaker) keeps to the exact routine week in and week out. They are both fighting inside me every day.

I own only one small painting by Seiki-ojiichan. This is of "akebi" a wild Japanese fruit. Painted on October 1st, Showa 38 (1963).








This is my hibiscus. Drawn on July 30th, 2000.