Warming Up

It always take time for me to get warmed up, whether it's when I'm playing taiko or creating art.


I finally finished my Sketchbook today! I'm so happy. But looking through it, I can see that I started to like the drawings about halfway into it when they started to draw themselves. I admit, I did have help for those ones - Adam provided some doodles and lines as my "launchpad."


It always takes time to get used to the feel of the pens and pencils because they respond to each type of paper differently. It also takes time to let go and just draw and not think about what other people will "see" in the end. This is what the sketchbook is for! It is for failure. And getting warmed up.

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett

Failure isn't necessarily a bad thing. Fear of failure is worse.

Sun Motifs

Doodles in my sketchbook...

A Good Day

I've been drawing lots of sun motifs lately. I need sunshine. Where I grew up, you can go weeks and weeks in grey blah-ness. I have SAD, I don't like grey. One day soon, I'll talk more about this.



Today was a good day. It was sunny and warm. Walking home from work I saw this scene. I don't know why, but I was captivated by the man fixing the Buddhist Church parking lot sign. It reminded me of my trip to Boracay, in the Philippines when I visited an artist's studio there ten years ago. It was basically a shack, without even 4 walls. But every morning the artist was out sweeping the yard out in front, and his works laid out carefully for passers by to see.


Adam and I were talking about memory last night - what things we remember, and what things we don't. I remember scenes that made me change who I am, decide things, come to realizations. (I'm terrible at remembering movies or tv shows, although that means I can watch the same ones over and over again!)

I remember thinking that I really admired how much care he took of his space, no matter how bare and simple.


This is my space. Quite simple too... Full of lots of little bits, mostly paper. I'm trying to appreciate where I live, even if the sun doesn't always get in.

Home

Home is on my mind a lot lately.

Like, where is my home? I haven't lived in Toronto since 1995. I haven't lived in any one place for more than 3 years at a time, really.



When I lived in Japan, I thought it was so weird that people put so much into their cars - decorations, slipper trays, fancy cup holders. But then I realized that it was because in most households in Japan, there is no privacy. People make their cars their "home."

I think I do that with my art space...

Although there's been times when that home was a sarong, some pencil crayons and glue.

1. My first place in Toronto, when I was a U of T student.
2. Suisan Fisheries School, Tokushima, Japan
3. Tokushimakita High School, Tokushima, Japan (Look for the stuffed moose and beaver.)
4. Housesitting, Melbourne, Australia (Oh, Canadian flag here too!)
5. Campground, Darwin, Australia
6. Takoma Park, Maryland
7. Cabin in the mountains, Guerneville, California
8. Sebastopol, California (I shared this space with a writer. It was across the street from the cemetary.)



















I like that my current home has sunshine and taiko. I might stay here awhile.