Showing posts with label washi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label washi. Show all posts

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Sketchbook Project 2012

I sent in my second sketchbook a couple of weeks ago, for Art House Coop.  And haven't done any art since then.  February always seems to sap me of energy.




It is the "Encyclopedia of Whimsy."



I was born in Japan, but grew up in Toronto, Canada. 
I love to send mail (in envelopes). 
I wish I had a bunny.  I am a feminist.
Have lived through many bouts of depression.  Love quirky foreign films.
Love noodles.  And ginger.  Can't eat dairy.
Live for backscratches.  Lived in Melbourne.
Am in love.


More pages to come...

Thursday, June 2, 2011

I'm still making things with paper...

 ...Well, refurbishing with paper.


 Before...




After...



This is as close to fashion design as I'll get.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Japanese Paper - An Obsession


I wish I had photos of the little boxes I used to make when I was going through my angsty teenage years.  I used to make dozens of little jewelry box-sized boxes covered with Japanese paper - starting each one from a piece of cardboard, painstakingly measuring them to make sure the top would fit over the bottom.  For what purpose, I couldn't tell you now.  I just enjoyed it. 

I think this is how my love affair with washi paper began...


Nowadays, I'm lucky enough to live in a city that has stores with a pretty wide selection of papers to choose from.  Nevertheless, I don't spend a lot of time in them.  Because of my obsession, I can't bare to throw any scraps away so they get cut down from big projects like the book-binding and decoupage, down to card fronts, then to strips and dots and other bits.



My friends laugh at how I have to sort all the little scraps...


But they are all like jewels to me...






And can be used in lots other of projects.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.


I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

(- Pablo Neruda, part of Every Day You Play in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Growing Up






Thursday mornings are precious now.  They are art production days.  If I don't designate this time, my free hours have a tendency to become art incubation/research/materials management/marketing time.  Which is all necessary too, but I need to produce.  No more just talk about it.  Part of the creative process is creating!



I've had the parts of this piece floating around for ages...  It's funny how the pieces just make themselves, if you let them.  At first it the strings were "hanging" in my mind, but then I stepped around to the other side and saw that they were "growing."  After that I just knew what to do.



Yes, that's me taking the photo in the glass.  Growing up.  Or at least thinking about it.

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.


Thursday, June 5, 2008

Art For Sale

On Friday, June 20th, San Jose Taiko will be holding their 35th Anniversary Benefit Dinner. There are still tickets left! It will be an evening of delicious food (I was there when we decided on the menu), some taiko (both a performance and hands-on activities), and a silent auction. All to raise money for a great cause - to help San Jose Taiko maintain and expand its public workshops, school outreach, public performances, and artistic residencies.

I'm going to donate a few things...

A stationary set (everything handmade), which includes a handbound journal, cards, bookmarks and washi magnets.







And a watercolour version of the "I Love Taiko Girl" that's on the SJT kidsweb page. This drawing was inspired by one of the JT kids. I saw a photo of her grinning her head off at the JT recital, I could tell how much she really did love taiko!


Come to the dinner!

Monday, December 3, 2007

I make origami cards


I have always folded paper cranes. My friend Chrisy (that I've known since I was 12) once told me that what she has in her mind when she thinks of me is the way that I fold paper, the way I use my fingers to crease the folds.

I'm working on a card order for a friend up in Guerneville who wants my Peace Crane cards. This is what I have on the card insert:

Every year children in Japan fold thousands of origami cranes in the memory of Sadako Sasaki, a little girl who died after the bombing of Hiroshima. While in the hospital, she decided that folding 1000 cranes would help her recovery, but only made it to 644. Her friends completed the task and erected a statue of her to wish for peace throughout the world.

I grew up folding cranes and have made these cards with this story in mind.

Each card is marked with a number - they are part of the series that I'm in now. I'm up to 413.











I'm working on getting an Etsy store, but I need a good name. I have some friends working on that...