Sayonara! Kyoto Dreaming

Title: Chado (tea ceremony), acrylic, rice papers, 2008

some of my bonsai collection

Pour yourself like a fountain.

Flow into the knowledge that

what you are seeking

Finishes at the start, and with ending,

begins.--- Rainer Maria Rilke

Without my journey,
And without the spring,
I would have missed this dawn.
-----Shiki

"We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected." ----Ben Okri

Actually, I absconded with this quote from Robyn at Artpropelled. She has a wonderful blog which you can find here.
This quote is a perfect way to express my dream of traveling to Japan. I have had this dream for many years. I remember back in 1999-2000, when my son was in high school, I talked him into taking Japanese as a second language. My plan was that he would become my guide and interpreter when we traveled to Japan. Well, he graduated in 2000 and we never traveled to Japan. Every year I would talk about going to Japan. Every year. Well, finally that year has come. It is the year of the Ox. I have never been excited about being an Ox...the steadfast, patient, hard working, plodding up that hill Ox... boring. But this year, I am glad to be the Ox and I decided it is time to go to Japan. I am half Japanese and have always been attracted to Asian things. My gardens, home decor, clothing, jewelry are all Asian. But the main reason I want to go is for my aesthetics-- my art. I want to connect to my heritage in a deeper way. I have been searching for something in my work and I truly believe I may find the missing link in the temples, the stones, the carved and weathered wood in Japan. And Kyoto has many temples, shrines and gardens... and flea markets which will satisfy my love for collecting and shopping. Who could ask for a more beautiful place to fulfill my dream. I leave in a few days and will be home in two weeks. Sayonara for now....

The Seduction of Paper

seduction: something that attracts or charms

sensual: relating to or consisting in the gratification of the senses

------ Miriam-Webster.com

"Throughout time, paper has been the mirror of the soul."
----Dominique Bouisson, The Art of Japanese Paper

"........paper gives us a certain feeling of warmth, of calm and repose. ...It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree."
--------Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows

Found on the beach: weathered cardboard discs and tubes from spent fireworks.

Paper is supple, solid, sensuous, yet easily destroyed, weathered, worn and torn. Without it there would be no history, no memory. Writers, historians, poets, painters and photographers owe their livelihood and their public recognition to paper. Paper can be so versatile for both functional and artistic purposes. So it is up the the artist to awaken the spirit to its sensuality of touch, and its visual nuances. Paper can be waxed, crumpled, rubbed, modeled, twisted, cut, shaped, torn, folded, oiled, waterproofed, woven, sewn, glued, cast, or sculpted. Collage artists can manipulate paper to achieve a variety of effects. Using basic design elements like line, color, shape, texture, value and movement, the artist can arrange, move and mix papers until it looks "right". Artists can make their collages personal by using letters, photos, books from their own family sources and history. I am always on the lookout for papers--on the sidewalk, torn off of walls and posts, in antique shops and flea markets. I have even found weathered papers on the beach to my great excitement! I look for old maps, letters, receipts, books, labels, and postcards. The search is endless, and the results are an expression of my ideas and feelings based on my history and memory.

Endless Journey

On Seinfeld, Kramer is talking to Elaine:

Kramer: I was on my way to the store to return this pair of pants, when I ducked into the subway tunnel and fell into some mud.
Elaine: What happened?
Kramer: Well, I couldn't return the pants.
Elaine: You were wearing the pants you were going to return?
Kramer: Well, yes.
Elaine: What were you going to wear on the way home?
Kramer: Elaine, you're not listening. I never GOT there!


Question: Are you satisfied with your accomplishments?
Answer: No, I don't feel satisfaction. I feel: "next." When you used the word "satisfied," I didn't even really know what it meant. John Malkovich, actor


No artist is pleased...there is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us more alive than any other human beings. Martha Graham

"The first 3 pages are a mess, but on that fourth page is a paragraph that works---and suddenly you don't care about the first 3 pages. You'll throw them out. Those are the pages you needed to write to get to that 4th page, to the one you had in mind all along, only you didn't know that, couldn't know that, until you got there." Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott's book is a wonderful, warm, funny, wise book on writing--but as your read it, you realize you can substitute any artist--painter, sculptor, potter, quilter, photographer, collage and assemblage artist, graphic designer, textile artist, and so on.. for the word "writer". As artists we are all faced with the 'blank page'. We all have that big, hard to define "goal" of becoming a better artist. How do you measure such a large ongoing goal? The goal really should be to keep growing, to keep learning, to keep trying something new. We learn new techniques, read books, study art history, go to galleries and museums, take workshops, and experiment. Along the way, we have successes and sometimes, rejections. And we discover that the journey to become a better artist never ends. If it did, we would stop growing. The journey is more important than the destination.


At 22, Dan Eldon was the youngest Reuters photojournalist ever. As he traveled 4 continents, he documented and transformed all his experiences into 17 journals. These notebooks contained photographs, words, paint, ink, and found objects collected in the course of his journeys. In the summer of 1992, Eldon went to Somalia to investigate the rumor of famine. His photographs helped trigger an outpouring of international aid. But in 1993, Eldon was stoned to death by a Somali mob reacting against a UN bombing. The Journey is the Destination is a book about art, but mostly it is a book about the art of life. Obsession. Dream. Goal. Destination. Journey.

Collectors Everywhere, Unite

The memory throws up high and dry
A crowd of twisted things;
A twisted branch upon the beach
Eaten smooth, and polished
As if the world gave up
The secret of its skeleton,
Stiff and white.
A broken spring in a factory yard,
Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left
Hard and curled and ready to snap.
----T.S. Eliot, Rhapsody on a Windy Night, 1917



Objects and Apparitions---for Joseph Cornell
Monuments to every moment,
refuse of every moment, used:
cages for infinity.
Marbles, buttons, thimbles, dice,
pins, stamps, and glass beads:
tales of the time.
----Octavio Paz


"Yet for better or for worse we do love things that bear the marks of grime, soot, and weather, and we love the colors and the sheen that call to mind the past that made them." ------Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows


Collecting is a calling, not a choice. For some people, the impulse to collect takes over. The seduction of the object is too much to resist. When someone acquires their object of affection, there is a feeling of satisfaction. For me, I like anything that is worn, torn, weathered, rusty, or broken.

Signs that you are an obsessed collector:

1. You will risk life and limb to collect something off of the side of a busy highway/cliff/bridge. (Well, maybe not life or limb.)
2. You will sort through dirty, dusty, rusty bins/boxes/sheds.
   
3. You constantly look down for any shiny, rusty, worn old bit on sidewalks/roads/parking lots.
4. Friends/neighbors leave dead birds, animal skulls and bones on your front porch.
5. You will walk a mile into a beach, load up on rocks, and walk out with sweat pouring down your face.
6. You collect boxes to put your collections in.
7. You have rust in your hair.
8. Old junk looks like beautiful treasure to you.

Do you have any odd collections? What is your obsession?

Shadows, Dancing

Title: Edge of Light, acryic, collage, rice papers, clay crows

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light.
---Gary Snyder, How Poetry Comes to me



"Such is our way of thinking--we find beauty not in the thing itself but in the pattern of shadows, the light and darkness, that one thing against another creates." Jun"ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows


"The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty's end."
------- Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows

The Quebec Canada artist, Linda, whose work can be found here, uses delightful light and shadow to stage and compliment her imagery of text and books.
When new artists begin, they often see shadows as dark gray or black. As they develop their observations and gain insight they come to realize that shadows have color or reflected light. Something seems to be flickering and shimmering in the dim half light. As artists become more attuned to observing nature, and light, the mysteries and secrets of shadows are revealed. As an artist myself, who loves contrast and black and white, shadows can soften the edge between light and dark and be a transition. This "visible darkness" brings balance and harmony to the work. Do you lean towards the light, dwell in darkness, or dance in the shadows in between?

How to Read a Stone

Title: ZEN, acrylic, Japanese scroll, rice papers, metal

"Another fact of prime importance to remember is that, in order to comprehend the beauty of a Japanese garden, it is necessary to understand---or at least to learn to understand---the beauty of stones. Not of stones quarried by the hand of man, but of stones shaped by nature only. Until you can feel, and keenly feel, that stones have character, that stones have tones and values, the whole artistic meaning of a Japanese garden cannot be revealed to you."
--------------------Lafcadio Hearn, Writings from Japan



"When stones are moved and rearranged, they speak to other worlds."
-------------- Ellen Meloy, The Anthology of Turquoise

My aesthetics---what I like---extends beyond my studio. I don't think artists can separate themselves from their surroundings. In my search for my identity in my work, I look inside my closet. I look at my home decor, the books I read, and outside at my gardens. Like the elements in my paintings and assemblages, the stones, plants, and Buddha outside are planned and arranged until they are pleasing to my eye. The smooth stones may be stacked or flat, but they are an integral part of my gardens. A rock garden next to the pond creates harmony. Balance. Peace. Tranquility. Meditation.
Can you hear the waterfall splashing against the rocks above the koi? Your outer world reflects your inner world. My studio is where I do my work, but my gardens become my sanctuary and my inspiration. Where do you get your inspiration?

The Lone Crow, or Two

Painting is acrylic, and collage , with a small board attached to the wood support.

For the assemblage above, I found the Japanese wooden shrine at an antique store in Portland OR. The crow skull is a replica I found at EVOLUTION STORE, Soho, NYC. I added a sumi brush, Asian coin, bird's nest and eggs.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
----- from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
by Wallace Stevens

Loud. Noisy. Arrogant. Aggressive. People either love or hate the crow. Messenger. Mystery.
Symbol. Harbinger. Over the centuries, the crow has garnered a bad reputation. They have become a symbol of death or disease. Misunderstood. Myths. The sounds of smaller birds, with their tweets and chirps, sound melodic, soothing. The crows, with their loud "caw, caws" pierce the air. Even their color black can be harsh, a loud note on the snow, or grey pavement. I don't like the gang of crows. I prefer the lone crow, sitting on a branch of a leafless tree. The tree branches form calligraphy marks and the crow becomes a large black calligraphy note. Solitary. Quiet. Alone. I have always been drawn to bare, leafless trees. Or an empty chair at the end of a quiet path. Or a solitary bird on a branch or wire. I like contrast in my paintings. The black bird against the white sky, sitting on taupe branches---three of my favorite colors.
For those bird lovers out there, I know there are differences between crows and ravens, but for me, they are big, black shapes--the focal point on my canvas. There is a need for mindfulness as we go about our daily life in our urban wilderness. I look for textures, calligraphy, contrast.
What do you look for?


Ravensong, a Natural and Fabulous History of Ravens and Crows by Catherine Feher-Elston and illustrated by Lawrence Ormsby. This book is about the spiritual aspects of these birds along with myths and history. The illustrations are beautiful. You can find out more about the book here.