new addition: i got this neat little closer at a stationary store in melbourne. noelle brought me to fitzroy which is kind of the hipster-ville of melbs.
i went to the park on city hill in hopes of spotting some kangaroo, didn’t have much luck with that but tried out using charcoal on this silver fabric to capture the bushy texture of the trees.
used some silver ink with the ghost image of the trees on the page behind the fabric.
crowd sourced some sketches form folks at the bar.
these pages were side by side but went in different directions.
haven’t actually seen this one in real life but was way into the “flocked” texture of the kangaroo paw flower.
hours and hours of fun.
i tried to paint at the lake, but ended up getting run off by the aggressive swans. will post the video of that soon.
met this amazing artist in the loom room at ANU on the day i left canberra to go to melbourne. ilka white is based in melbourne and was only in canberra for the rest of the week. what a lovely chance meeting.
hello house reunion (from my tokyo days) in melbourne. greg was wearing a florida shirt in noey and my honor.
hello house pal-sourced memories of the night…..
and more….
…and more…specific content obscured so everyone can feel less silly…..
who’s luke?
melbourne has significantly different architecture then sydney or canberra. i’ve heard it referred to as the more european of australian cities. it was a beautiful town.
more testing to figure out how to treat the silver fabric in my book. this might be the answer.
spent a lot of time with this australian kitty.
impressions taken in a graffiti covered ally way off flinders street.
more leaves and feathers.
installation idea/impression of karst formations that have pushed their way out of the landscape.
first glimpsed these in the area aound janet deboos’ casa.
some diagrams on the plane back to canberra. i have a few more weeks of making and some of these australian experiences are starting to trickle out.
getting ready to fire up the alpine. i have an evaluation at the end of next week. lots of experiments in here, colored clays, feldspar inclusions and tessellating tiles. yay.
the last week has been kind of bananas. last friday i had pretty much run out of clay and took the opportunity to go to the clay store and get more, thinking i had another week of building ahead. that afternoon we had the monthly kiln meeting and i realized i had more like 3 days left. yikes!
wall collection.
i have amassed a pretty good collection of wall pieces for the installation i will mount before the end of my stay. i am using a mixture of local clays, both a smooth white and black shigaraki clay and a black clay with the ubiquitous feldspar inclusions. i am also using (sparingly) arita porcelain from kyushu.
tiny black and white trade pieces.
i have organized a mini- trade with the other residents. these are my little guys. see that fake grass under them? i found a whole case of 12″ x 12″ squares of it in the dumpster and might try to use it for something….
soon to be floor pieces.
floor pieces drying.
lightweight templates.
middle floor piece.
working here the last couple of weeks has been awesome! i love that all i have to do everyday is just eat, sleep and work. and being able to wake up and walk right to my studio pretty much rules.
i have been able to put everything else out of my mind and i’ve even had time to do some cooking. sometimes the residents get together to cook and eat. i invited everyone to share some nabe one evening and the other night everyone cooked something and shared, kind of like a potlock.
yumie working on her dish.
nabe night.
kimchi nabe.
potluck!
ok, maybe not everything else. i keep having dreams in which my kitties wonder off. it’s so weird. during the day i think “this is so wonderful i hope i can come back and stay longer some day” and at night my brain feels guilty or something. miss those little nerds:(
meal that another american artist and i threw together the other night.
i’m on a mission to learn some proper japanese cooking, this is my attempt at miso soup.
some in progress works, i think i will have a pretty substantial installation or these by the end…
saturday i headed out to kyoto with 2 of the other artists. i had seen some of these sites before (with parents, benny, masa) but despite the droves of us tourists they are still amazingly beautiful and great to see again.
kiyomizudera, i think that translates to pure water temple, but don’t hold me to it. you can, intriguingly, pay a couple hundred yen to take off your shoes, walk into the temple and into complete blackness (you have a rail to hold which leads you around), around a spiral and into a room with a large stone. if you place your hand on this stone you can make a wish. this dark place is considered the womb of the temple. 🙂
star leaves.
turtles.
shopping street.
meaghan, an artist from cali, with some maikos on the streets of kyoto.
shizuka, who is working at the togei no mori for a whole year, modeling a hat in a small shop.
kinkakuji, the golden temple.
ship shaped giant bonzai…
cool trees.
after the golden temple we went to another famous site, ryoenji, which is a temple and a zen rock garden. i didn’t take any pictures, because i was busy talking with shizuka about art and happiness. i hope to post pics and some discussion with several of the artists working at the togei no mori in this blog so keep an eye out.
making work, museum and wondering around the grounds. day two felt busy, but i also feel like i got a lot done. one of the other residents commented on how fast i was working and as those who share a studio with me in florida know, that doesn’t happen often!
some (almost) completed work.
heading back down to the studio.
view from star plaza (sculpture garden and panoramic view of the town)
some interesting mushrooms:)
the museum of contemporary ceramic art. the exhibition was really nice.
exhibition of modern and contemporary artists using clay. i.e. miro, picasso, and more contemporary artists like nara yoshitomo.
there is work installed everywhere you go. finally saw work by someone i have met.
halfway to the museum….
looking up the hill toward the industrial ceramics exhibition hall and the contemporary ceramic art museum.
yesterday i arrived in shigaraki japan where i will do a one month residency at the shigaraki ceramic cultural park.
after taking the shinkensen from tokyo to kyoto, i transferred to a local train and then to two buses. the bus ride was long and curvy, so i wanted to vomit a little but was eventually distracted by the amazing view out the window.
my view had been particularly beautiful for a good deal of my journey but soon after boarding the second bus i was literally awestruck. i am sure that these pictures, taken from my phone, through a rainy window, while the bus barreled upwards and around curves don’t do the scenery justice but my chin was on the floor. this might be the most breathtaking place i’ve ever been.
mountains! trees!
clouds
once i arrived at shigaraki, i was shown my room, introduced to the staff and several residents and taken to the grocery store to get provisions.
i unpacked my stuff, wondered around a little and in the evening there was a little welcome party. one of the women here is from the gunma prefecture and had several types of pork from her family’s farm.
meat! from kumie’s famliy.
amazing spread.
this morning i woke up early and met with the staff to discuss my clay needs.
serious business.
then we went off to the clay store, where i purchased some black clay, which you can see (ish) in the test tiles above.
everything everyone has said is completely true. it was totally overwhelming choosing clay. i haven’t been to the tool store yet but i’m planning to be blown away.
i’m really into the fact that there are entire stores dedicated to clay.
anyway, finally back to the studio and getting to work:)
this summer i will be spending a month in shigaraki, japan. i leave may 8 and will spend a week in tokyo seeing old friends. then down to shigaraki, where i’ll create some sculptures and an installation. i am really looking forward to it!
friday i checked out the first warphaus show of the semester. galen olmsted’s installation of ceramic components seems to be taking over the gallery, generating out of the floor and toppling anything in the way. i love the wall of storage containers hemming in the uncontrolled ceramic material. they give you a clue as to where everything may have come from and, should someone try, where the bedlam may be contained.
school is in full effect and it was a great first week back. i’m really amped about all my classes. they are all studio courses (ceramics seminar, sculpture seminar and performance and installation a.k.a. intervention).
i had a great meeting with my professor to talk about my research plan for the semester. as mentioned earlier i’m planning to tackle philosophy of aesthetics and beauty. i also plan to explore the idea of wonder and how it relates to art and science. i’m getting really excited to read about what all of these great thinkers believe and eventually be able to articulate my own position.
for my intervention course i’m going to be working collaboratively on several projects, one of which we hope to be able to share with people at nceca…..will keep you posted.
as for sculpture seminar, which is focusing on relational aesthetics, i’m not sure quite what i’ll be tackling. i’m interested in challenging myself to work outside of the ceramic medium and….. i signed up for a february 1st crit so…….i’m going to get cracking!
