The Canvas Project

Imitate

My most recent project is working on 5 mini canvases (3" x 3") from the Art House Coop. (Click on the link to see my portfolio.) Hopefully one of my canvases will be displayed amongst hundreds of other artists' works at the Atlanta Airport from the end of July through the beginning of September. If you happen to be there, look out of me!

The project's instructions were to make anything, based on 5 words that were chosen randomly for me.

Argentum

Wild

Savant

Shimmer

Honestly, I sat on these for about 3 months totally stuck on the concept. Then it hit me - I should do them the way I always do my art. My art is based on plants, people, bright colours, and layering paper. After that, the rest came quickly.

Am I happy with them? Yes. Because I made them without overthinking, they are a good representation of what I do. And this is significant for me! I've spent such a long time trying to figure out what is me.

My favourite one is Savant. I like to think of people as having a garden in their minds. Some have very simple straight connecting branches that rarely change. While others have a constantly growing tangled mess, which yield some thorns and some flowers.

Finding Balance

I play taiko AND make things out of paper. Lately, I've been mostly on taiko and finding my balance tipping... Makes me tippy, whatever that means.

Back to art!

Don't forget your mothers!

My mom is kooky, but I love her. For all of you who grew up having to navigate through two cultures at once, check out My Mom is a Fob. You will cry with laughter.

A lot of my art style comes from mom. She used to drive me crazy because she couldn't throw anything away in her insistence it could be repurposed. And more than large expensive things, she could always find pleasure in small things. Flowers, especially.

"Now we see young green
and buds of magnoria and other flowers.
pray for the pig desease problem.quickly.
see you soon.!!!!"








Happy Mother's Day! I miss you.

An Average Yurika

Sometimes people ask me how I stay inspired and motivated to keep on creating. Part of it is that I can't help it. Part of it is that I'm selfish and somewhat lazy...

When I'm not in the mood to create, I don't. I used to get frustrated that ideas wouldn't come to me when I wanted them to, but now I go and do something else and consider that time "incubation time." My brain is working on the problem, indirectly and at some point something inevitably comes of it.

I also like to work while I can watch a movie or listen to music or talk on the phone. Somehow, distracting my conscious mind from the art project makes my hands do the work on their own. For the times when I get really stuck, I have a note stuck to my lamp that says, "WHEN STUCK, GO BACK TO MATERIALS." I have been collecting materials for many years (yes, many people would call it bins of junk) and when I go and look at them, I usually get an idea.



I've been making cards for many many years. And I think that over the years it's really been about finding out what my style is, finding out more about ME though creating. I know what I like to make, I know what my body is good at making. I know what I can't do, so I don't force those things, though I am always trying to learn at the same time.





It's really the same with taiko, especially when it comes to soloing. There are still rules to follow and I know what they are and am continually trying to improve. BUT, there comes a point when you need to know who you are musically, to develop beyond...

So I keep plugging away, chugging away, gluing and playing and trying to enjoy the ride.

"Sculpture is like farming. If you keep at it, you can get quite a lot done." - Ruth Asawa

Learning and Relearning from Myself

I'm participating in "The Canvas Project: Volume 2" put on by the Art House Gallery. I'm trying to figure out what my style is.

Looking through old sketchbooks...






"Creativity... is starting with something that moves you aesthetically, a visual attraction and deciding to capture something about it and then allowing yourself to take chances with the medium and style pushing together what feels good and right and trying new things that feel different and scary and taking into consideration the dissonances unil you decide on something that you like and decide that is what defines your style and not caring that other people may not understand or like your style. Creativity = liberation!"

Sometimes I am amazed at how forgetful I am. I've already been through this before!

You can inspire yourself.

This is Not a Valentine's Day Post

Yes it is. I'm a sappy sucker for romance.

Probably because I learned everything I knew about "love" from tv and movies. My parents had an arranged marriage and never showed each other affection. I doubted that they even liked each other for a long long time.

For a short while, I lived up in Guerneville, California - a quirky resort town deep in the redwoods. I worked at a pizzeria called Main St. Station, where they played live jazz music every night. One of their regular musicians, Niles, was a tree cutter by day and double-bassist by night. His girlfriend Tamara would come and listen, almost everytime he played. I was inspired, watching their passion fuel the music and the music fuel their passion...

I hope they are still there, together.

In Japan, PDA (public displays of affection) are not so common - at least when I was there. Friends - even family - don't hug after a long time of not seeing each other. And you never see an older couple touching. Maybe that's why I really don't mind PDA, I think it's rather great. Heck, I think we all need to see it. Young, old, gay, straight, mixed race couples... It happens.


"Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquestionable." - Bruce Lee

My Mother, Guest Artist

"From Alice, California mini avocado," Reiko Chiba, January 19, 2009


Ten years ago, I wrote this in my notebook...

Mom's Dream: Mom wanted to be an artist up until she was in grade 3. As a child, she and her sisters would often sit on the verandah and draw pictures of little girls in dresses - much like themselves - to send to their father who was far away in China.

In grade 3, the education system in Japan changed. There was a profound insecurity about the Japanese way of doing things. Teachers and students believed that the educations sytem was flawed and made deliberate efforts to learn from other countries. Before, art class had consisted of drawing and colouring, then after the war elementary school students suddenly lost their outlet for creative expression.

To my mother, who loved to draw, this meant giving up her own scribbling in favour of learning from others. She'd spend hours copying works of art from art books and became quite good at it. But through this development of skill, she lost her interest in becoming an artist.



At the time, I was reading a book called, "Finding Your Perfect Work." It made me curious about other people's dreams, so I interviewed my mother. She paints beautiful watercolours and used to tell me when I was little that she once wanted to be an artist. I needed to find out more.

It made me curious about my own dreams, though they seem to change daily still...


("Wagamama," 2000)

"When I get goosebumps from an idea or possibility, I know I better proceed that way."
- Rusty Berkus, poet

Yellow Flowers

We are dust and to dust return.

In the end we're

neither air, nor fire, nor water.

just

dirt,

neither more nor less, just dirt

and maybe

some yellow flowers.

(From "Ode to Some Yellow Flowers," by Pablo Neruda)

Winter

It's December and sunny in California. But that doesn't matter, I still want to hibernate...


I walked down 7th street the other day and saw the pomegranates squished on the pavement. Splat. That's how I've been feeling lately. My body is unreliable.





My friend Laura reminded me years ago, that the fruit falls off for a reason. And that it's not a waste... It's to rot, then nourish the roots of the tree so that it can live through the winter and get on with its cycle.


And do the same thing again next year, hopefully a little taller and a little stronger.

Ode to Tomatoes

Pablo Neruda is one of my favourite poets. He wrote lots of odes to vegetables! (Even one about artichokes.) Here's an excerpt from "Ode to Tomatoes."

the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

And his Love poetry! Oy, if you have time, read his love sonnets sometime...


(From "Love Sonnet LXXIX")