アトリエプティ

I had the opportunity to visit Gaston Petit's Atelier. Petit is a Canadian artist and Dominican who has been living in Japan for over 50 years. He used to run a print studio in Tokyo, now transformed into a personal painting studio.

I was amazed at not only the sheer volume of work he has created, but the use of many different materials and styles.

As an artist, one sometimes worries about how your pieces will look together in a show. For me, I often worry about whether I can show my lithographs and linocuts together. People often comment on how different they are, which is true, but it is not something I want to feel restricted by. It was really inspiring to see someone, who over half a century, has been freely creating what they want, with whatever technique they feel like.

Maybe I need to experiment more.

Graduation exhibition

Not mine, I still have a year to go in my program.

The graduation exhibition will be held on Jan 29 - Feb 3 at Tokyo University of the Arts. I can't wait to go see what my graduating friends have created :)

芸大の卒業・終了作品展で沢山のすばらしい作品を見るのを楽しみ！！

burgers

I realize that hamburgers and ice cream are about as far away as you can get from original subject matter... but I just can't help myself!!!

I am using part of my vacation time to have some fun and work on some silly prints without any expectations. Sometimes if you expect too much out of a work, you forget that making art can actually be enjoyable.

ありがとう

今日大タネ蒔き展が終わりました。

展示にお越しいただいた方、本当にありがとうございました。

宜しくお願いします。

Food Porn

I have been thinking a lot about the idea of food porn recently. Salivating over photos of delicious looking food, making ridiculous food creations for others to salivate over. I am also interested in this insatiable feeling that is often a part of "food porn", making things bigger, bigger, bigger with more cheese, more bacon, more mayo... what is so enthralling for people (myself included) about incredibly unhealthy food?

It leaves me with very mixed feelings, fascinated and repulsed at the same time.

最近「フードポルノ」ということはすごく面白いと思います。日本語に訳すと意味が変わるかもしれないけど、よだれがでるほどおいしそう食べ物の写真やビデオのことなんです。

信じられないぐらいのでかい食べ物が次々にインタネットやテレビの画面に映して、複雑な気持ちになります。

Holidays

As of today I am on holiday, locked out of the studio until April.

Alas, what shall I do?

Well, I will try my best to keep drawing, going to art shows, studying and planning for my 終了制作 (graduation work)

This is my newest piece which I am currently sewing and drawing overtop of a 4 colour lithograph. I printed an edition of 6 of just the lithograph, but this one I hope to turn into something extra special!

Hard at work

Being a first year master's student means you have to do all the dirty work for the year. Today we were printing the works that will be given to the graduating students next month. 10 hours of straight printing and still not done... exhausting!

It was, however, fun to print intaglio for the first time in many years.

Museums

Today I went to see an exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. I was talking about a certain piece with some other people when we were asked to keep it down.

It got me to thinking what exactly is wrong about discussing the works that you are seeing?

Art should be more accessible and creating a completely silent and sterile environment is not helping. For me, being able to share ideas while at a museum is an important part of enjoying art.

We are coming to the end of our weeklong new year's holiday and I have spent a good part of it at home working on my next piece. I am a bit worried that due to the time I have spent drawing this plate, it might pick up dirt and have problems during processing but I am keeping my fingers crossed. Here are a few in progress shots

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I will start off 2012 by participating in a group show of small works.

I will be showing 10 new prints, lithography, linocut and sewing, in an exhibition of drawings, prints and sculptures by young artists working in Japan.

The exhibition will run from Jan 12 - 21, 2012 at Art Space Rashinban.

Please come out for the opening reception on Jan 12th from 6 pm.