Natural Traces

Discovery, 随想

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今日、近所のグロッサリーに紙コップと紙皿を買いに出かけて、歩いていたらこんな素敵な発見。

落ち葉が、コンクリートの上に跡を残していた。

連日の雨が、ウォーターカラーのような、淡墨画のような柔らかい水のにじみをつくりだして

家に帰って来て、使い古しのキャンバスを真っ白に塗った。

自然の足跡に、美術館では見られない素朴な美を魅せられた。

*

Fallen autumn leaves left traces on the concrete sidewalk.

It was on the way to the grocery store near my studio; I found it just under my foot.

The recent rain created an effect on this nature's stencil, that resembles watercolor or sumi-e.

Inspired by this little discovery, I came home and painted my old canvas in white to start it over.

True beauty resides in nature - something that you cannot find in a museum.

fallen leaves

fallen traces

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WONDER-FULL SF.

Events, Music

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Oh so long for this night I prayed
That a star would guide you my way
To share with me this special day
Where a ribbon's in the sky for our love...

I love listening to Stevie's voice that beautifully flows with the clear sound of piano, especially in the car when I drive to cross the Bay Bridge. If the sky is blue, with this melody the sky looks more blue..

I was waiting for this day: Stevie Wonder Tribute: WONDER-FULL SF @ Mezzanine, December 14, 2009.

wonderfull_mezzanine

bobbito

spinna

wonder-full_sm

It has been raining in San Francisco these days.  Although it was raining so hard this Saturday, Mezzanine was packed - people gather to where good music is, no matter how sadly the sky cries.

I had wonderful weekend thanks to DJ Spinna & Bobbito.  They were having another party at SOM the next day, so I stopped by after the work at gallery & party at Kevin Taylor's studio (←this was wonderfull too!).   I was dancing dancing dancing for two nights in a row.  They've got vibes, grooves!! Ah.

Music makes me cry.

"Stevie didn't have to see to believe. All you have to do is listen to believe."

Yes.

It reminded me of what Bill Withers said in his documentary film, which I saw recently at the film screenings at Poleng Lounge.  Bill was making a song with an blind musician, and he said to him:

"You are disabled in one thing, but you are enabled in so many other things."

It is so true.  Half full, or half empty.

*

Right now my brain is occupied by this song: "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John.  How can I get away from this??

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Art Basel Miami Beach 09 [Day2] – Aqua Art / Fountain

Art Shows, Events, Travel

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Our 2nd day in Miami started a little late than we scheduled.  My body was crying and screaming because of the busy schedule from the first day, but the mild weather of Miami beach was soothing and refreshing.  No need for jackets or scarfs, just throw a tank-top and dress on you, and you'll be fine.  Awesome, Miami...

First we decided to visit Aqua Wynwood, where two of my travel mates had their art works exhibited.

AQUA ART (http://www.aquaartmiami.com/)

Aqua Art is one of the big art fairs at Art Basel.  Participants are 50 galleries from cities like New York, Boston, Miami, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Osaka, ans so on.  Each gallery gets their own booth to exhibit art works and promote up-and-coming artists.

Aqua Floor Map

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aquaart_banner

aqua_entrance3

whitewalls

whitewall_booth

whitewalls2

I headed to Thinkspace, where Brett had his pieces exhibited.  Thinkspace is a contemporary art gallery from Los Angeles.

thinkspace_brett

brett_thinkspace

"Waiting #47" by Brett Amory

I love these two pieces.  I love they way he uses colors..

Brin also had his works exhibited at Aqua. Brin makes bronze sculpture and designs toys and figures for artists such as Mars-1 and Ron English.

Brin_sculpture

Brin_bronze

Brin_banana

I was also able to meet and talk with Ted Lincoln, who uses sumi-ink in his art works.  Since he uses similar ink and method in his creative process, I was interested in his works for a while - I saw his pieces at 111Minna a while ago, and they were so beautiful.  He used to live in San Francisco, but now he moved back to his hometown in Florida and owns a larger studio.

ted_lincoln

As I kept exploring, I found Gallery Edel from Osaka, which was the only one gallery from Japan at Aqua.  They had Yayoi Kusama's piece at the front, obviously caught my attention immediately.  The gallerists got their unique "osaka" style humor in the conversation and I enjoyed contemporary Japanese art.

Edel

And I kept exploring...

bitsbybits

colordrips

glass_art

glass_red

dots

paint_floor

alphabets

light_ladder

sinkingguy

I love this.

ijime

light_installation

black

goldpanels

FromEdel

Gallary representatives from Edel Gallery, Osaka. おつかれさまです。Now you guys can party!

After spending three hours at Aqua Wynwood, we rented a car near the Miami Airport, and stopped by California Pizza Kitchen for the dinner.  Oh no we didn't plan to go there, we just randomly stumbled upon CPK... I, of course, felt so funny about us having a dinner at CPK although we are in Miami.  I remember that all the menus were a little expensive than CPK in California.  We didn't care anything at this point, since this trip has been troublesome for all of us...

brett_brin

julianne_pizzakitchen

"Waiting for my BBQ chicken salad!!"

Fountain (http://www.fountainexhibit.com/)

We drove back to Wynwood area to check out Fountain.  The loud sound of the live band performance at the outdoor area induced us to get in, as a flux of people pushed me into the party crowd regardlessly.

WynwoodFlag

Fountain Entrance

fountain_title

Fountain00

Fountain0

boxset

silkscreen

Live silkscreening demo.  It's huge!

fountain2

fountain

tire

flippinhhole

scratch

Colors

We got lost on the way back to where we parked, then suddenly we found El Mac's gigantic mural in a deserted area.  Breathtaking.  Look at Brin at the bottom - now you can see how big this is.

elmac_mural

ElMac2

I wanna do this in Japanese calligraphy version..

Back to South Beach, Beach Paradise Hotel.

aoi_talking

This is the last photo of me with my Sony Erricsson phone.  At this point, I didn't know that my phone will be stolen at the beach after this fun conversation with my friend who missed Art Basel...

*

Hanging out at the beach all night, everything started to seem like a fairy tale in a well-made dream.  Art Basel in a summer-like breeze took me out to a paradise, far, far away from cold rain in San Francisco.  With this view, you'll be speechless; nothing can be more eloquent to describe this moment than just feeling it.

miamibeach_sunrise

Floating house on the sea water.  This was part of installation for Art Basel, which I was not aware of.. With the marmalade sunrise as a background, it's so beautiful that does not even look like it's real... it is almost like a painting.

sunrise_four

To be continued...

You can view more pictures on my flickr.

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Art Basel Miami Beach 09 [Day1] – Wynwood

Art Shows, Travel

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Wednesday, December 3rd, 2009 12:25am.

Julianne Yates, Brett Amory and I departed from SFO, excited with our first trip to Miami and this America's largest art fair, ART BASEL.  I wasn't able to manage buying a new bikinis (simply we run out of time), but I was so excited to experience new vibes, meet people, get inspired by art, and relax in the tropical weather in Winter time, which I've never experienced in my life.

Rubbing our red eyes, three of us fell a sleep soon after the plane took off.

bordingpass

julianne_camera

texas_diamonds

We changed our plane at Texas, Dallas.  Diamond night view of Texas from the sky...

MIA

MIA! Already filled with tropical feeling!

fromwindshield

We stayed at a hotel called "Beach Paradise Hotel" on Ocean Dr. Brin Berliner, another travel mate, has checked in the hotel room already, taking a nap to store some energy for this adventure later on that night.

OceanDr2

ocean_dr

miamistreet

South Beach.

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SouthBeach
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seawater

Our journey has begun.

Wynwood Walls: A collaboration between Deitch Projects & Goldman Properties

wynwood_artists

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mural5

aiko

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BarryMcGee

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YONE

I randomly met Yone, a Japanese photographer from Cexwork.  He was with his wife, strolling around the Wynwood area.  I was able to talk with him about how the Japanese art scene is so closed-minded and does not allow young artists to create something new without worrying about public image - "People are stiff.  Everything is done for money, and people just copy each other.  That is why nothing new grows in Japan right now", Yone said...

"Stages"

stages_outside

stages_artists

tree1

stages_bike

pettibon

Raymond Pettibon's piece.

I was surprised to see how famous Yoshitomo Nara, and Yayoi Kusama are besides Takashi Murakami in the United States.  They definitely redefined Japanese aesthetic in contemporary art scene, not only in Japan but also in foreign countries.  Their works are undeniably striking, but totally evolved from traditional Japanese aesthetics - they are something new.  As a Japanese calligrapher, I aim to preserve traditional aesthetics and skills and at the same time break the boundary of strict rules and old-fashioned practices.  If people begin to forget where we came from, and just look at the future... I wonder where Neo-Japan is heading to.

STAGES became one of my memorable places of this trip, and even of my life...

MaxFish
MaxFish, a hip & punk bar/art gallery in Lower East Side, NYC, installed their interior & exterior decorations in a space temporarily for Art Basel: art installations on the wall, illuminating bar, Jaccuzi Boys' live performance, outside space, paint dripping on the exterior.  It was lovely to mingle with people from all over the country.

MaxFish

maxfish_wall

To be continued..

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ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH ’09

Art Shows, Events, Travel

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このアパートの303号室に移り住んで、もう3ヶ月にもなるというのに、階段をいつも上りすぎたりもう一階足りなかったりする碧生です。
気づいたら屋上の階まで上ってたり、ここが3階だろうと思って部屋の前で鍵を差し込もうとしたら202だったり、、、
毎回、「は!!またやっちゃった」って独り言を漏らし、いそいそと本来の階を目指します。

…なんでだろう!?

そんなあたしですが、今夜の夜中1225am発の便で、マイアミへ行って参ります!

Picture 8

Miamiは人生初なので、もう気分はビーチ!カクテル!アート!セレブ!な盛り上がりをみせ、昨夜はなんと朝の6時までGallery HeistでJulianneとプロモーションマテリアルの準備。あたしは延々とwebsiteの更新。うちら二人で、謎にめっちゃ盛り上がってました。笑 アーティストのBrett AmoryとJulianneと3人で、Gallery Heist引っさげて出陣してきます。

このArt Basel、全米で最も大きなアートフェスで、ギャラリーというギャラリー、デザインファーム、ミュージシャンなどが全国、そして海外からも集まって盛大に開かれる末恐ろしい規模のイベントなのです。東京からもいくつか参加しているギャラリーを一覧で発見しました。

Heist一行は、主にAQUA ARTを目指して行きます。

Picture 9

↑あたしめっちゃ眠そう。。。

こんなビデオを夜な夜な作って二人できゃっきゃ言ってました
あたしもまだまだ若いみたいです 笑

冬にビキニを探しに行こうとしているのもある意味人生初かもしれません。考えてみたら、冬に暑いところに行ったことがなかった。さすが道産子。
でも天気はどうやら雨&雨&嵐&ときどき晴れらしくちょっと凹みますが、そんなことは関係なし!
いざゆかんMiami!
Miami is waiting for me!!!

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