D Minus 31 Days

I'm leaving Japan on September 17, arriving back home in Nelson on the 18th. The South Island had better stop shaking by then; Nelson hasn't been affected much in the recent shakes, but Seddon (part of Marlborough) and Wellington have been, a little. And not around here in Yokohama, but yes further north.

I've tried to keep myself busy, weaving when it's tolerably hot (i.e. cooler than, say 32C?) in the mornings and up to a couple of hours. I've also dabbled in dying, using up Mom's gazillion dye stuff and scrap/leftover fabric. The first batch came out a fabulous indigo by mixing three partly-used Dylon tins, (more saturated than in this pic;) alas a color never to be repeated. The second lot, I mixed two blues and one green, hoping this, too, would turn out indigo-y but it was much greener. Most of these, I've twisted the fabric using chopsticks or rubber bands; instant, painless, but kind of fun.

The one with the visible pattern was "natural" color with translucent check and floral print; I've always been interested in dyeing fabric with visual interest already, e.g. embroidery, nearly-invisible print, or different fiber contents, and this one worked well. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all these scraps; I'll take them home and will make something; these are cold-dyed with fixative, left outside in the sun/heat in a metal urn for a day, and rinsed, rinsed, rinsed, but not exactly color-fast. 

I've been stitching one piece of fabric for a while, (handwoven undyed Indian cotton check; stitching is a slow process, isn't it?). I want to dye it, take out/add stitching and dye again, and apply perhaps three colors. I'm not sure how it'll work out, but I'm trying not to plan/predict much and just work, as with my collage postcards. There is also a hand-woven plain Indian cotton shawl Mom was going to throw away; I saved this, too, but because stitching takes so long, I think I'll go with twist-dye.

I've been avoiding the "Cubism" conundrum. I have to go to Session 4 tomorrow, and I'm not sure what I'll do; I'll have to look over my notes and do some more practice tonight...

I went to a couple of interesting "art"/architecture places. The first is Maruki Gallery, of which I had never head until I learned of the Yamamoto Sakubei exhibition. It was out in the boondocks and with one big and one minor train accidents en route it took me six hours. But Marukis' anti-war (not just Hiroshima) paintings were SO big and impressive. I didn't like the horribly dark, (both visually and in theme,) Hiroshima panels, but sat with The Rape of Nanjing (right top) and Auschwitz/Oświęcim (second from the top) for a while; both had some colors and "space" where the eyes could rest rather than just be bombarded by painful images.

Yamamoto's coal mine paintings were registered as UNESCO Memory of the World a while ago; I only heard of Yamamoto a month ago. His work, along with several other painters and photographers, were more like picture records, brightly colored paintings/illustrations with descriptions of the mining process, equipment, social context, etc. He painted the same scenes over and over to improve the text and graphics. I've recorded a doco on Yamamoto I haven't watched, but I'm not sure if he considered himself an artist; I get the feeling he saw himself, a former miner, more as a witness.

I also went to this architecture park. A few years ago when Ben and I went to this museum, I found a postcard of House W7 to my surprise; it was just one of the many houses I walked past every morning on my way to school in the 60's and 70's. I love architecture parks, (Meiji Village is the most famous in Japan - I went there in the mid-90's,) and in the scorching sun I walked around and went into every house we're allowed to, for four hours. Not a lot of pics, I'm afraid; it was really hot and terrible, but here are a couple of storage solutions used in a stationary shop from the 1870's.

 

And the inside of a rebuilt public bath, the women's side. Mt Fuji is always on the men's side!

I've been reading about van Gogh. I got one version of his letters, in Japanese, but I found another, newer translation, and will probably get it before I leave. Then, at the architecture park, what did I find?

An exhibition in Hiroshima, 52 works, from his "missing" Paris years. Goodness, Hiroshima is, oh, perhaps five hours away from my house and Ben and I didn't go into the van Gogh Museum when we were in Amsterdam a decade ago because we were flabbergasted by the admission fee translated into NZ$. It was probably less than a round-trip Bullet train fair and one night's accommodation, but I'm going; it's less expensive than going to Amsterdam after the museum's refurbishment.

I'm a Verb?

Since the Last Post - Part II - Revised

I went to a workshop which was supposed to be about watercolor pencils techniques. We learned two: draw-then-wash and wash-then-draw, and the remainder of the time was spent drawing still-life-on-bad-tablecloth in that fiddly, fussy, color pencil way. Yikes. I could have asked for help; the teacher was a lovely young chap, but I didn't know what to ask. I did spot his brush that contained oh-so-much water, though, and proceeded to the art supply shop to get one; I can justify it because we do washes in Ronette's class.

Meguro Art Gallery, a small Tokyo public place Ben and I fell in love with in November 2011, had another small but worthwhile exhibition on paper and shapes, which I enjoyed; I also found out about a calculated and folded paper exhibition, (in the vogue now, yes?) now on my list.

I went to another small gallery, Matsuoka, for supposedly a small Impressionist exhibition; this was ho-hum for me; too few artists represented, (almost) all landscapes in dark colors, blah blah, but there was an unfinished Monet that had a few colors of undercoat in shapes which we could see would have turned into sea/sky/cloud/cliff/trees. Their Vessels and Shapes Permanent Collection exhibition was more interesting and I was attracted to the old Persian ware.


I've received some kind emails about my collage postcards from some of the recipients. They are simple and unplanned and I'm not sure what I'm doing but then I don't worry about them, either. I usually work on them in two sittings, then look over each one on the third and either address them right away or work a tiny bit more then send them. Most have no themes or messages, but once in a while something pops up.

There seems to be a problem with the glues I've tried, so I got this gel medium, but I've never used these and the art supply shop manager warned me this is sticky. Yikes.

And the rest of the time, I've been working on and worrying about my Cubism class project. Now I've got to go look at my notes to see what's what there.

* * * * *

Forgot to tell you I went to another session of figure drawing croquis on Monday. I still love the class format: the model poses, we draw, and in 150 minutes class time, we get 120 minutes, (4 * 20 min, 2 * 10 min, and 4 * 5 min,) of drawing time, with one 20 min break. The teacher is groovy, but he's gung-ho on us drawing proportionately and accurately; he actually told one student she's just "making things up," so I'm glad I didn't sign up for the weekly class. Still might go one more time on the first Monday in September.

See what I mean? It's so wrong when drawing after drawing I get from head to toes on one sheet of relatively small, (called F6 around here,) paper, though he did catch me reluctant to draw the head with this model.

Since the Last Post - Part I

By which I mean, since the second last post... But in no particular order...

Ben had a gum infection which first manifested itself as a headache, near-40C fever and shakes on the weekend. Luckily, his gum was inflamed by Monday morning so he went straight to the dentist, who prescribed him a five-day course of two antibiotics. (I've never two at once; you?) Things were iffy until yesterday afternoon but today he says he's well, and is back at work. Phew. If it's true.

I finished my two navy pieces and dislike them. The main reason is the bad warp tension, which I was aware of winding and rewinding thrice on the soft loom sans a raddle with various ad hoc, not-so innovative tension systems. I wind back-to-front at home, originally because of how the looms are set up and where the space is in the workshop, but now out of habit, but I never realized how much I owe the humble tool that is the raddle. I've been genuflecting in my mind ever since.

Because of the inconsistent warp tension, I wove the two pieces under much lower tension than I normally would, (same cashmere yarns and the same EPI as home), and beat much lighter. All this, mixed with the drafts I concocted, (shafts lifted come in clusters, so greater draw-in,) resulted in selvages no self-respecting weaver would photograph or post; warped, "un-true" appearance of the squares of the design, and, get this, an staggeringly soft and airy hand that should come with all of my cashmere pieces. The teal weft is a much thicker cashmere, (I daresay of inferior quality to their other yarns,) which wove quickly and added heft; the contrast in the sheen in the blue cashmere and white cash/silk worked well. I'm trying to figure out how to keep this hand, while weaving unwobbly-ly (??) on my looms in the future.

 I wanted to weave another with the Mame/Pea Shibori draft, so I tied my next, white, warp and am weaving with a light gray warp. My kind of combo. Plus, tying-winding gave the warp more even tension, so this one is weaving more quickly and evenly so far. I shall rethread to weave the Snowflake draft after this. 

* * * * *

Forgive me, friends, It's been thirteen days since my second last post, and in that time I didn't weave or get involved with weaving much. And I blame the Cubism class, but more on that in another post as I have to figure out what I have learned and how to describe it/them.

I have been to a few exhibits and floor talks, read two books, and studied several artists' paintings in some details, (i.e. better than just glancing,) thanks to Amazon.co.jp's used book section.

By far the best, and so unexpectedly good, exhibition has been the Surrealism exhibition at Sompo Japan/Togo Seiji Art Museum. This museum was founded when Togo Seiji donated all his artwork before his death, which numbered over 800. Togo was famous in Japan in his lifetime, among other things for his female figures used in packaging for a Yokohama bakery, (the current one is "sharper" with more hues than the wrapping paper I collected in the 60's,) and later for his leadership in the Japanese art (painting) community. Sompo Japan, an insurance company, made world (art) news when they bought one of the Sunflowers in 1987/8 and this is what I wanted to see, but here, you have to go into the "main" exhibition at the end of which are their small permanent collection room. (Not sure why they don't show more of Togo Seiji paintings.)

So, Surrealism. Dali. Yikes. But their admission isn't expensive. I'll live. I thought.

I think Sompo aims to interest the young without patronizing them. The exhibition was organized by techniques used in the first instance, and by clusters of friends and regions in the second and the  blurbs on the walls were intelligent, informative, but not overlong. I was surprised how many Surrealist names I recognized, (Japan loves Impressionism, but we must, Surrealism, as well;) most pleased most of the artwork were owned by smaller regional galleries in this country, and that they had only one Dali as far as I can recall. It wasn't a big exhibition, but I spent two hours reading everything and trying to understand.

And then I sat and gazed at the Sunflowers for three-quarters of an hour. I don't know what it is about Vincent van Gogh's paintings, but I'm now "getting" that one can sit in front of one and be transported to an unknown place. There was a Gauguin and a Cézanne, too; Gauguin looked good from some distance; Cézanne was too dark and sad.

I was hoping to go see a fashion award exhibit near Sompo, but ran out of time and so I ran through the underground passages to get on the metro and get to 21_21 for a lecture.  It was supposed to be about colors, but in fact, was about how Vincent admired and copied Millet. Perfect for me; I jumped up and down in my mind. Coincidentally I had been reading a less convincing book on how Vincent admired Rembrandt and tried to "reveal the soul in self-portraits, like the older master, using different techniques." The author is a literature specialist first, and then a writer on Rembrandt, so I can't help feeling a bit suspicious he used the Dutch link to sell books. Old Vince has always been tremendously popular in Japan.

The third time I went to 21_21 was with Mom and two of her students, to hear Dai Fujiwara speak. He appeared to be a lovely, energetic man, but this was a exhibit tour, and having seen it in detail twice already, I didn't learn a whole lot of new or background stories. Still, it was lovely to be in the presence of the man who brought so many different techniques and people together. He stuck around for quite a while afterwards, but I was too chicken to speak to him. I couldn't think of anything. And I didn't want to ask a question for the sake of asking questions, you know.

He's very animated, the venue was dark, and I'm short. LOL. 

Everybody Needs a Fish Purse

Especially during a hot, humid summer.

Though you don't have to don a wavy blue top and navy shoes, just for me, like this young woman.

I haven't been too slack, all things considered, but have been too hot and bothered to stay near a laptop for long. I promise I shall update you soon, more for my record than for your weaverly interest, about a bad warp done, another one started, and all the funny goings-on in the new faux-Cubism universe.For now, I'm off to draw more naked ladies, though on days like this, naked is not a bad idea.

Une esquisse

Another new word I learned in class: a practice, a plan, a dry run, of art work; this time I sensed its meaning, but I wondered if the word pointed to a particular style of preparation. In Japan, music is taught using Italian and German phrases/words, learn to sing a lot of Scottish songs and art and fashion is taught in French.

Let's see, today is... Thursday. What have I been up to?

Last Saturday, I went to a concert in which my lovely sister-in-law played the violin. I don't like the sound of violin and I was reluctant to go in the morning, but listening to it live, sitting near the stage, changed my perception. I really loved some of the music, and I got to observe the expressions on the players. Lovely.

Mom and I also went to a tiny trade fair where we got to see some lovely Indian textiles from all regions and of all styles. Mom made friends with the young Indian fellow who is married to a Japanese and lives in Kyoto, and she was excited about his merchandises, (too expensive for us to buy, of course,) but I couldn't wait to get away because I didn't want my experience at the concert to be diluted. (The man talked a mile a second and tried so hard to sell.) 

On Sunday, I went to the second session of Cubism painting. This is my teacher, Mr Kanamori's website. His classes are great fun, and he's such a personable man, but I had an easier time coming to terms with this multiple perspectives thing the first time around. I now have to do a painting in two or three sessions; I'm not worried I won't be able to complete it, but the perspectives puzzled me more this time.

I wanted to work on a self-portrait, but I didn't tell him that, so he suggested a still life; it being the day after my sister-in-law's concert, I wanted to work on the violin set, (and the wine was from Marlborough, down the road from Nelson,)

but I didn't tell him that, either, so he picked... this one.

He said the interest would be the box and its contents. Yikes, too many things. I've been reading up about Cubism online, and looking mostly at Braque's and Juan Gris' paintings and collages, and I like them much more than I expected, but I haven't been able to connect the "looking" to "doing/working". So, more to do there.

I've been weaving the navy warp; I finished "Buttons" and will finish "Mame/Pea Shibori" today if Mom vacates a table like she said she will; it's 2PM and she's still writing out her shopping list in her PJs, so not likely. Maybe tomorrow.

On Tuesday I went to a local high school baseball game; it turned out one of the schools is one near my house, and the other, one of my nephew's. The previous day they tied up to the 15th inning so they had a rematch; it was a great game but my "local" school lost. I like baseball, but I think I adore Japanese high school-style cheering. I wanted to go to a small stadium so it didn't matter which schools played, and I wanted to sit on the grass; it started out as a terribly hot, sunny and humid day so I sat in under the roof instead; good thing, too, as twice we were interrupted by rain, the second time for nearly half an hour under torrential rain and thunder. Lovely.

Then I went to Pushkin French Paintings exhibition; I couldn't be bothered by three-quarter of the 60-plus paintings, but, boy, did I love the section where painting became interesting and personal: Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, and a few others.

As I've said  before, I disliked Vincent, (and Rothko and Mondrian,) with a passion most of my life; now I can't stop reading about Vincent, and Rothko. Tuesday was the first time I stood in front of his painting and I was memorized; I stood, without thinking or analyzing, for a very long time, just looking. There were two lovely Gogan, some nice Cezanne and Renoir, a Lautrec, et al, but Vincent was the best. By a country mile. (Go down about half way here, and click on the thumbnails of some of the paintings.)

I was in the Pushkin exhibition until 15 minutes before closing, and ran through their permanent collections, by which I was pleasantly impressed, again, (among others, several Magritte,) and I intend to revisit. I am going to see another of Vincent's paintings in Tokyo, I hope, on Saturday.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I was going to go to the big baseball stadium to cheer for my real "local" high school but the day's games were canceled due to rain. They are playing in about an hour today, but I decided not to go because, as much as I hope these guys win, (we can see the school from my house; it's the whitest part of the snow pic in this post; we grew up listening to them practice since 1970,) the game is at the big stadium and I had so much fun on Tuesday in a small one I don't want to dilute my experience of that game. And I want to get some things done.

Among other things I started to sort my parents' digital photos, as that's one of two remaining tasks I must do before I go home. I spent about ten hours deleting duplicates and triplicates and ones where nearly 20 copies existed in Dad's computer. (Some automated process, but mostly manually, one by one.) Dad was nearly blind his last years so I see clearly how he intended to sort the photos but wasn't able, so I can forgive him to a certain degree, but nearly 20 copies of over 1000 pics of the grandkids? Well!!

I'm in the living room set up to do some relaxing collage while listening to the baseball game on the telly. 

Bag

 

So much went wrong with the construction of this bag you only get to see wee pics. The fringes go down straight, not in a curve - I'm not that sophisticated!

It's just a tad too small to carry A4/Letter-sized books or paper. The handles are spread too far apart the bag doesn't open properly. The lining is wrinkled. I had to hand sew the handles because the "tapestry" is too thick for Mom's sewing machine. My so-called tapestry technique is too loose it doesn't stand repeated handling.

Nevertheless, this is the very first time I ever wove something with a finished product other than a rectangle in mind. So, good on me to try something new, and semi-usable. And a much bigger bonus than my "small piece".

Miscellaneous

Thank you for your thoughts and reflections on the state of my... predicament. (State of predicament?) I appreciate them; they give me seeds for thinking. I'm half resigned I will know when the right time would have been for me to go home only in retrospect; the other half, I have to have faith my being here for now is better for Mom and the rest of the family than my not being here. Having said that, I've been cranky as I am struggling with this heat, whereas Mom says her body is starting to get used to it. (Not to mention she prefers temperatures about 5-8C above what feels good to me.)

There've been some issue arising from Dad never having drawn a Will, only verbally telling us Mom gets everything if he went first. The instruction is fine by us, it was always going to be thus, but we have to legally forfeit our shares, (forms, government offices, etc,) and since I don't usually live in Japan but am here now, I have to fill a few extra forms and go to a few extra government offices. Apparently, if I were in New Zealand now, I'd only have to go to the embassy or consulate, register my signature, and then sign whatever papers my brother gives me. But surely, folks come home when their parents pass?

So, even though I'm not helping Mom with the big stuff, but only with everyday housework, I have to be here a bit longer while Little Brother the Family Lawyer finds out what needs doing. 

Work Done and Plans

I finished my bag fabric, and want to use this sideways, but after a week I still can't decide which way up. There is also the wee problem of the draw-in being 1cm more at the end than the beginning, and I need a reasonably cool day to size this as the last thing I want is mildew before it morphs into a bag. I found a cute fabric to recycle as lining, and got the handles today; I wanted ones a bit longer so I can hang the bag on my shoulder, but these will do; proportionately these look better.

 Possibility 1

 Possibility 2

Mom wanted me to hurry and make the bag, but I've really gotten used to working and playing carefully. I still recall reading Connie Rose's this post when I was blown away with the idea of observing one's work and rethinking if needed. 

I've been inundated by simple, graphic, Japanese motifs. These motifs are everywhere all year around, but are more visible in the summer with the resurgence of Japanese towels ("tenugui"), which are thin, plain-weave cottons the width of a kimono fabric, (approx 30cm) and, oh, somewhere around 45-60cm long, but also in gazillion permutations.

I wasn't thinking of them specifically when I worked on simple-to-weave-on-table-loom drafts, but I see the connection. I'm moving the motifs rather than placing them on a grid.

This is one I'm about to finish weaving; I see cute, colorful plastic buttons.

Mom and I happened upon a short doco on how the simple indigo polka dots, called "mame/pea shibori", towels are dyed in Arimatsu, and must have wanted something similar.

The drafts look similar, but "Buttons" has been woven with thick, loosely-plied 100% cashmere weft, whereas for "Tenugui" I'll use thiner, tightly-plied white cashmere/silk mix, so the outcome will be two not-exactly-too-similar pieces, fingers crossed. 

Up next I have a white warp. Yes, white! (The warps I brought are for two scarves each, as I expected to have difficulty winding longer on the Ashford table looms.) To me this resembles square snowflakes, or the kind we made folding and cutting origami as kids. I'm using the same white cashmere/silk in the weft against fluffy white cashmere warp.

I need another draft for this warp now, with the same threading. 

Projects

So, my mind has been willing, and my body sometimes. I've reorganized my rooms so I can work with paper easily and not have to put things away at night in my sleeping area, (i.e. shoved the futon to the side,) and most of my weaving/sawing/dye-plan area in the smaller . (Not many weaving blogs will include pics of a badly-made futon, so this could be a World's First? The lump is not a Weiner dog, but a leg pillow Mom made for Dad that's been most comfortable.)

I had so much warp left from the Small Pieces Exhibition piece, I'm making a bag fabric. But then I already told you that. My niece is making steady progress on hers, but her draw-in became so great she asked me to weave a few colors to bring back the width to somewhat-normal. But the kid is patient, and amazingly easy-going when she concentrates on a project; quite different from how she behaves with family/relatives socially. I'm glad, because I only knew the quite-intolerable side of her.

I've been using postcard-sized collages as a form of therapy, a time for mindful concentration. I don't worry about themes or colors or outcomes, but just do it to quiet my mind. But the more I collage, the greater my preference for simpler, less-cluttered, should I say the "Japanesy" look. And yet I love receiving complex, layered work from Connie Rose. So, is this going to be another of my "I love it that way when others do it well, but I prefer to do mine this way" thing? I'm going to try making the more layered look a bit more.

I noticed I've grown more open to experimentation and making "ugly" work recently; I owe it to trying things on paper where the "damage" is less threatening than on the loom. On the other hand, I look at my collages, and non-work weaving, more often and slowly, and don't rush them for the sake of finishing; this I owe to Ronette's drawing class and my work-weaving.

The large violet silk is among gazillions Mom brought back from Laharya; this one she hates with a passion and we tried to tone it down by de-dyinig but not to her satisfaction so I'm thinking of putting in shibori stitching and dipping it into watered-down dark blue several times.

And then there is the "cubism" thing to practice. No time to waste; no time to worry about the heat. And no time to pick on Mom.

One last thing I thought of is, I am in Japan now, in the summer for the first time in 19 years! I am insane not to potter around collecting colors and images. So I shall use my tiny camera more conscientiously as it is always in my bag when I go out.

* * * * *

If you'd like a therapy-collage postcard, please email me with your address as I'm running out of folks I can bother. They have nothing to do with weaving, but the material is 100% Japanese-sourced, most from free brochures and adverts, some from newspapers and product packaging.