It’s been nearly a year since Gallery G2 last invited us to play around with the forces of nature in 2009’s 風雷暴 / Fujin Raijin Exhibition. This year, rather than tempting the wrath of the storm gods, we are exploring the crackling countenance of thunder (as well as lightning) and the gusty guise of wind. Now, when I think “countenance”, I think portrait. And when I think “portrait” I think Flem. As in Flanders. And so it was that I looked to the Dutch masters and their wacky chiaroscuro for inspiration.

So, yeah, I drew a portrait of the wind. Stop on by the gallery before the 31st to take a gander. Even in my sleep-starved state I was mightily impressed by the girth of talent on display. Everything from metal sculpture to acrylic painting to hand-made dolls and, ahem, cut-paper are represented. It’s well worth weathering the sudden summer heat here in Tokyo.

I’ll be at the gallery Saturday, July 24th (count on me being late…it’s a safe bet). I’d like to be there at least one more day, but I haven’t decided which. Drop me a comment or email with your availability, and I’ll try to be there!

Here are the details:

Name: 風雷貌 / A Wind-Swept and Thunderous Countenance

dates: July. 22nd (Thurs) to July 31st (Sat) 2010 gallery closed Wed. 7/28

Times: 12pm to 7pm (Last Day: Closes at 4pm)

place: Gallery G2; located in Ginza, just around the corner from Melsa (メルサ）.
Tel: 03-3567-1555
gallery website: right here.
MAP

artists / 出品者：大澤冬樺（墨）／田村晴海（創作人形）／中村滋（アクリル）／パトリック・ギャノン（切絵）／松井直友（金属）／守屋礼子（アクリル）

日付: ２０１０年７月２２日（木）〜７月6３１日（土）
時間: １２時〜１９時 / 最終日は１6時まで
住所: Gallery G2 東京都中央区銀座２丁目８−２　日紫１F
電話: 03-3567-1555

I plan and scheme and schedule for a couple of months before each Tokyo exhibition, working out the time needed for every piece of art and pre-show preparation, making sure to give myself plenty of time for accidents both happy and grumpy. Then, somehow I’m pulling an all-nighter right before the show, putting the finishing touches on one more piece I Just Had To Do. The morning of the show, basking in the victory of completion, I pack up every item and head out. Every item but one.

That item is inevitably a camera. Hasami No Oto (The Sound of Scissors) at Niji Gallery last month followed this pattern pretty closely. However, in days past, I would somehow manage to forget the camera (or to charge the battery) each and every time I dropped by the gallery. This time I remembered it on the last day. Probably because my vigilant wife accompanied me.

Sadly, that didn’t mean that I was conscientious enough to actually use it. The poor little thing sat in my bag all day, mewing like a forgotten kitten, waiting to achieve it’s snapshot-snapping purpose. And I ignored it. Luckily, my friend Mayuko Fujino, another artist at the show, had just accidentally bought a humongous digital SLR and was experimenting with it all day. You can see the fruits of her labors right here.

So, a big thank you goes out to Mayuko for sharing the photos with me and letting me share them with all of you. I hope those of you who couldn’t make it to the show feel as inspired by the wide variety of cut paper artwork as I was. Enjoy!

As soon as I get the chance to do a little scanning and color-correcting, I’ll start posting the new artwork. Until then, please enjoy these small glimpses behind the curtain of mysterious secrecy. Cast your eyes below to peruse the original thumbnail sketch for “A Short Trip, A New Perspective”. Now, glance upwards to see how the image changed on it’s winding path to completion. What you’re looking at right now is the back of the paper which will form the main foundation of the piece. With all the linework on it, still in need of chopping. It took me a bit to figure everything out, but in the end, it came out pretty much the way it was envisioned. I can’t wait to show you.

Oh yeah, if the map on the postcard is a little too… hand-drawn, here’s the google version.

But I’m breaking out of my frozen slumber for a celebration of all things papery and cut with はさみの音 (hasami no oto) – The Sound of Scissors. This will be the first all-切り絵 Cut Paper Show I’ve had the honor to join, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. We’re a diverse bunch with work ranging from children’s book style to more mature themes, from traditional to contemporary. The art is rich in color and shape and line. The theme this year is “Travel”, a subject wide-open in it’s possible interpretations. I’m excited to see the work everyone comes up with, and I urge everyone in the area to stop on by.

Here are the folks involved:

• 坂井高史（切り絵）
• 瀬尾やすこ（切り絵・銀粘土アクセサリー）
• タナベユミコ（切り絵・羊毛フェルト）/ Tanabe Yumiko (cut paper + felt)
• CHIKU（切り絵）/ CHIKU (cut paper)
• 藤野真由子（切り絵）/ Mayuko Fujino (cut paper)
• パトリック・ギャノン　/ Patrick Gannon (cut paper)

the details:

name: はさみの音 – The Sound of Scissors

greeting reception: TBA

dates: Thursday March 18 – Tuesday March 23, 2010 12pm-8pm

place: 〒180‐0004 東京都武蔵野市吉祥寺本町2‐2‐10 / Tokyo, Kichijoji Honmachi 2-2-10

access:（ＪＲ中央線　吉祥寺駅より徒歩４分）

tel: 0422-21-2177

gallery website: right here.
click image to enlarge

Raijin and Fūjin have always struck me as the odd couple of the Japanese Shinto pantheon. Two ex-demons pressed into service by the powers-that-be, they are forced to work together despite their opposing personalities. If they are The Odd Couple, then Raijin is a moodier version of Felix. Focused, determined, ominous. He doesn’t have time for Fūjin’s playful, needy antics. Or does he? Is that the slightest sliver grin at the corner of his mouth as he dutifully ignores the looping breeze?

click here or the image to see Titans Clash

Raijin and Fūjin are fascinating and awesome (in the traditional sense of the word) as typically depicted raging through a storm. When I sat down to sketch this piece, that was my first approach as well. After a while, I started wondering how they spent the quiet hours between typhoons. What kind of relationship evolves between the people who spend all of their time together; coworkers, best friends, husbands and wives, Gods of thunder and wind.click here or the image for the big frame-up

For centuries, cut paper has had a place in storytelling and folk art traditions throughout the world. From intricate Chinese cutouts to Mexico’s Papel Picado to European silhouettes, papercutting has been a vibrant part of the craft life of many cultures. Cut paper became a popular technique with childrens’ book illustrators, valued for lively colors and versatility. Recently cut paper has received renewed attention from artists, merging modern creativity and thought with traditional techniques.


In this 90-minute workshop, cut paper artist/illustrator Patrick Gannon will conduct a brief tour of the history of Cut Paper art traditions throughout the world. Modern papercutting art from various artists and illustrators will be introduced. He’ll demonstrate some of his techniques for creating this fascinating and fun art form and lead participants in the creation of their own cut paper illustrations. Participants are encouraged to bring sketches, characters, or story ideas that can be used as a creative starting point for their illustrations.

And the details:

Time:  Friday, January 29, 2010, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Place:  Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Conference Room 2
           5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
           (by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University)
For a map see www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee:  SCBWI members 1,000 yen
         Non-members 1,500 yen
Reservations:  Contact info@scbwi.jp by January 28
Materials to Bring:  

• sketch pad or paper
• colored paper (optional)
• pencil or mechanical pencil
• eraser
• scissors
• glue or glue stick (optional)
• cutting mat (if you have one) or A4 to A3 size sheet(s) of thick cardboard
• NT design cutter / X-acto knife and blade (if you have one)

This event will be in English;
Japanese interpretation available on request.

Also of note, this is the first time I’ve ever posted a photo of myself on this blog. Try not to let it scare you off from the event.

Blinded by cleverness into seeing only cleverness, undone by our own cunning.

The fox makes a great symbol, from Aesop on up ’til now. No other two-legger or four-legger embodies that same complicated and conflicted mix of clever, cunning, hunger, pride, independence and nobility. They serve beautifully as both hero and villain, sage and fool, in just about every culture. Look at Inari, Japanese god…or goddess of…well, just about everything. Plus, they just look awesome.

Like Words of Carrion Comfort, Vixen is a little bit of an experiment with shape and texture. Where I used mostly color combinations to try to bring out a softness in Carrion, here I combined that with a little bit of torn paper and some translucency.

Vixen (Inari) is also part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

If there ever was an argument for spontaneous generation, it is the carrion-craving crow. The park near my home is infested with the big-beaked birds and they are eternally carrying out raids on the neighborhood garbage bags. But for all their ever-present…um, presence, I have yet to see a baby crow. As a boy I collected discarded robin’s eggs, without ever finding the slightest evidence that crows hatch. Instead, they seem to come into the world fully formed and filthy.

My theory is that dark and ominous thoughts float out of our heads and congeal in the upper atmosphere. There they take on feathery form before plummeting back down to earth to caw annoyingly and take part time jobs as evil omens.

I’ve been combining cut paper and wood for awhile now, and I really dig the way the natural textures and colors work together. Lately I’ve been thinking about using different shapes and kinds of wood. This is one of the first experiments in that vein. Something about the rounded shape of the wood felt feminine to me so I’ve been exploring ways to get a softer effect from the hard-edged paper, mostly by way of color combinations.

Carrion Comfort is part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

The title of the show, I mean. See, I totally didn’t get it myself until my stupendous wife explained the triple-layer pun to me. I don’t know if I’ll do it justice, but I’m a-gonna give it a whirl. 干支 (Eto) means the 12 Constellations of the Chinese / Japanese Zodiac; which just happens to be the main theme of this particular show. Et-cetera means what you think it means, but in katakana it reads エトセトラ. Say that “Eto-se-tora”. Following so far? 2010 is the year of the Tiger, in Japanese 寅 / Tora. And there you have it, three pronunciation-puns-in-one.

Oh yeah, and there’s gonna be all kinds of art on the wall from a bunch of talented folks. I’ll be a tiny part of the show, and plan on hanging out in the gallery a bit, at least on opening day and closing day. Stop on by if you happen to be in the neighborhood or own a Leer jet. Here’re the details:

Name: EtoEtceTora 「干支　エトセトラ・・」

Place: Kópis Gallery (http://www.g-kopis.com/)
near Kiyosumi-shirakawa station, Tokyo
ph. 03-5639-2381
1-2-12 1F Shirakawa, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0021

Dates: Sunday, December 13 – December 19, 2008 (Gallery closed on Tuesday, the 15th)
Time: 11am to 7pm (from 1pm on the 13th, until 5pm on the 19th)

Email me for times I’ll be there (though punctuality I do not promise).

Here’s a link to the gallery (all in Japanese!)

And here’s a map).

English directions from Kiyosumi-Shirakawa station: Just use exit A3, when you finish climbing the stairs take a left and then another immediate left. When you hit the road, go right and the Kopis Gallery will be on the next corner. Takes about 3 minutes.