portraits

I took a few portraits of my co-workers today with my good camera.  It was a fun photo session on a Friday afternoon… everyone was relaxed and having fun.  Maybe it’s alright to be a little slow and be able to spend some time together smiling.  Doesn’t everyone look great? ;)

meet peter doig

I majored in Art History despite pressures from my family to major in International Relations to become a lawyer because I loved learning about the world through art.  I somehow trusted my instinct about what art was trying to say to me more so than any history book.  But in the course of learning about the arts in the academic world, where every major painting (btw, who decides what’s a “major” painting vs. “minor” paintings?) was categorized into artistic styles, periods, and phases, I started to lose my instinct about “getting in touch” with paintings that caught my attention.  I noticed that I would go to museum and read the description of the painting posted on the wall rather than to simply look at the paintings with my own eyes and draw my own conclusions.  I noticed that I was analysing the painting like an academic art historian, trying to categorize them into some academic order.  That’s fine if I didn’t lose sight of my own instinct.  But I knew that my academic eyes were shutting the free-will instinctive eyes of my own.

So it’s been my conscious effort for the past 10 years to look at art without reading what the critics had to say.  I draw my own conclusions, then if I’m curious, I read what the artist had tosay….. and then if I’m really curious, I read what the critics had to say and how they had categorized them.

I went to a bookstore this weekend, just roaming around the art section, looking around.  And I found something that caught my attention.  Paintings by Peter Doig.  Never heard of him, never seen his paintings.

But what is it about his paintings that I can’t take my eyes off of them?  the layers, the textures, the lonely world that feels familiar but yet mysterious.  The focus on the texture of nature is just beautiful – yes, I’m ok with being just in awe with something beautiful without being able to explain it.  His paintings look like a scene from the past captured in someone’s memory.

There is something loose about his world, something not finalized, not set, just a moment in memory that is so delicate and perhaps not seen in real life, but imagined.  I love it, I love that world of beautiful tender moment that is so effervescent.

soooo, I would leave it here, but I did read a little about him… and found out that his paintings are based on photographs he takes (explains why they look like a moment in memory) and he does his sketches in etchings (explains the accidental and beautiful textures.)  any more than that, I’m not very interested in what critics have to say…. I just hope that you enjoy his paintings as much as I do.

all pleasure

hi there

an architect had a quote up on his office wall that said “what this industry needs is a good recession.”  well, we are in one and trust me, I’m not complaining! ;-)

this past weekend was a first in probably over a year where I had the entire weekend all reserved for my own pleasure.  no “quick” trips to the office just to make next week easier, no special “projects” I needed to get done in the house, no “obligated trips” to visit people, nothing to worry about, all to enjoy.

since I renovated and reorganized my home, it is just the coziest place ever and I absolutely love spending time in it.  but I got out on my bicylce and discovered so many little pleasures around my neighborhood that I never realized existed.

 

paintings on the wall at the train station

tiny coffee shop where “mama ishii” made me 3 cups of different blends so that I could choose my favorite – my selection was called “dream,” which of course I took some home with me

a bookstore filled with intriguing books – especially ones with beautiful covers!  the one I picked up was illustrated by an artist with the same last name as mine

an antique shop full of old Japanese  shoji screens and lanterns

a strip of moody bars near my gym, an art gallery hosting an intimate cello concert

flower shops and flower shops and flower shops

and I finally re-discovered that bar someone brought me to one dark night where they served me one, two, three… four? great mojito!

I’ve also been cooking a lot lately, which is something I never thought I had the talent for.  My mother is an incredible cook and though she’s been teaching me, I never thought I had it in me.  But recently, I’m seeing the light of hope :)  Maybe all the “fights” in the kitchen are paying off!  Maybe I have my mother’s DNA afterall…. because I’m starting to taste my mother’s meals in my own meals ;-)  I guess noone can appreciate how special this is, other than myself, so sorry for boring you with this, but I really feel like I’ve made a breakthrough!  this is better than any exams I’ve passed in schools!! :)

so I ended up buying new dishes at my favorite porcelain store, Hakusan Shop.  when you have picked up several beautiful porcelain pieces in general department stores at different locations at different times without knowing the brand name… and later you find out that all of them came from a single brand, you know you have met the One ;-)  and when the only brand showroom is located just two train stops away from you, you are gonna start a collection and make friends with the store staff. 

you can’t see it in the photo above, but the area where the pieces are displayed are raised one big step from the entry area where you see the wooden table.  this is very much like a traditional Japanese house where the “Doma – soiled space” acts as an intermediary space between the outside and the kitchen.  Doma is typically where soiled vegetables and raw fish are brought in and washed in a large sink… and then the clean food will be brought up into the kitchen. 

the long wooden table in the showroom is like the working table, raw and chunky.  I walked around the showroom, mentioned the ones I liked, the staff escorted me to sit at the table as she brought over the pieces to the wooden table so that I could hold each piece in my hand, imagining my cozy meals at home.  I’ve also been hunting for a great coffee mug as so many mugs have sadly disappointed me in the past.  some may look great, but are hard to use.  some may feel good in my hand, but doesn’t feel as good on my lips.  some are too heavy, some are too-designed, some are hard to wash, and some are too costly I’d be afraid to use it. 

but today… I saw the (potential) One… hopefully my hunt is over, we’ll see.  my first cup may have to be that “dream” blended coffee Mama Ishii made for me.

back again

hi there

it’s been so long since I wrote… not only that, I have gone somewhere so far from what this blog is all about.  I re-posted my favorite old entries so as to remind myself where I used to be, remind myself of all the little things I used to notice, appreciate and make a note of.  I have absolutely no time for that now.  I haven’t had time for that for months and months…. and it became so apparent that it was too much for me.  I couldn’t just complain about things over glasses of wine with friends and get over it the next day; I was actually crying for help.  I couldn’t think of solutions, but solutions were the only answer.  Changes had to be made.

So I made them happen; I had to do that so that I wouldn’t get crushed.  thank goodness, life can be fair and people can see problems they have caused and change their attitude… not always, unfortunately, but if you do your part, slowly, people do catch on.  and when they do, the best thing you can do is to act as if they have always known what they just realized… show them the respect, rather than say “finally!  and I told you so!” ha ha

so, now that I’m not too caught up in negative things, I can pay attention to the beauty in this world… as well as spend some time creating things I’m interested in.

let’s start with a tiny cake.  The firm I used to work for, Klein Dytham architecture, celebrated their 20th anniversary in Japan by having an exhibit at a very nich gallery in Tokyo, Gallery Ma.  And in celebrating the exhibit and the 20th year in Japan, we, former and current KDa staff, decided to surprise our old bosses with a giant cake.  A cake in the shape of the number 20….

and each of us was responsible for creating edible miniature of their major projectgs!  whoa.  Within the 100mm x 100mm dimesion we had to create/cook/bake a miniature.  Of course the gallery opening is on a Tuesday night (why?!!) and I worked til midnight on my real paying job… and began making the cake at 1am.

but alas, I had so much fun that I didn’t care what time it was!  That’s what creating is all about, to lose yourself in time and really dive in!  I haven’t had that feeling in a long time because I am always pressuring myself to be professional, to be efficient and to “whip it out.”  but not the cake ;)

I hope to write more again about the beauty in this world, about what makes me smile in the coming days and months.  I’m just so glad I’m back again :)

first, here is a quick look at the project (a hot spring bathing fascility in a forest) Moku Moku Yu … and then my “edible interpretation” ;)

oooh, my next travel destination?

oh my oh my, I stumbled onto a great portfolio of a talented architect, Geoffrey Bawa.

Bawa Bawa Bawa – the master mind behind the incredible residences and hotels in Sri Lanka.

oh I wanna be there… I wanna feel his architecture in person, the haven of peace.

here are some exerpts from an artilce about him…

“Highly personal in his approach, evoking the pleasures of the senses that go hand in hand with the climate, landscape, and culture of ancient Ceylon, Geoffrey Bawa brought together an appreciation of the Western humanist tradition in architecture with needs and lifestyles of his own country. Bawa has exerted a defining influence on the emerging architecture of independent Sri Lanka and on successive generations of younger architects. “

“Throughout its long and colourful history Sri Lanka has been subjected to strong outside influences from its Indian neighbours, from Arab traders and from European colonists, and it has always succeeded in translating these elements into something new but intrinsically Sri Lankan. Bawa has continued this tradition. His architecture is a subtle blend of modernity and tradition, East and West, formal and picturesque; he has broken down the artificial segregation of inside and outside, building and landscape; he has drawn on tradition to create an architecture that is fitting to its place, and he has also used his vast knowledge of the modern world to create an architecture that is of its time. “

In my mind, he just joined a small group of my absolute favorite architects… Glen Murcutt, Valdimir Ossippoff, Bruno Taut, Antonin Raymond.  sorry, I gotta go – I gotta read more about his work ;)