Photos can be great art, but photos of an art exhibition are bound to fail, but here they are as a shadow of what is/was my exhibition.
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| Natsomi Soseki welcomes visitors this year |
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| first room, viewed from the place you take your shoes off at the door |
It was the first design, plan, for carving, more of a shrine or a box than what evolved from it.
 This is the last of the paintings I did this year, like the other paintings on wood pieces it is painted on 100 year old wood, saved from a Japanese house in transition. the black lines are sumi ink, colors are "Nihonga" "Japanese Painting, not such a different material than Giotto and daVinci used back when, an artist made mix of pure pigments and binder. |
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These paintings were basically ink painting on heavily pigmented, thick and wild Japanese washi. This one is a mandala. A Buddhist Priest visited my exhibition this week. I know a lot of the local priests but had not met him before. There are over 100 temples in this neighborhood. Anyway, he was smiling after he looked around. "Not Buddhist mandala," He said. But still he seemed pleased to see them. He said he particularly like, " Moons and Stars Mandala."
It is the invitation card piece. Some visitors said it looks like a key hole. I put out little flashlights so visitors could explore them as thought they were a cave. I was shocked and happy to see what the urushi I used as a finished did to the colors of the wood - balcks and golds came out naturally. This one was covered with just a very thin layer of urushi
Blue Mandala, on pigmented paper, ultramarine light pigment, the same as I used in the first wood piece. This one also used silver in addition to the black ink. Sometimes I used real silver, sometimes a mixture of the inside parts of shells mixed with aluminum dust. This one was real silver. Real silver is a lot brighter at first, but we know what silver does in time. I wonder how well it is protected by the binder, and how much and when it will tarnish. Some of the pieces in the museums have silver that has turned black. Sometimes it is almost rainbow in its tarnish.
This was the first of the wooden pieces I painted, great old wood from a friends house reconstructed, originally from the Meiji Era. This painting is of a party at my house. Last January when I painted it I thought I would be painting a series of gatherings and parties, in the end I did only 2. And only one is included in this exhibition.
It is the second carved from the same tree as the key and the blue shrine. the wood colors are different because I used different finishes. This was finished with many rubbed layers of urushi. Urushi is hard to explain to westerners. It is a thick sap from the urushi tree, some sort of a relative of poison sumac trees I believe, quite volatile, and dangerous for some people when wet, strong and safe when dry. It is very popular in Asia, being so strong, versitile and beautiful. I used raw urushi for this one. Urushi is commonly found on miso soup bowls, inside, mixed with red pigment. It is my favorite finish for wood and it makes my skin itch as thought I were in hell for about a week every time I use it.
Two pieces of wood stuck together and painted upon. One of my biggest joys this summer was going to the ball games after a day of painting in the studio. In this painting Mitere is at bat for the Swallows.
Another Blue Mandala. A human skull is used as a counter balance, and a common occurrence in Zenga. I heard a guy in Nepal asked on the radio for his secret of happiness. He said, "Oh, I think of death every day." It is also, of course, a nod to Ikkyu.
I can not say why, but every Icarus i painted this year was walking. This one is walking, viewed by two rabbits and a child on my street.
OK It's me in a place I love, doing what is best to do in the summer before going out to the ball game.
It is a study for the first wood piece, a dragon over Tokyo, Not Godzilla.
Three of my favorite homes on the same page, probably i should have included Gault Avenue, perhaps next painting.
Planets Mandela, pen and ink and watercolor on paper.
Gold painted around ink on washi. It is a lot harder than just painting directly on gold, but not the same, so I had to do it this way.
Another in the Hanami, Cherry blossom, series.
First one sold, ink and some color on blue pigment.
Upstairs wood guy, made from "kusunoki," eucalyptus wood. You can still smell it even through the thin Japanese urushi and english wax finish. It is the only squrish box in the show.
the smaller red fish, a study for the wood painting downstairs.
Have you ever been to Kurobera in Yamanashi?
Yanaka Mandala. In the late middle ages, Japanese were the first people to ad landscapes to mandala. This landscape is Yanaka, viewed from Dango Zaka.
A pole, maybe from a tokanoma, inside is a painting I call the polecat. It is book ended by etchings.
More etchings, ask and I can send you a better image.
Black Ship going one way and Icarus the other.
The end
Photos can be great art, but photos of an art exhibition are bound to fail, but here they are as a shadow of what is/was my exhibition.
It was the first design, plan, for carving, more of a shrine or a box than what evolved from it. 
It is the invitation card piece. Some visitors said it looks like a key hole. I put out little flashlights so visitors could explore them as thought they were a cave. I was shocked and happy to see what the urushi I used as a finished did to the colors of the wood - balcks and golds came out naturally. This one was covered with just a very thin layer of urushi
Blue Mandala, on pigmented paper, ultramarine light pigment, the same as I used in the first wood piece. This one also used silver in addition to the black ink. Sometimes I used real silver, sometimes a mixture of the inside parts of shells mixed with aluminum dust. This one was real silver. Real silver is a lot brighter at first, but we know what silver does in time. I wonder how well it is protected by the binder, and how much and when it will tarnish. Some of the pieces in the museums have silver that has turned black. Sometimes it is almost rainbow in its tarnish.
This was the first of the wooden pieces I painted, great old wood from a friends house reconstructed, originally from the Meiji Era. This painting is of a party at my house. Last January when I painted it I thought I would be painting a series of gatherings and parties, in the end I did only 2. And only one is included in this exhibition.
It is the second carved from the same tree as the key and the blue shrine. the wood colors are different because I used different finishes. This was finished with many rubbed layers of urushi. Urushi is hard to explain to westerners. It is a thick sap from the urushi tree, some sort of a relative of poison sumac trees I believe, quite volatile, and dangerous for some people when wet, strong and safe when dry. It is very popular in Asia, being so strong, versitile and beautiful. I used raw urushi for this one. Urushi is commonly found on miso soup bowls, inside, mixed with red pigment. It is my favorite finish for wood and it makes my skin itch as thought I were in hell for about a week every time I use it.
Two pieces of wood stuck together and painted upon. One of my biggest joys this summer was going to the ball games after a day of painting in the studio. In this painting Mitere is at bat for the Swallows.
Another Blue Mandala. A human skull is used as a counter balance, and a common occurrence in Zenga. I heard a guy in Nepal asked on the radio for his secret of happiness. He said, "Oh, I think of death every day." It is also, of course, a nod to Ikkyu.
I can not say why, but every Icarus i painted this year was walking. This one is walking, viewed by two rabbits and a child on my street.
OK It's me in a place I love, doing what is best to do in the summer before going out to the ball game.
It is a study for the first wood piece, a dragon over Tokyo, Not Godzilla.
Three of my favorite homes on the same page, probably i should have included Gault Avenue, perhaps next painting.
Planets Mandela, pen and ink and watercolor on paper.
Gold painted around ink on washi. It is a lot harder than just painting directly on gold, but not the same, so I had to do it this way.
Another in the Hanami, Cherry blossom, series.
First one sold, ink and some color on blue pigment.
Upstairs wood guy, made from "kusunoki," eucalyptus wood. You can still smell it even through the thin Japanese urushi and english wax finish. It is the only squrish box in the show.
the smaller red fish, a study for the wood painting downstairs.
Have you ever been to Kurobera in Yamanashi? 
Yanaka Mandala. In the late middle ages, Japanese were the first people to ad landscapes to mandala. This landscape is Yanaka, viewed from Dango Zaka.
A pole, maybe from a tokanoma, inside is a painting I call the polecat. It is book ended by etchings.
More etchings, ask and I can send you a better image.
Black Ship going one way and Icarus the other.
The end
Thanks for sharing your show. I appreciate the comments. Blue camp -- first to sell!
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