brushink

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The measure of a man

The measure of a man, the measure of a life, How do you measure your life? I measure my life not from birthday to birthday nor from January firsts. I measure my life from show to show. For over 20 years I have had exhibitions in October. I have other chances to exhibit thru the years, but I measure my life from October to October exhibitions.

And now my years has done. I am always in a turmoil as to what the next year will be.

I am forced to take a break from paintingfrom the middle of the summer, to make scrolls and frames, to hang them on the wall, to greet visitors and friends. Now it is done. I have been away from painting for 2 1/2 months. I have forgotten how to paint. I have forgotten who I am. November is a chance to start again and to find out who or what I have become.

Last Sunday I didn't do the things I was supposed to do. Instead I hid in my studio and worked on this dragon.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

thanks to all!

Thanks to all who made this years exhibition a success. Ichiyo's shortcut through Yanaka. It was a lot of fun to put it together and great to be able to share it with everyone who visited. Now I go back to my studio and breath a quiet breath, sit in a clean room and wonder what will happen next.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Ichiyo Show Final Days

Today begins the third and last weekend.

We have had 2 typhoons and a couple hundred visitors, good visitors, good friends. Yesterday the director from the Higuchi Ichio Memorial Museum visited. I wonder what she thought. Whatever it was, she did not say.

It was a lot of fun to put it all together, to explore Ichiyo's life through her diaries, and then with my paint.

I wonder who will visit today on this chilly last Saturday day of the show, or tomorrow on the last Sunday in the rain. It is supposed to rain tomorrow; perhaps it will be a heavy Kurosawa rain, and the exhibition will end like the Seven Samurai - swordplay, and rolling in the mud; Great heroes fall, evil is vanquished, a few survive, and the hard working, but cheerful farmers inherit the earth. One can only hope.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Exhibition underway, watch out for the stairs.

My studio was built in the Taisho Era. Some of the younger visitors have not used these sort of stairs. Narrow, no hand rail, and slippery as hell, fine wood polished by a thousand feet.

I only had one visitor come sliding down, bumping his butt each step and screaming each bump. Made a wonderful noise in my little studio. He got every head in the place to turn in horror. Then, boom, he hit the wall at the bottom and like it was a cartoon or something, the painting above him fell off the wall and he caught it in his lap as he sprawled on the floor. A dozen people all shouted in Japanese, "Are You All Right!" as they will.

He jumped up, holding the painting in one hand and his butt with the other saying, "I'm OK! I'm OK!" Handed me the painting and ran out the door. In America I guess he would be running to get his lawyer. Lucky this is Japan.

Today begins the long weekend, middle of the exhibition. Yanaka should be jumping. nice weather and some kind of local festival, "Yanaka Matsuri!" Lots of visitors. Wonder if any of them will come sliding down my stairs.