BLUE: Last Day

Tomorrow is the last day of the exhibit. I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity to play and create in this space. It’s been fun to see all my works coming together with such diverse styles. There are drawings (pen, mineral pigment and ink), site-specific installation with Elmer’s poster tack on painted walls, and another site-specific installation using the overlay maps from the US Army Air Defense School in the late 50s, artist’s tapes and Elmer’s poster tack. All these pieces relate to water, but visual effects and also contexts are dramatically different from one another. The color of blue was a key element throughout all these pieces visually. Many people told me that they find it soothing and relaxing, despite some rather disturbing images of intestines and organs in details. I was glad to hear that.

People at the Women’s Studies Research Center were really engaging and supportive. Feminist scholars rock! Many of them gave me really insightful feedback, asked me interesting questions and gave me much encouragement by saying that my show was a top-class! Wow. That was so sweet. These words help keep me going. So did all my friends, family and colleagues who came to see the exhibit. I’m just grateful for all the support―Thank you all! I was also happy that my parents came from Japan to see this exhibit.

Michele L'Heureux tweaking the lights before the show opens.

In addition, I truly enjoyed working with the curator, Michele L'Heureux. She is also a great artist. She was patient with me when I told her that I wanted to show my new work (when I didn’t even have a new body of work), and she was very understanding of the needs of working artists as she herself is one. I had submitted a different body of work as a proposal two years ago, and the selection committee accepted it. But I didn’t want to show those works anymore. She let me postpone the exhibition time because I also got really busy with my new work at Brandeis University. (Coincidentally, I was hired as a senior program coordinator for the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts at Brandeis University shortly after I learned about their acceptance of my proposal.) She made more studio visits to see my slow progress and told me to keep working. So, I really appreciate her flexibility, understanding and support all along the process. All and all, I’ve had a great experience with this show. Artist’s tapes and Elmer’s poster tack didn’t disappoint me either, and they stayed on the wall too!

Check out the images from this exhibit, BLUE on my website. See the exhibit catalog.

Exhibition overview

With Shula Reinharz, the Director of the Women's Studies Research Center and
Michele L'Heureux, the Curator for the Kniznick Gallery at WSRC.

BLUE: Installation in progress – 4: Blue Falls

“Blue Falls” was the last piece I worked on, and I became quite obsessive about those dots by then. I now have an art wound on my thumb from molding too many balls of Elmer’s poster tack. The skin of my thumb starts splitting, but I can’t use hand lotion because it would make the poster tack not to be sticky. Who knew you could get an art wound from Elmer’s poster tack? I now feel like an art warrior with a minor wound.

Being in the spot of lights and surrounded by the two blue walls made me feel like I was in the pool of blue. It made me feel rather calm. Seeing all these dots growing and starting to inhibit the wall, I started to think about Yayoi Kusama’s polka dot nets. More dots I see on the wall, I want to make more to fill the space, and be lost in the shower of dots. But wait―that’s not what I wanted to make, so I try to stop that desire. I step back and look at it from afar, and then go back, so I don’t get lost in the blue shower. Kusama, who suffered from hallucinations, painted dots obsessively because that’s what she saw everywhere when she fell under the spell of polka dot nets. I imagine her in her polka dots world, and I wonder how she saw it all.

I’m in the blue space, making these dots/droplets on the wall― feeling exhausted from lack of sleep from insomnia in the last five nights. Then I look up and I see the blue droplets slowly falling over me. And I think it’s rather calming. 

Starting from the top...

and I want to put more...

and more... no, stop.

less is more

Blue Falls (almost complete)
84"x 38"
Elmer's poster tack on painted wall

... light and blue...

BLUE: Installation in progress – 3: Last Splash

I was experimenting with wires while I was at the Blue Mountain Center, and I wanted to use thin wires for the second piece, “Last Splash.” Looking this piece from the side, the wires are reaching out into the air―some of them has a tiny blue dot at the end―and the wiggly lines of wires make them look very organic to me as if they’re breathing, but with desperate and somewhat dying breath.

I was able to work on the site-specific installation in a very quiet and almost in solitude over the holiday break. The University was closed, so the Women’s Studies Research Center, where the gallery I was working, was also closed. There were only few people who came to work over the break. One of them was Hilda, one of their feminist scholars, who came occasionally to work on her book. She was compiling all her writings on museums into a book. One day, after working all afternoon, she came to see my work. I asked, “How was your day?” She said, “Well, I got two paragraphs written.” I pointed to a rather small area on the wall and said, “Well, I made these dots today.” Then, we both laughed. Our brief conversation reminded me that act of creating is a rather slow process―no matter how fast you think you’re working.

When Hilda saw me almost finishing “Last Splash,” she said, “You’ve been working so hard on something that’s only going to last temporarily.” And I thought about that. There’s something gratifying about making these temporarily existing pieces. I love Andy Goldsworthy’s work with nature, and I admire his patience and Zen-like approach to his materials. Though what I’m doing is far different from Andy Goldsworthy’s work, I see the ephemeral quality and simple additive process in what I’m doing here. My friend, Eva said, “It's like the Tibetan ritual where monks come together to create a gigantic mandala wheel pattern out of beads, and then after chanting they calmly cleaned up everything. Everything is impermanent.” You make something but leave no trace behind. I kind of like that. I wish we could do just that with the earth―leave no trace behind, but it’s too late, I’m afraid. And I feel like the earth is on her last breath.

Adding wires onto the blue droplets

slowly...

almost meditative process...

"Last Splash"
18"x 15"
Elmer's poster tack and wires on painted wall

Everything in life is temporary

BLUE: Installation in progress – 2: Raindrop Jewel

After completing “Division Switch,” I continued working with Elmer’s poster tack, but with lights. I wanted to make more of these blue droplets and put them on the blue walls and see what happens.

“Raindrop Jewel” was the first one of these pieces. Working with lights, Elmer’s poster tack droplets on the wall glow and become almost like jewels. Such a cheap material with such a low tech, and I’m already seeing jewels out of these things? Maybe I was just too tired.
I needed another two walls painted in the same blue for more pieces. Luckily, my friend came and painted the walls for me before the end of the year. So, I was able to move onto the next piece after the New Year’s. There's no time to waste.

While my friend was painting the walls, I worked on “Raindrop Jewel” but also went back to work on “Division Switch” to add more dots to cover the flaws on the wall, such as holes for hanging the brochure case. I think I succeed―no more visible holes or flaws on the wall now.

Raindrop Jewel
37"x 22"
Elmer's poster tack on painted wall - "Do you see jewels?"

Detail of "Raindrop Jewel": Lovely blue on blue

Decided to cover the flaws on the wall with more dots

Making too many dots makes you want to scream!

BLUE: Installation in progress – 1: Division Switch

My solo exhibit, BLUE, opened today at the Women’s Studies Research Center Gallery at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. It’ll be up through March 2. This exhibit includes my recent drawings and the site-specific installation. I have been working on the site-specific installation in the gallery since Christmas, and I finished everything a couple of days before the show opened.

“Division Switch” incorporates overlay maps from the United States Army Air Defense School in the late 50s, which I had been working on with mineral pigment, stamps and artist tapes. I had watched the documentary about water called “Blue Gold: World Water Wars.” (I highly recommend this documentary.) That was all I needed for an excuse to use these overlay maps from the Army Air Defense School in the context of water for this exhibit. That was my starting point for this installation anyway. On these overlay maps, I see some irony and even humor in the added images and there are some word plays, such as “division switch position” text next to the stamped images of women.

I wanted to connect these maps with dots and tiny lines, and create another sort of map that suggests a number of different things such as waterways, hiking trails, roads, defense lines, and so on. Cutting the artist tape into tiny strips and making tiny dots with Elmer’s poster tack proved to be a simple but methodological process which had soothing effects after a while. There, I worked intuitively, slowly making connections line by line, and dot by dot.

Creating dots with Elmer's poster tack - one by one

Making connections line by line

This was Day 4 - slowly making my way

Overlay maps from the United States Army Air Defense School
in the 1950s on the wall

Snake river or switchback road?

She is the Target Area C on Call

Day 5 - close to be done

Blue Mountain Center: Eagle Lake

Blue Mountain Center is a working community of writers, artists, activists and musicians in the heart of Adirondacks, the largest state park in the continental US. And it is my favorite residency. This September, I was able to spend four weeks at BMC once again. This was my third full-length residency at BMC. I was also there over the Memorial Day weekend for the mini residency this year, so I felt really fortunate to be back at BMC again.

The main house at BMC is a turn-of-the century Adirondack lodge in a pristine and peaceful setting of woods, lakes and mountains. Eagle Lake is just steps away from the main house, and it is just beautiful. My past two residencies were in August, and I swam everyday with my swimming buddy, Henri Cole. I met Henri at BMC in August of 2005. He is a great swimmer and an amazing poet, and he inspired me to swim in the lake every day. In his sort of unassuming way, he would go into the water, once in the water, he would transform into a fish, or the Neptune of the Lake as I often called him. He was so natural in the water that I wonder if he ever grow any fish scales on his back. In August of 2008, Henri and I were both residents at the same time again, and we established our rigorous swimming schedule: swimming twice a day—before lunch and dinner―every day. We were the BMC swim team. And I cherished every moment when I was in the lake.

This time, it was September. And Henri was not at BMC. I knew that the temperature was going to drop and the water would get really cold. Summer is short in Adirondacks, and September in Adirondacks could get pretty chilly. I was hoping that I could go swimming as long and as much as possible. I just didn’t know that I would end up swimming every day! To my surprise, I managed to do so simply because I became addicted to swimming in the cold water. It was rejuvenating. I was enjoying the cleansing and healing energy of the water tremendously, and I just couldn’t have enough of it.

The surrounding nature is astonishingly beautiful and peaceful, and I enjoy seeing the beauty and being with the nature. This time around though, I didn’t even fully realize how much my experience with the lake and the water was influencing my drawing.

Here are some more shots of the Eagle Lake, my favorite lake in the world.

My morning yoga spot

One foggy morning

... and lost in the fog

Fog clears suddenly and everything is so still.

A beautiful work by a resident spider

BMC resident, Nancy going for early morning kayaking

Morning mist over the lake

Boat house - the best place to contemplate

Eagle Lake - my spiritual and physical healing place

My Tiger, My Lover: Play by Dramahound Productions

It was mid-May when I got an email from Monika via my website.

“This is Monika, Miho's friend - the one with the 3 kids and the gallery.

I actually did something really wired. I did organized a play around your body of work about the tiger - tamer and did not quite ask you if you are willing to show your pictures with Open Source?

The weirdest thing is that the actors are ready soon!

I am really sorry about inviting you so late.

The problem was that I did not have any space and no guarantee of anything happening.
but now I am pretty sure it will happen.

Anyways I would like to invite you formally to show in a solo show with open source in June. We are opening a new space.”

So, that’s how I learned that someone wrote a play based on my drawings, the playwright had already chosen actors, and they were ready to rehearse soon. And Monika wanted me to show my works in her gallery in a month. And I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Someone was writing a play around my work and I didn’t know about this until, well, they’re ready to rehearse for a show?” It was bizarre and I didn’t know what to make of it at first, though I thought it was really cool that my work inspired someone to write a play. So, I said yes, and in June, we had the exhibit and the performance.

“My Tiger, My Lover,” written by Anne Phelan was as inspired by my drawing, “Mi Tigre, My Lover” series. The play was performed during the opening for my exhibit at the Open Source Gallery’s new space in Brooklyn, New York in June, 2011. The cast included Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah the tiger. It will be directed by Tamara Fisch, with costumes by Sidney Shannon.

Rajah in Anne Phelan’s play was a chatty tiger and spoke to Mabel a lot, acted as he was a man in her life. Morphing between being a man and a tiger, Rajah was a jealous lover, a baby, a demanding and controlling “husband”, and a wild beast all in one. This neurotic man/tiger, Rajah, played by Grigolia- Rosenbaum was amazing. Mabel played by Cotton Wright was equally amazing. Her delicate face and feature took completely different look once she had hold of the whip. Anne’s play showed their relationship as co-depending, controlling, obsessive, yet somewhat loving.  I always thought that their relationship was destructive and loving at the same time, with real physical danger presented by wild animal, which Mabel seemed to crave excessively in her life. I found her life inspiring nevertheless. Mabel Stark was a renowned female tiger trainer in the early 1900s when the circus was in its golden age. Mabel survived many severe mauling by her tigers and had five husbands, but she seemed to have always preferred tigers. This was a woman who dedicated almost her entire life to training tigers for the circus. Pretty courageous choice for career in her time, and even in our time.  View the artwork from “Mi Tigre, My Lover”.

Read Anne Phelan's blog about her play.

Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark
Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah
Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo 

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki



Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki



Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki 

Special thanks to both Cotton Wright and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum for their wonderful performance, and Tom Bovo for his beautiful documentation.

Anne Phelan is now trying to make this short-play into the full-length version, and hunting for money to produce it. The play is now called “The Tiger Play”.