Happy Halloween

Ostukare

Detail from a drawing exhibited at Hope Against Hope in the Phoenix Shot Tower, Baltimore. Based off of some wonderful text messages I've received. Combined roman and romanized hiragana. Soon to be a lettering/typography project: Times New Kana...among other soon to be projects.

Experimenting with lettering for a friend's new website, projectician.

I think about how strange it is that I live in Japan. How I didn't give it much thought before I came. I wasn't even particularly interested in this country. No more than any other country at least. Sometimes I'm surprised at how much I like it here now. How I feel like I really am turning Japanese. A little. I've been making glass beads (Mary McDonough, you were right about me and glass) and origami, but my new favorite hobby is ikenobo, the Japanese art of flower arranging. It reminds of installation or sculpture or even layout--with flowers and leaves and sticks. The design considerations are the same: where's the weight? is it balanced? is there enough push and pull? bold enough? detailed enough second read? how's the negative space?

The teacher's wonderful. She's a friendly old woman who speaks just a little English, but somehow writes in beautiful cursive. Also, I love how messy the tatami room where she holds classes is. It feels right. Or at least familiar.

working with abby

last autum i was lucky enough to work with my former professor, abby donovan. she asked me, brittany, and emily to assist her with a performance in Brooklyn, "these the heavens of my brain." now she's in stockholm working with footage from several people uploaded via webcam.

see the raw video here. attempting to transform my room into the tanabata star festival, based on a story of star-crossed lovers. children write wishes on pieces of paper, traditionally for things like good handwriting and craft skills, and hang them on bamboo.

video + abby magic. a sneak preview.

turning japanese

experimental attempts to assimilate.

self-portraits/postcards to america.

happy 6 months baby

Highlights:

-Looking at cherry blossoms and eating rice on a stick outside Nagoya Castle

-Dancing in the Owara Kaze no Bon festival

-Dancing all night in a Mexican restaurant in Tokyo with a family from Guatemala after spending the previous night climbing up Mt. Fuji to reach the summit at dawn

-Eating sea urchin sashimi in South Korea so fresh it's spines were still moving and then drinking beer with the propitiator who insisted on sitting with us (and had scooped the urchin's insides into our mouths with a tiny spoon when we first hesitated to eat it)

-Snowball fight in shorts while hiking the Tateyama Mountains

-Walking to the sea (a mere two hours!...after that, we opted for the 20-minute tram ride)

-Sunday morning water aerobics with the old ladies at my gym

-Coming into the classroom to find that one of my favorite students had not only written "I love Julianne" on the board but had drawn an awesome anime-style picture of me next to it

-Riding my bike along the river at night

-Going canyoning: a sport that involves jumping off waterfalls

-Experiencing a Buddhist ceremony in Kyoto - gongs and incense and chanting in an ancient wooden temple

-Petting tame deer in Nara, the old capitol of Japan. They've been there for a thousand years and according to Shinto tradition, they're the messengers of the Gods.

Japan

My friend Kat and I have been living in Japan for about a month now, teaching English. So far things aren't so very different. Yesterday I was sitting by a fountain near my apartment watching a familiar scene - a group of children playing with the water; playing with empty bottles, their mom sitting on a park bench watching. It was when I realized the kids weren't pouring water onto the concrete haphazardly, but were actually writing in Japanese that I remembered, "oh yeah. I live in Japan now..."

I do a lot of gesturing these days. The same motions that work for the kids in my classes get the point across to strangers and train conductors when I'm lost. The other night after we went to karaoke, Kat invited some of our new friends back to her place to play cards. I ended up "talking" with a group of Japanese speakers using a pocket phrase-book. So I'd look up one of the maybe 5 conversation topics - what do you do in your free time? and then they'd try to answer in English or point to something from the list in the book. I'm into the idea of a guided conversation. I'd like to make some kind of communication device or book or machine.

I'm never really aware of being a foreigner until I see another foreigner. One thing that really is different is the acceptability of befriending strangers. It's like being a kid. You're four and you're at the playground and you see someone playing in the sandbox and you want to play in the sandbox. So you just go over and say, "wanna be friends?" It kinda works like that here.

All the Westerners hang out in Seattle's Best Coffee shop because they have free wireless internet and you can get real, unsweetened coffee (you can buy coffee in vending machines and in convenience stores here, but it comes in a little lukewarm aluminum can and it's sickly sweet). A couple days ago we just went up to a couple people there speaking English and asked where they were from, why they were here, etc. Next thing we know, we're going to a Russian BBQ with them.

Seeing 500 Buddha statues on a hillside is also a bit different.

So are beauty smile trainers and matching clothed dogs in strollers.

now 2 days

'til toyama.

2 weeks left in america

i'll miss that maryland flag.

recent exposures

recent holga photographs. olympic national park, wa; a snowy field in millersville, md; local baltimore band, hounds.

Recent Projects

I've added a few recent projects to my website: http://juliannehamilton.com/, including a poster/flier for an upcoming show. I think it turned out well enough to be part of my portfolio site. I liked these two from last summer, but they didn't quite make the cut.

Bonfire.

House show/Pool party.