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.