santa cruz ~ gray to blue

ready to send

At last! An afternoon to wrap up the mail art that I've owed for such a long time to Jessica Gowling, who is the Queen of Mail Art (and even has her own faux postbox in her studio). Here I'm sharing with you some little views of the envelope before I put the address on. Tomorrow I'll pop it in the mailbox and send it north to Canada.

No photos of the contents yet, though ~ I want it to be a surprise when she receives it! :)

mother's day

Visited my mom on Mother's Day and brought her a big hydrangea for her garden. I gave her one last year and it has totally thrived for her, whereas the one in my yard is barely hanging on. There are still things I can learn from her. ^_^

Her garden is getting all dressed up for my sister's wedding, so we all showed up with ideas for the decorations and tried out tablecloths, runners, flower arrangements, etc.

My mom has made a number of little basket vases so we cut some roses from the yard and trimmed some greenery from another bush to give ourselves an idea of how the table bouquets could look. My sister was happy.

 

As you can see, there are also some origami cranes in the arrangement. They are symbols of good fortune so many Japanese American weddings feature cranes in the decor. I've been folding so many for Japan Relief (Intuit is now paying $1 each to Japan's recovery through the month of May!) and now I'm also trying to fold 1,000 cranes for the wedding. Soon my right thumbnail may have a little indention from scoring the paper folds ~ I hope not!

The wedding is a relatively cozy affair but there's still so much to do! I've laid out a basic design for the wedding program, which will probably be a simply bound little booklet with a washi paper cover and some embossed flowers inside. I don't know how to letterpress yet, so this will have to be printed on the regular ole printer ~ too bad ~ but it can still be cute.

I'm also responsible for the guest sign-in frame or book. The couple liked the quick sketch I made of them when they announced their engagement, so it may feature a more polished and colorful version. It's a little casual in look, but since it's a garden wedding it seems OK...

My mother has been really amazing ~ she made all the basket vases plus 100 clay wine cups for the guests to use and take home as favors. They're all glazed in white and have a little stamp on them that she carved to look like a heart, but if you look closely you see it is also a P and T for the couple's initials. Very sweet! My mom is awesome.

♥✿❀♡

As a mother myself, I received a beautiful orchid, a T-shirt with Naruto and Sasuke characters hand-drawn on the sleeve, two little clay bunnies with a clay bush for them to hop around, a rainbow colored ribbon and a song played on the guitar for me that was invented on the spot and had lines like, "Mom! Is the best in the whole wide world!!" and wasn't too hard to listen to. :)

❀♡♥✿❀♡♥✿

 

clay bunnies

Mama Bunny

 Yesterday we had lunch and a nice family afternoon at my mom's house. The last time we visited she was working in her pottery studio and helped my son and I make clay bunnies for our garden. Today we saw that they had gone through their first firing and are turning out to be pretty cute!

After the first firing, we have the choice of using acrylic paint on them (like I did with this chicken) or glazing them and putting them through a second firing in the kiln. Since the bunnies were originally my son's idea I let him decide and he picked glaze. So we're going to glaze them white, which means we have to wait a little bit longer to take them home ~ probably in a couple of weeks.

There are three bunnies and the mama is hollow so the babies can hide under her like this.

I think they'll be very charming when they're fully finished. Don't you?

Update: We visited my mum today and picked up the clay bunnies. Here's how they turned out!

earth day prints

Today I volunteered at the San Francisco Center for the Book's Earth Day celebration. It was a cozy, low-key event with lots of free activities to introduce people to printing, book-binding, collage, etc. I thought the fair was going to be outside, like Roadworks, so I panicked a little when I got there and didn't see the street closed off. But when I got to the front of the building, a sign reassured me I was there on the right day: Free Squid Printing on Saturday!

Some cute letter pressed bookmarks were made for Earth Day and free to attendees.

Inside, I checked out the other booths before starting to work at mine (veggie printing). I went to see the main attraction first and found two large squid sitting quietly on the tables. One looked at me with a reproachful eye and seemed as though it might be alive ~ although at the same time it appeared too eerily calm for that to be true.

A volunteer was rolling ink all over the other squid. I felt a bit sorry to see them like that, but someone explained that the squid are donated to an educational science group by fishermen who accidentally catch them in their nets. The squid are frozen and then donated to schools for educational purposes or community groups like SFCB for making prints. I felt slightly better knowing that they hadn't been killed just for us. Now they would transcend death to become works of art... still, it was hard to escape their mournful eyes. I've printed with tiny squid before and didn't feel too bad or squeamish, but these large ones seemed to have a lot of personality. They did make grand prints, though:

Immortalized in ink.

Next I visited a postcard station where I ran a letterpress fish print, then drew on it some more and added collage to make a fine little card for Senator Feinstein to thank her for her earth-friendly actions and votes. Hope she likes it.

SFCB provided the stamp, address and everything ~ thanks!

Then it was time to report to my veggie-print-a-greeting-card station. It was pretty busy the whole day. We had potatoes, yams, carrots and onions for printing and used Speedball washable ink. Here's one made with potatoes and onions:

The dolphin shape is achieved by using a cookie cutter to cut the potato.

My favorite vegetable for printing turned out to be the onion because of its versatility and delicate effect. The concentric circles can be taken apart or stamped together and the texture of each ring can show through if the ink is not applied too thickly.

I had a great time at my booth and met lots of creative people.

At the end of the day I managed to bind a mini-booklet at another booth and had a brief opportunity to admire the items for sale by Maiden Hand and Gold Rush Press. I've come home with lots of printed goodies that I'm planning to start including in some of my mail art packages so I can share the bounty!

art for japan

Everywhere I turn there are people doing something to help the people of Japan and it's very uplifting.

Here in the Bay Area, artists are donating their work to Bay Area Artists for Japan and there will be an art show with 100% of proceeds going to Red Cross Japan! This is possible in part because Mina Dresden has donated gallery space for the event at the Dresden Gallery.

I may have responded too late to be able to donate a piece of artwork, but I've sent them an email and hopefully I can contribute something to help the effort. Crossing my fingers...

I would love to attend this event and support Japan through the arts. If you're in San Francisco, try to make it!

Taking Flight

1,000 cranes flew in to the school garden this morning! Now they have taken flight (via the US Post Office) to Students Rebuild where they'll become part of a huge art installation with 300,000 other cranes from around the world. The art will also magically turn into $200,000 for Architecture for Humanity to rebuild Japan, thanks to the Bezos Family Foundation!

Due to the outpouring of support, more than 1,000 cranes were delivered to my desk and I expect more will arrive on Monday. All of the "extra" cranes will be taken to Osh Kosh B'Gosh where each one will become an article of children's clothing sent to Japan.

A big thank you to all the children that helped surpass our goal of 1,000 cranes! We hope that our wish will come true for Japan to heal quickly with lots of help from people all over the world.

1000 Birds

We have over 300 cranes folded so far. About 700 to go!

 I taught the students to make origami cranes yesterday and they have been folding away with such sweet dedication. A little girl about 11 years old came to get a bunch of origami paper from me since she is leaving on a short vacation and wants to fold while she's away. Another little boy who is only 6 shows up morning and afternoon to drop off a few more rough little cranes he's designed from scratch paper in his classroom. There is a steady stream every lunch and break time of colorful cranes landing on my desk.

We are trying to fold 1,000 paper cranes to send to Students Rebuild because each crane received will result in $2.00 donated to Japan rebuilding. The most exciting part is that they have just announced a deadline, so we are going to be racing to fold 1,000! The kids are very cute, excitedly spreading the word to each other and making plans on how we're going to make the goal. We have to complete 1,000 sooner than we thought!

* ** *** ** *

I have recently been following a generous and talented ceramicist on twitter, Makiko Hastings, who is making 1,000 birds for Japan. These ceramic birds she is selling are so cute and can be used as chopstick rests, too!

Japan had another 7.4 earthquake today and there is another tsunami warning.

Every little bird helps! Please help Japan.

colors of spring

Outside my window everything is growing. Grape vines are climbing, wisteria are blooming, trees are sprouting tiny bright-green leaves and of course, there are weeds poking up that have to be plucked. Color is popping up everywhere and I long for a vacation week to sit around painting and making art from all this inspiration.

This past week was a bit rough with lots of work and overtime and deadlines. Not that it wasn't fun ~ it culminated in a very charming day of art and culture at the school where I work ~ but my own creative energy was a bit drained by the time I got home. I just wanted to go to bed!

As a result, I don't have anything new to share with you this weekend. *sigh* But I found these watercolor flowers from the archives that I thought to share with you. They reflect the colors of spring that I'm starting to see around me.

Hope you're enjoying a good weekend and that the new week brings more time for art and dreaming.

Oh ~ one more thing! A twitter friend @jojoebi in Japan is holding a bracelet/necklace raffle on her blog that is open to anyone that donates to Japan Relief. The raffle ends tomorrow, so please visit her site and enter today!


Happy Weekend!

for writing home ♡

Tried my hand at making fill-in-the-blank note cards today. I was a bit rushed on this project, but they were well received and seem like they'll be useful, so I'm pretty pleased. ^_^

My colleague's 19 year-old daughter is leaving home tomorrow to begin her independent life in a new city where she'll study music, dance and theater. Her mother was proud but a little distraught that her "baby" was leaving the nest. She held an impromptu going-away party this evening, so I quickly made this card set for a gift.

Naturally they'll call, email, text and communicate with all the modern methods we have today. But the note cards will be a personal item in her own handwriting that I hope will bring happiness to her family's mailbox. (I deliberately neglected to put any space for writing bad news or disappointment on the card. They're *just* for sending good news and cheer!)

The daughter is a very cheerful, bubbly and outgoing girl, so I wrote the prompts on the cards to reflect that. I was also thinking about what her mom might want to know: who her friends are, how she's spending her time, how things are going ... even what she's eating! I added some music and art prompts on the card too, since these subjects are such a big part of her personality.

I gave them to her with a tiny bouquet of colorful paper flowers. Each card fits perfectly in a pretty little envelope upon which I placed a Forever stamp (since I hear rates are rising in April).

My idea is that it will be easy to jot a few updating tidbits on a card, seal it up and send to whomever she wishes. Although they started out as postcards, I'm glad I decided to give them envelopes ~ if she gets inspired to write more, it will be easy to mail everything together.

I wish her good luck in her new adventure!

what he did

inspiration ~ {jerrod maruyama}

In my opinion, this is one of the cutest and most inspiring "Help Japan" posters around. Jerrod Maruyama is the artist and he has generously made this image available for download on his Flickr page so that we can all spread the word. I think the juxtaposition of the sad sun and the happy red cross, both とっても かわいい (very cute!) communicate perfectly the important change that a donation can make. Everyone's help, no matter how small, can make a difference!

Jerrod does all kinds of kawaii art, but one of my favorites is this one of Astro Boy. I think he should submit it to Illustration Rally for the Ganbare Nippon project. It's so uplifting!

Take a browse through Jerrod's work and decide for yourself what characters you like best. He has everyone from Dwight (of The Office) to Toy Story, from Speed Racer to Ernie & Bert, plus a lot of super-kawaii inventions of jellyfish, nighttime magic (one of my favorites), hot dogs and more.

If you ever need to smile, just look at his art for a little bit ~ that's a link to his portfolio. ^_^ He also has his work for sale on T-shirts, cards and such at his shop, aptly called Casa Kawaii.

gathering

I attended the vigil for Japan in San Jose's Japantown, where the Japanese Community Congress raised $30,000 for the Japanese Red Cross Society during the short event! San Jose Taiko played a quiet and peaceful drum-and-flute song to open the ceremony. The leaders of numerous churches spoke to express their support and fund raising efforts amongst their own congregations. Next week there will be a funeral service for all who lost their lives in the earthquake and tsunami.

his silent action

This story touched my heart, too. Thank you @s_hayatsuki for sharing it and thank you Aya Watanabe  @vida_es_bella for the translation.

a little boy was standing in line

I'm really touched by the generosity and altruism characteristic of so many of the stories I read coming from Japanese twitter posts. In the face of horrendous crisis, individuals (even children) are not just thinking of their own well-being. I keep reading story after story of strangers helping each other and people staying calm even when stretched to the limit.

This tweet (above) from @makiwi was the first one that I decided to illustrate. There are so many beautiful sentiments being expressed on twitter alone that I will have a lot of drawings to do if I want to acknowledge each one that moves me. But I will do my best.

Thank you, Japan, for showing us how to be civil and noble under pressure.

thinking of japan

An acrylic color palette experiment. I was thinking of the Miyajima torii and the Shinto ideas of respect for each other, all life, our ancestors, and natural forces.

On Thursday night, I intended to do some painting after getting home from judo practice. I needed to work out some ideas for a large painting that a friend requested, and I wanted to start making smaller paintings with different ideas to see what she liked most. But my plans were interrupted by news of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Once I heard the news, I did not feel like painting anymore. I sat glued to the television and twitter to learn what areas were affected and to check on friends. I suppose I am lucky that everyone I know is safe. Some have been inconvenienced, but they are alive and well. Many live far enough south as to not be physically affected.

I grew up in California, so I am used to earthquakes. The biggest ones I have been in were strong enough to collapse buildings, overpasses and pieces of bridge. The shaking was severe in each one but I was never personally in any real danger. Some lives were lost, but the most I lost was electricity. In the Bay Area, I helped answer emergency phones at a radio station and prayed for people trapped in a collapsed freeway structure. In L.A., I helped return books to library shelves that all fell to the floor. There, I was shocked to drive by a three-story building that lost one wall. We could look straight in to all the homes as though it were a dollhouse.

I saw a video someone took from inside the Sendai airport, looking out of huge windows to the parking lot outside. People are gathered at three different story levels, watching the waves come rolling in. The waters pick up cars and shove them all along, floating past the windows. If I had been watching without sound, I might have remained more composed, but I heard the people shouting a familiar expression, "A-ra-ra-ra-ra!" ~ the same exclamation I heard as a kid for much lesser dangers, such as a flower pot getting knocked over or a nezumi hanabi (whirling sparkler) getting lit and chasing our feet. Hearing the expression again, for such a terrible calamity, nearly broke my heart.

The Japan earthquake is on a whole different level than anything I've experienced. The tsunami floods washing everything away make a double disaster. I am also truly hoping that the Fukushima power plants do not leak or cause further harm to a population already reeling from quake, flood and fires.

Both my home and workplace are pretty much right on top of several fault lines and there's a nuclear lab over the hill in Livermore. Perhaps it's because I know that this could just as easily have occurred here that I feel so gripped by this event. We try to be prepared, but Mother Nature is very powerful. In such a case, I hope we would have the resilience and strength the Japanese people have already shown.

I feel powerless to help in any substantial way from across the ocean. About all I can do is donate to the Red Cross and offer my encouragement to the survivors and deepest sympathy to those who were lost in this natural disaster.　がんばって ください。



 xo

Update: Providing some links for donations to Japan relief...

Red Cross
Salvation Army
Give2Asia ~ Artists Help Japan
Doctors Without Borders
Oxfam
Care

say it like this

We've all been so very busy at the school where I work, so I took a moment to write my colleague a fancy note instead of the usual scrawl on a post-it or a bland e-mail.

 

When I found a similar response in my basket, it was such a day-brightener! Really, this made me inordinately happy:

 

I think we've got a new, preferred way of intra-office communication now. :)

workspace

Lately I've been wishing for a place in the house that I can retreat to. Somewhere to work, create, paint, daydream, or whatever...

My easel is in one room, my supplies in another, and when I want to do some art I often end up at the kitchen table. It's fine but it would be nice to have a space just for me. We don't have an extra room in the house, so I'm thinking of carving out my mini-studio in this little corner of the bedroom for now.

The potential corner awaits transformation.

Some of my art supplies are already in those large boxes on the shelves, my art books are there, and the printer is hooked up and ready. I'd put some stuff on the walls and get a cute rug, but what I really need is a desk, so I've been looking around... 

I don't think it's easy to work on these, but I love them so much! Impractical, perhaps, but one of my favorites ~ chul an kwak's tables that look as though they might run away.

At the other end of the spectrum, this desk is Utterly Utilitarian but useful on wheels ~ from CB2. I wouldn't mind easily rolling to face the window, the shelves, or go out in the open to work from any side.

There is an unused wooden table that we have tucked away right now, but I think it's a little large for the space. This is just a tiny corner and I don't want to overwhelm the bedroom with my art space. I also have a long, narrow table top that just needs legs. Maybe I can find some for it?

The search is on... and one of these days I'll have my own place for art. If anyone has some links to pics of their studio or an inspiring workplace, please let me know here or via twitter. I'd love to gather ideas about creative spaces to work in.

Thanks! xo