Atelier Talk: Recent Updates & 92th Academy Awards and other Movies

A Girl and A Butterfly, Mixed Media Drawing on Fabric, 16x16cm Circle, 2020

Happy Valentines Day Everyone.

I always forget that when I put a cut rose in water they start to decade sooner than when I don't. I always make this mistake because I feel plants will stay fresh longer in water than in air. But it is not true sometimes. I think I will write more about this in next blog because it is an interesting learning and truth for me.

The first image of this blog is a small drawing I made this month on fabric, I drew on a fabric before but this time on much thinner fabric. It is mixed media drawing in a 16cm circle. I really like this one, a young girl with a butterfly launched on her back. I think this kind of drawing is one that I really make just for joy of drawing my imagination and a sense that I want to translate. I am going to use this method, or something along with this way, to make a bigger drawing, playing with the soft and moving surface and it will be wonderful that it gives my work a new dimension.

The other day I was looking outside from bus seeing many pizzeria restaurants outside.

I was, in my slow processing mind, thinking the world wants pizza when I just want simple Japanese meal, some rice and miso soup and pickled veggies and a grilled fish with daikon oroshi on side. It used to me that dinner time was time for a family gathering. We were all different although sharing the blood to me as a child, our characteristics were different, our ages were different, our liking for food wasn't the same, our positions weren't the same, but we shared the same things on table, shared the conversation and the time. 

It seems nothing related to art but meals we grow up with are very important that they affect how we process our thoughts. Our family (or home)meals and cultural dining really affects our brain. It is almost like one of first education we receive. In asian cuisine, there are often small various dishes on table and they are thought out for nutrition balance, and also the meals on dishes were often meant to be shared with people at the same table. Although I chose NYC as a homebase today, as an artist, I am really grateful that I was born and grew up in Japan, in suburban Tokyo because that really making me make my art. It really affects how you think, off course it is not just meal that affects the culture we live and grow up does, but our cuisine affects how we think and behave, and it make us behave like locals. Like a full course menu at a french restaurant to jambon-beurre, Italian pasta or Spanish paella, asian cuisines, pizza stands and bagel shops in NYC, the ways and shapes we cut meats and vegetables and the way we preserve them, and food we make when someone in household is sick.

Since I have been on crutches for while, I have been away from the NYC custom on walking with coffee on hand as my hands are occupied. I kind of miss it, but do I really miss it? Well, I have been wondering about this.  Addiction exists in many places, it is not just substances we intake to our body that are addictive, it's in things that stimulate our senses, and it is in our customs and habits too.

My hair is finally growing back...kind of. It is kind of important for me to keep long hair. I like short hair too but it is not the point. It is kind of like a bet I am making to one lady, it is a connection that I am keeping, and it is a challenge, that I hope someday she will see.

Earlier the month, I watched a few older movies and some of them was Breakfast at Tiffany's and the second one was Step Up (first one). They are different genre movie and in different time but they are similar in that they both featured a loving young brother. I already saw them multiple times but I like both movies they still make me come back to watch from time to time.

In general I like any dance movies from Black Swan to Burlesque, Honey, First Position, Dirty Dancing, Center Stage, Shall We Dance (JPN), Footlose, Fame, and Step Up. It's an endless list if we try to write down dance movies. I really like old ballet school movies probably the most. For Step Up, I like the first original one and the last one, if you haven't seen. They were shot in NYC. The last one features a diner in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

Watching the Oscar 2020 (The academy award 2019) made me realized that I watched only two movies in theatre last year: Joker and Parasite. It's great that two of them did great at the Oscar, but I realized there were some recent movies that I was missing out that I would like to watch sometime..., movies like LITTLE WOMEN, The IRISHMAN, MARRIAGE STORY, 1917, Two Popes, Portrait of Lady on Fire, and The Neighbors Window, off course. The Oscar is a big yet still a small world though, compared to the amount of movie each nation creates. It is a quite accomplishment that Parasite got 6 awards and it won Best Picture.

The speech by Joaquin Phoenix was magnificent. I have been watching repeatedly, but every time it made me emotional and almost cry. I wonder if we would give a similar speech if he won the award before, when he was nominated in 2001, in 2006 or in 2013. I wonder what he was preparing to talk then. 

Is there any speech that you still remember today, and had a big impact on your life?

I believe more than lyric of a song, a speech has a power to be closer to an art form to my mind. It is like painting maybe. More than a music concert, more than a dance performance, a speech is a form that is not included in fine art, unlike poetry, but it is a form I hope my painting has some similar quality to it, to the people who see them someday. A good speech of about little over three minutes.

I wish if there were a text book in school that has a collection of various kind of speeches in human history.