Atelier Talk: January 2025 -Are we all really connected?-
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| A progress painting I have been working on this month. |
I hope you are starting a new year with good karma, dreams, and love. I have been having a nice start of the year so far with good omens. My rib hairline fractures have been healing well. I started to practice and am now trying to master Shirshasana (head standing for yoga) which helps me to feel the gravity from a different angle and looking at my paintings upside down. We are entering a new world with a new president, and here in New York City with a rapidly increasing living cost and so on it is challenging ever to just live a basic life. At the same time, they are full of small good signs spreaded and expectations that we will have some good art out of them. I'm surrounded by people who try to grow me as an artist, which is everything I wanted. I consider you as a part of it by giving your attention and time to read my blog, so thank you so much.
I have several progress paintings currently in my studio as always. The difference from last year is the sizing. I have been moving on to larger canvases compared to the past years. I needed some time to work with smaller surfaces to narrow down some skills I wanted. Also there are different challenges in smaller surfaces that are as interesting as larger surfaces. But now I'm excited for my new challenge and larger canvases I wanted to work on for a while. This year will make me grow a lot as an artist I feel.
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| detail 1, "Are we all really connected? |
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| detail 2, Plant stems and foliage |
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| detail 3, Plant stems and foliage |
This month, in a little over a week since the year started, I already read four books(comics) by Junji Ito including "Tomie". Since I usually try to finish one book a month, this is a quite fast pace. The reason why I read them was because they were recommended by a friend here. I don't usually read or watch or pay attention to horror stories but they are always exceptions like most of other things. And this was a good one, I enjoyed the author's imagination and his drawing of figures are unique (It doesn't have an old feeling but has showa-period feeling to it at the same time) and each character stands out unlike some recent manga. I really enjoyed the manga I borrowed from my friend, especially as an artist I liked to be able to see scans of brainstorming and notes on the authors notebook he added at the end of each short story.
ニューヨークで仲良くしてもらっているお友達のおすすめで、ホラー漫画家の伊藤潤二さんの本を４冊借りて一気に読む。普段ホラー系の作品を一切手に取らない私は伊藤潤二さんについても全く知らなかった。登場人物の見た目が変わっているけど魅力的で、独特な話の構想も良かったけれど、特にオムニバスの話の最後に掲載されている作家のノートのスキャンが興味深かった。普段自分が手に取ったり目に止めない本や作家でいざ読んでみると良い作品を勧めてもらえるのは良い一年になる兆しのような気がする。特に年の初めには。
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| 伊藤潤二/著 富江（上下）その他 / Junji Ito "Tomie" and others |
The actual book for this month I chose by myself to read this month is Still Life (1987 -1988) by Natsuki Ikezawa. Interestingly I found this book in NYC. I feel while we don't have many Japanese living in New York City, compared to other Asians or compared to it used to be like 30 or more years ago, we have some intellectual Japanese in New York City who have excellent sense for book choice. There are a few places where Japanese people donate books and these random Japanese books that inspire me often come from these donation corners. I picked up this book in Forest Hills in Queens from a newly found donation corner. Only because I liked the title "Still-Life" it's one of my favorite words. I even made a painting titled "Still-Alive" which was a painting of a rabbit and mushrooms and a butterfly and a sneak in a Dutch golden age era forest. Mostly I buy Japanese books I want to read in Japan and bring them here but all books I've adopted in NYC have been giving me so much inspiration and knowledge and new perspectives.
私が自ら選んだ今月の本は池澤夏樹さんのスティル・ライフ。『ご自由にどうぞ』に置かれていたこの本に惹かれたのはまさに題名。それと少し色あせた青緑の表紙、そして作家さんの名前に私の弟の名前の漢字が入っていることだった。私はスティル・ライフという言葉がなぜか好きで作品のタイトルにもこれを少し変えて"Still-Alive"といううさぎと蛇とキノコの作品に名付けたこともある。この本は１日で完読して、まだ１月だけれど今年のベストに入るかもしれない。「スティル・ライフ」・「ヤーチャイカ」（ロシア語で「私はカモメ」）どちらも良かった。
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| 池澤夏樹/著 中央公論社 / Still Life by Natsuki Ikezawa, Chuokoron-Sha |
This month I have THE BILL EVANS TRIO -AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD in my CD player.
I only have about a dozen CDs in my atelier and I listen to one of them for about one month and when I start to get used to it, I change it to another one. I might add one more CD to my collection this year if I find one I have been looking for.
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| THE BILL EVANS TORIO -At The Village Vanguard |
Thank you for reading and I will chat with you again in my next atelier talk.
