Atelier Talk May 26: On ne vit qu'une fois — Do You Believe In Affirmations?
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| A partial view of my new painting "Fireflies' Light Show" 2026 |
This month's atelier talk topic is "affirmations" and "perfect timing." Are you someone who believes in them? Or not? I will come back to this at the end of this blog. You can think about your answer while reading some of my updates.
May is a big art month in New York City. Art fairs everywhere. Me and my favorite gallery owner were very disappointed about the Venice Biennale this year. Everyone can have different opinions on it, but I'm glad to see people who surround me have similar visions to me. Because that means I am in the right place for my art.
Some Good Exhibitions/Museums I Have Visited Recently
Raphael: Sublime Poetry at Met Museum, Duchamp at MoMA Museum, Noguchi Museum, and reopened Frick Collection. I will share a review on Duchamp exhibition from MoMA soon.
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| Fresh Widow 1920 by Marcel Duchamp at MoMA Museum |
Whitehot Magazine published a short article I write "Seeking Randomness in Art at Future Fair - NYC Art Fair Highlight". You can read it here if you are interested in. I have been writing about art and the art world since 2014 on my art blog. My blog is still my favorite place to share my thoughts and experiences with you, yet it is very nice to see my writing in a widely recognized magazine of my favorite. Please let me know your thoughts on my article if you have a chance to read it. You may see more articles from me in Whitehot Magazine.
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| A New Article on Whitehot Magazine by Natsumi Goldfish May 2026, Article #7788 |
My New Interview Coming Out Soon
I finally completed another interview with an online magazine. They interviewed me in 2023, but recently, they reached out to me again. I felt maybe it was good timing to do it again answering some questions I haven't talked about. I will share it with you once they publish it.
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Inside My Atelier
Several Studio Visits
This month I have been pretty busy with studio visits. It started with my favorite gallery owner/my spiritual mentor visiting my studio for an upcoming exhibition. Then I had a few more studio visits. In total, about 7 people came this month, which is rare. Usually I am shy about inviting people, but it is nice to have people come once in a while. Explaining my work repeatedly makes me revisit my initial passions, thoughts, experiences, concepts, ideas, and dreams. It leads to my new painting ideas.
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| From One of Studio Visits May 2026 |
In Progress Art In My Atelier
I have been working on a set of windows I call "Italian Window" which I hope will complete this month. Sometimes, windows reflect the nationality and characteristics or mentality of the people who reside.
I also reworked on a Porcelain China Cat painting(2012). I'm mostly done with this one. I would also like to complete my Dictator window finally, if you know which window I am talking about?
There are a few painting I am waiting to varnish soon. Also thinking about making some new bonsai if possible.... Because I was in a slump for over half year and I couldn't work on any new idea until I finally completed my painting "Fireflies' Light Show", now I am embracing freedom to give shape to my creative energy and ideas coming out like a fountain.
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| A partial view of my new painting "Fireflies' Light Show" 2026 |
Random Note:
This past two weeks I have been in love with a man who calls our Claude Monet was "a stupid man"... I like his brain. We sometimes get to discover something really meaning to ourselves because we look for inspirations hands on.
It is an artist from the past. I wonder if you can guess who I am talking about just by this hint. I don't plan to reveal who, but I will tell you if you get it right, because I think it's a miracle. You can't always find answers online. You can't know everything online or by asking AI.
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So back to the title of this blog,Do you believe in affirmations? Do you believe in the idea of perfect timing? When we all only live once?
I wonder what your thoughts on them.
I absolutely do. I might write about it more someday(but I prefer it to be in my future book and that is why I probably have never mentioned it until now in my blog). But everything I listed in this blog happened because there was that opportunity because of many connections, and I felt it was the right time that to be happen.
And that is why I am making a trip to Dia:Beacon tomorrow. There were at least three or four people recently who mentioned me Dia:Beacon. And I was indeed actually planning to visit there with a friend, which was canceled (or postponed to someday).
And I decided to still go there.
It wasn't maybe a right time for us to go this time, but it was for me. And it will be a nice day.
When we have a lot of experience, we build up some problems inside ourselves. I, for instance, have a separation problem, and I also have a hard time believing in a future plan that involves other people in some conditions.
Today we can fix most of the problems we have. But I want to keep these issues inside me even though they can make my life difficult from time to time. I want to make my own art with all my experiences in my life. Memories are fragile very unfortunately, we can't keep them forever in original shapes and colors and textures, but these body reactions remain more solid inside us.
Like I had some people, whom I (or we) desperately wanted to see each other one more time, which we thought would absolutely happen soon, but we couldn't. Not just such a sad moment but all kinds of memories and experiences we have grow inside us and build new charactrictic of who you are.
If I were not an artist, I might have wanted to forget some of them, but I'm very fortunate that today I want to keep them, process them, and share them with people someday somewhere in my art. Like my learning from these experiences. And I hope that will have a positive effect on those who see them.
So have a wonderful May, everyone. I look forward to talking to you in my next blog post.
