“in my cosmic garden” (12 x 20″)

it’s very tempting to just play with elijah all day long and forget about drawing.

elijah, now 2 years and 3 months old, is a curious boy.  all summer, elijah and i were covered with dirt head to toe, digging holes as deep as we could, and watching ladybugs climb up on our fingers.  i’ve rediscovered that spinning around fast and falling down is fun, and that the sky is actually high and deep, and that getting dirty is relaxing.

i’ve heard that this stage of childhood is called the ‘terrible twos’.  i think children this age are just curious — we should call it the ‘curious twos’.  i want elijah to do as many experiments as he can think of even if he ends up feeling frustrated sometimes.  i try to play with him as much as he wants me to.  but at the end of a long day of running around in the playground and climbing up on monkey bars, i end up exhausted.  after all, i’m not a 2 year old. i’m a middle-aged mama.

when elijah was a baby, i used to stay up late at night drawing.  but with a toddler, it gets harder.  he just doesn’t stop, all day long.  by the time i put the laundry in at night, i need to go to bed and get ready for tomorrow.  i’d get ideas for drawings i wanted to do but i was so busy that i never got around to them.  even when i finally found some time, so many of the images in my mind would be gone, or stuck inside my head, not fresh or flowing out of me.  it’s fun to play with elijah but it was still depressing not to have time or energy to draw.

that’s how things have been going for the 6 months since my solo show opened this spring.  i’ve hardly done any drawings except the little sketches i do for elijah.  he draws more than i do and he seems to be having fun doing it.  i was jealous watching him — i almost forgot how much fun it is to draw.

a few weeks ago, i started to draw again.  all the images in my head started to stream out.  i felt better –drawing really is fun.

i was invited to send a new drawing to the mackenzie art gallery’s gala auction this november.  i took a piece i’d started earlier this month and finished it last saturday night.  it sure is a nice feeling to be drawing again after so long.

this is my first drawing after a long vacation.  it’s called “in my cosmic garden”.  i spent a lot of time playing in the garden and taking care of plants this summer.  my mind is still out in the wild and natural world.

Gala Art Auction

Friday, November 6th, 6:30 pm

With an East Indian theme, we will begin the evening at 6:30 with an appetizer reception, including entertainment, raffle offerings, followed by a Live Art Auction of approx.20 works of original art by local & national artists. The evening will end with our raffle results, dessert, coffee & tea.

Tickets: On sale October 1, 2009 at the Gallery Shop ($100 each)

Limit of 250 tickets available call 584-4295 to reserve.

Auction items will be posted on mackenzieartgallery.ca on October 14, 2009.

‘also sprach zarathustra‘ by portsmouth sinfonia.

i’m showing my drawings with lilly piri and fumi nakamura in the project room at thinkspace gallery in los angeles.  i’m very happy to be able to show with them.  we all use color pencils.  the opening is  tonight (7 – 11pm).  the show runs from september 11th to october 2nd.  if you’re around in LA, please drop by and check out the show!

thinkspace art gallery

4210 santa monica blvd,

los angeles, ca

thursday – sunday (1 – 6pm) or by appointment

summer in saskatoon is short.  it was even shorter this year, but it was full of memorable moments.  i remember a few::

• elijah climbed up the monkey bars and walked across, by himself.
• i was driving our crashed car to the body shop when the hood opened all the way up and smashed back into the windshield.  no one was hurt.
• i came home to our house repainted with the color we chose, wondering if i’d like it.
• elijah looking sorry after he dropped our camera on the concrete patio and broke it.
• elijah singing ‘people on the road can turn an LOL into a great big OMG‘ — over and over.
• a young boy bought my handmade toy at the fringe festival.  he took off.  i looked at the money he put in my palm — two dollars short.
• elijah found a ladybug on a sidewalk.  he was so happy that i was happy.  and he stepped on it.
• i was saying ‘whee~’ as i playfully tipped the rocking chair back and forth.  elijah who was watching me by my side tamed me “mama, ‘whee~’ shinaide.  abunai kara.” (mama, don’t do ‘whee~’.  because it’s dangerous.)
• elijah and i picked dandelions for papa late one afternoon.  he held them tight in his palm until he got home.  he gave them to papa.  papa gave him a big hug.
• elijah ate a whole watermelon in one day, by himself.

i hope your summer is full of beautiful moments…

i’ve made a pocket version of my amigurumi storybook, ‘the boring life of spencer, the ennui dog’.  it’s a children’s story for adults, with love, adventure, a 3-headed duck and a little backstabbing.  it’s available now in my online shop.  and i’ll be showing it at the fringe festival here in saskatoon, starting tonight.

back in 2006 i was invited to take part in an art book fair at aka gallery in saskatoon.  i’d just started this blog.  my first solo show of drawings was opening soon and i was still drawing for that show.  the art book fair was scheduled just a week after my show opening.  i didn’t have a book of drawings, or any other book to show.  but i wanted to take part, so of course i said ‘yes’.

i’d already been making a few amigurumi animals, but i didn’t have a story.  so i sat down a couple of nights after my show opening and wrote a story.  i spent a couple of days going around town taking photos with my amigurumi (it was super-cold, some of the “special effects” were hard to get right, i had to go to value village to find a pink jeep for the big ending).  paul and i stayed up late one night to do the layout and i got it printed the next day, at an office printing shop.  i bolted the pages together and took it right to the art book fair.

everyone seemed to really enjoy the spencer book.  that summer i brought it to the fringe festival and people were lining up in front of my table to read it, bringing their friends over.  i thought about getting it printed professionally but it seemed like too much trouble.  i always meant to make a smaller, affordable version of the book, but life kept getting busier and that never happened.  i did design a set of ’spencer’ postcards that i’ve been showing at the fringe festival and selling in my online shop.  and the 3-headed maximum team power duck doll who played the bad guy in the book, made an appearance as part of a show i did at the mendel art gallery.

well, now i’ve finally made a mini-version of the spencer book that you can buy and take home with you.  it’s roughly 4 x 6 inches in size, so you can carry it in your pocket.  just take it out and read it when you need a little laugh. or you can come to my blog and read the whole story here. click the thumbnails to view the pages at full size or click the link below to launch a slideshow.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

 

i’m taking part in the saskatoon fringe festival again this year, starting tonight until august 8th.  it’ll be the 4th time i’ve showed there in 5 years.  i’ll be selling this petit spencer book as well as my prints and postcards.  come on down to broadway avenue to meet me.  i’m planning to attend as many days as i can.  i’ll probably have elijah with me for some of the time, since he’s having a very emotional separation anxiety these days.

hope to see you there!

july 22, wednesday 1981 cloudy

“yesterday, i bathed with tomoko-chan and she washed my head.  it felt very good.”

i still remember the frosted glass with snowflake pattens in the bathroom in the house we lived in from age 5 to 14.  tomoko was the daughter of my mom’s friend.  i think she was older than my brother, who is 3 1/2 years older than me.  she was, my mom and i think, my brother’s first love.  she stayed over a few days during the summer break.  i think she broke my brother’s heart.

she wore a beautiful baby blue long skirt.  her long hazelnut hair swayed as she went upstairs with my brother.  she had big eyes with long eyelashes, like alice from wonderland.  every time she smiled she was like an angel.

maybe she was my first love too.

elijah likes auto-tune the news so much that he asks for it saying, “‘o-to tune da nu~ eve-thin beta o-to tune~’, miru (watch)!” he dances to it. it’s super-adorable.

sometimes i don’t want him to watch it.  i want to go out and play instead.

so i say ::

ママ　｢今日ね、ちょっと見れないの。コンピューターが寝てるから。」

（居間のラップトップを指差しながら）

イライジャ　「おねんねしてるの？」　（ちょっと寂しそう）

（走って、オフィスにいく）

イライジャ　「ママ！大丈夫だよ。こっちのコンピュータ、起きてるよ！こっちで見れるよ！」

mama “we can’t watch it today, because the computer is sleeping.”

(pointing at the laptop in the living room)

elijah “(it’s) sleeping?” (looking sad)

(elijah runs to the office)

elijah “mama!  it’s okay!  this computer is awake!  (we) can watch it here!”

auto-tune the news will continue to echo in my head all day long…

it was probably not a good idea to go on a bicycle ride yesterday — it was sunny, but cool and very windy.  we wanted to try out our chariot, the bike carrier, for the first time this summer.

now elijah and i have a cold.

his nose was running and i was coughing all afternoon today.  elijah noticed that i wasn’t feeling well.

he asked me ::

イライジャ　「ママ、どうしたの？どうした？」

ママ　「ママ、ちょっと、喉が痛いよ」

イライジャ　「チューしてあげる」

（喉にキスと撫ぜ撫ぜ）

イライジャ　「もう大丈夫になった？」

ママ　「もう大丈夫だよ」

elijah: “what’s the matter, mama?  what’s the matter?”

mama: “my throat hurts a bit, mama.”

elijah: “(i’ll) give you a kiss.”

(gives me a kiss on my throat and pets me)

elijah: “has (it) got better now?”

mama: “i’m okay now.”

he was super-sweet and i didn’t want to miss this sweet opportunity.

so i asked him ::

ママ　「ママ、目も痛いよ。チューしてください。」

イライジャ　（チュッ）

ママ　「右のほっぺも痛いです。」

イライジャ　（チュッ）

ママ　「左も」

イライジャ　(笑って）　「痛くないよ～。もう、大丈夫だよ～。」

(笑いながら走って逃げる）

mama: “mama, my eyes hurt, too.  please give me a kiss”

elijah: (kiss)

mama: “my right cheek hurts too”

elijah: (kiss)

mama “left one, too”

elijah: (laugh) “(it) doesn’t hurt!  (you’re) all right now.”

(ran away, laughing)

once in awhile, having a cold isn’t too bad.

my mom sent me a box full of my old diaries, essays, letters and poems.  this is one of the picture diaries that i had to keep as an assignment during summer vacation when i was in grade one.  it looks like i drew it with crayon.  the summer vacation began on july 20 and ended on august 31.  i wrote a diary entry under the drawing.

JULY 21, TUESDAY 1981 SUNNY

“i was forced to take medicine by mother yesterday.  so i threw up.  after i threw up, my throat hurt.”

what a touching story!  can you feel the maternal love?

medicine in japan is very bitter.  Kong Qiu said “good medicine tastes bitter in the mouth…”.  for that, japanese pharmaceuticals are doing an excellent job.

even the kid’s medicine i had to take was also bitter.  they came in liquid and powder form.  my mom used to wrap powder medicine in “オブラート　（oblaat）”, which is a tasteless water-soluble gel made of starch.  that way, i wouldn’t taste the bitterness of the medicine.  liquid medicine, on the other hand, had no way to distract from its bad taste — a sickening mixture of cola, cinnamon, dirt and toothpaste in a purple-brown color.  as i got older and more mischievous, i would pour the liquid medicine down the sink and tell my mom that i took it.  i was successfully “taking” the medicine happily in this way until one day when i poured so much down the drain that my mom noticed and figured out what was going on.

i learned that i should never EVER tell a lie to my mom and to stay healthy so that i wouldn’t have to take medicine.

canadian kids don’t have to go through such a rough childhood.

children’s tylenol in canada is flavored cherry, bubblegum, or banana — you name it.  elijah likes the super-sweet medicine so much that he asks for a second helping — saying “more, more” — a red carpet to happy drug addiction.

i can’t wait to introduce him the king of bitter medicine, the original “SEIRO-GAN“!

my solo show ‘indoor playground’ at the stall gallery was reveiwed there was was reviewed by bart gazzola in planet s, saskatoon’ s city magazine (vol. 7, issue 20).   he also wrote a review of my work showing at the mendel art gallery’s ‘artists by artists’ show in 2007.

Nightmares And Dreamscapes

RISING STAR CONTRASTS HAPPINESS AND HORROR IN LATEST EXHIBIT
by Bart Gazzola

YUKA YAMAGUCHI — INDOOR PLAYGROUND
Runs to May 24
The Stall Gallery

It has been said that, in terms of human endeavours, 90 per cent fall in the category of failure, while 10 per cent succeeds. In terms of the art world, I’d be comfortable raising the former to 95.

Cynical, sure — but I was speaking to someone recently about the differing art worlds (or genres), and how they can all too often be sadly incongruous, contradictory and vicious (not to mention vacuous) in the assertion of their primacy. The failure of this approach can be seen in the corporate wallpaper of the RBC painting competition, for example, or the manner in which ideology and poor execution, regrettably, has characterized many an Artist-Run Centre (ARC) — to their detriment.

Perhaps, this may simply be a crisis of faith concerning the current world of art on my part — a world where far too many people speak about how their works sell as supposed proof of their value. To that, I can only respond that there’s a thriving market for porn and crack, as well.

Happily, an antidote to that type of frustration comes in the most recent work by local artist Yuka Yamaguchi, currently showing at the Stall Gallery. Her career is taking off — and deservedly so, thanks to exhibitions in the past such as Flatlanders at the Mendel (where she displayed some of the strongest work in the show), and now with this solo exhibition of newer works.

Yamaguchi’s works are often deliberate and sparse, and yet always colourful and engaging. There is a childlike — not at all to be confused with childish — nature to her work: it’s playful and exploratory, and full of bright colours. The actors in her scenes are all young, and some seem to be enjoying themselves, while others appear somewhat put upon, or suffering stoically….

read more on planet S

earlier in planet S, my solo show was listed as the #1 event in saskatoon.  the write-up says:: yuka yamaguchi’s art is gorgeously cute and cuddly — until you notice how disturbing some of these images are.  originally from japan.  saskatoon is seriously lucky to have her in this city!”

thanks for having me, saskatoon.  i like living here.