Photo Diary for Rooms Magazine

Hi there!I'm melting in NY super hot summer...being an ice cream zombie.Mexico show was great!  I will update photos soon.

Couple weeks ago I did a one week photo diary for the Rooms Magazine, Fine Art Magazine from London. And now it's online to read.  Thank you Rooms Magazine! For some reason there is a week difference in when this actually took place, it's a diary from June 10th to 19th :) Well... it's the week that I got sick so I'm not sure how entertaining it is... but if you are ever curious about what I was doing during that week, check it out~

Aya'sMonday---->  click

Tuesday---> click

Wednesday---> click

Thursday ---> click

Friday---> click

Saturday---> click

Sunday ---> click

sculpture wednesday

Slowly I'm building up my ceramic figures, they are before the bisk fire so they look gray. I decided to name my figure after my friends :-)From the left (girl with a bird on her head) Kimiko, middle (Elephant girl) Eun-ha, and the right (girl with a goldfish in the stomach) Fumiha. I can't wait to have a whole family of friends~ And I can't wait to start painting them!

Sculpture Studio

Here are some photos from my ceramic studio.Slowly but surely something is coming out from my brain ---> hands ---> Plaster casts ---> clay. I was creating different vases with faces, and the other day I realized. Oh!!! all my vases at home have faces!!! It was nice to know I was getting inspiration from some objects around my house and my everyday life! Here is some photo of my vases at home. And! For this Valentine's day Eun-ha gave me one of her art ceramic piece.  I always wanted to own her piece so I was so happy. And guess what?! it was a vase with face, too!!! You can see Eun-ha's art work here --->http://www.eun-ha.com She is a true inspiration to me and a great friend.  She is one of the reason that I started doing ceramic. Here is Eun-ha's Vase and a visiting artist cat Nemo.

spring?

One of my plant is blooming. Maybe they can feel the spring is coming.

Story of Banpeiyu-chan

I found a new Friend in the kitchen, her name is Bampeiyu-chan.She is a Citron as big as my face! We hanged out for a while chatted and shared our childhood stories. Miichan kept her distance.  I think she was scared to see such a huge face floating  near her food and water. After few days I was hungry and Banpeiyu-chan was smelling so fresh...My stomach made a sound which it shouldn't make towards a friend... Ahhhhhhh!

so delicious...

The End

Tetris Attack!

I've done many embroideries in the past but not much "cross stitching."For the 8bit show in CA I thought cross stitching would be the perfect way to make the 8bit pixel image.  And I picked Tetris.

I loved Tetris when I was a kid, and I always love this first screen image of the Russian building. This is what I remember as a kid when people talk about Russia.  oh yes Russia I know people live in Tetris building! So I decided to have my Tetris image very Russian including the building and the color (Red, Yellow and blue) remembering what I thought of Russia as a child, Onion building, red pattern flowers, lots of Mushrooms from fairy tales, and the home of Tetris!This is a side story...after 20 years since I first saw the Russian building in Tetris, I finally made a trip to Russia 2010. I was amazed of those beautiful onion churches popping up everywhere in town and villages. And the land of Fairy Tales, I felt like I was in the fairy tale with wooden mushrooms, beautiful churches, lace window frames from the wooden houses and strange trees look like creatures. And here I'm really in the fairly tale!  In the House of  Baba Yaga! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga

Oompa Loompa doompadee doo~

Oompa Loompa, do-ba-dee-doo,I’ve got a perfect puzzle for you. Oompa Loompa, do-ba-dee-dee, If you are wise you’ll listen to me. What do you get when you guzzle down sweets? Eating as much as an elephant eats. What are you at getting terribly fat? What do you think will come of that? I don't like the look of it Oompa Loompa do-ba-dee-da, Given good manners you will go far. You will live in happiness too, Like the oompa loompa do-ba-dee-doo. Do-ba-dee-doo

This is my world mixed with Willy Wonka's I did this painting for Gallery 1988 for their Crazy 4 Cult show opening tomorrow! I haven't used a wood panel for a long time, and now just started again to paint on wood. and bright colors!

Info: "Crazy 4 Cult" Gallery 1988 ( 7020 Melrose Ave. LA, CA) Opening July 8th, 2011

Happy 2011!!!

Happy 2011 everybody!!!I have a great feeling about this new year already. Hope it will bring all of us a good luck and great surprises! Best wishes from Tokyo!

Visiting MICA

I visited MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore last Monday to give a guest lecture and a stencil demo at Marcos Chin's class.

The train ride from NY  was smooth and fun, Marcos had a microwaved sandwich and I had a half frozen one (lady asked us hot or cold and that's what we got...) hahaha

Marcos' has such an ambitious and creative class at MICA,  students have one semester to finish a production of the play "snow queen," From set design, costume design to acting all in 3 months!  It was like watching project runway, I was very impressed. Here is their website-->http://snowqueenremix.tumblr.com/

Giving a demo and lecture to his class was very easy, the students were nice and asked many questions (curious minds always make me happy when I do the lecture!)  It's a very talented class and Marcos is such an amazing teacher!  Lots to learn from him, I wish I had his class when I was in my undergrad...

Here are some fun photos of Marcos and I dressing up in their costumes :-)

The class was about 6 hours long~ fewwww we were all sleepy after that...

Thank you Jose for letting me stay in your beautiful apartment, and thank you Marcos for inviting me!

They will have 3 shows in early Dec, if you are in Baltimore, you should go see!

Inspiration --- kodomo no kuni

"Kodomo no kuni" is a children publication in Japan which was published between 1922 and 1944. The color and simple figures.  I really get inspired by all of those beautiful art works. I especially like the fact all those artists are not doing "overly cute" stuff just because it's for children.  I can learn a lot from them :-)

NYCC--- extra

At NYCC I run into some people that I haven't seen for loooong time and it was great to catch up :-)And sip sip water with Nakako-san, and be captured by Mario brothers! Nakako-san, he has this amazing toy store in Hida-Takayama, Japan.  Here is the link: http://www.tomenosuke.com/ We were talking about his amazing creation "Tomenosuke blaster" which is a small edition replicas of the "Brade Runner Blaster" from the film Brade Runner. His store created them back in 2008, and it was sold out in 1 min! (wow)  And great stories he had of "making of" was so interesting. and this product, wow Such a beauty!

http://www.tomenosuke.com/blaster/

And I run into Some people who went to the same MFA program at SVA! They are so talented, I think you will enjoy their works. Nathan Fox-----> http://www.foxnathan.com/

Patrick Dorian----> http://patdorian.com/

Benjamin Marra----> http://www.benjaminmarra.com/

Plus, I run into Zak, we went to an art summer camp in Savannah, GA when we were 17!!! which is like......15 years ago!!!!! we still look the same hahaha :-) Zak Kinsella ---> http://www.zakkinsella.com/

So good to know everyone is doing well~  :-D

Monterey CA --- extra extra

So we had a one whole day to enjoy the area after the opening, it was a sunny and a perfect day!Monterey has an amazing Aquarium, we've been waiting to visit and finally our dream came true. Also seems like People in CA has such a great car!

And the natures in CA is incredible! Orange, Yellow, purple and blue it was such a teat for my eyes :-)