Natural beauty

I have started weeding, since it's getting warmer.  Whenever I tried to stand up, I often hit my head on the branches.   It's the branches of a Japanese plum tree in the garden.    Finally I looked up and noticed the flowers were blooming!   So beautiful!    I always keep busy cleaning, cooking, doing choirs and working in my room at home or going out, and never never have looked at flowers at home very carefully.  Yes.  All the plants have life. 

One Sunny Day

It's the first Sunday of March.   Warm and fine.  I enjoyed cooking and laundry.

This week will be paced with schedule, interpreter's job and arrangement of travel to NY.

The drawing below is titled One Sunny Day, Pencil and gouache on paper, 8,5"x11.5", 2015, ©Kikuko Sakota Art, http://www.kikukosakota.com/

Adventure

In January and February, I have been almost staying at home, painting, drawing, and translating.

I have even enjoyed daily chores.

Now in March, as it it getting warmer, I feel I'm active.  I wanted to relax more at home, but also I guess many good things may be awaiting for me.  The drawing below is titled Adventure, pencil and gouache on paper, 8.5x11.5, 2015, ©Kikuko Sakota Art


Yoga

I attend a yoga class every week.  I used to take a jazz dance but I haven't located it  since I came back to Himeji.  So instead of jazz dance, I take a yoga class for exercise.

20 years ago I also tried yoga because I heard (if my memory is right) Johannes Itten, Bauhous, once advocated to practice yoga for art, especially for developing sense of colors.  I forget about it for a long time.

I feel fine when I stretch myself and rotate joints, neck, muscles.  While doing so, I feel warmer and I can feel my tight and tense muscles and joints become flexible.  Also I feel calm as if I released pent-up frustration and stress.  It is good stress management.

I think I'd better relax when I work and paint.  The drawing below is titled Past and Future, Gouache and pencil on paper, 4"x6", 2014, ©Kikuko Sakota Art


How does your garden grow?

When I was a teenager, I liked reading who done its, especially Agatha Christie's.  Later on I also enjoyed watching her TV series such as Hercules Poirot.   What I was attracted to was not how heinous crimes are solved, but characters she described and outfits, culture, and scenery of the film.

I came across one film titled How Does Your Garden Grow.   I would not touch upon the plot of this story but what I can tell is symbolically the murderer seeded malice and it grew in mind and it took place.

Whatever you seed, it will grow in your garden.  Hope I can seed something wonderful and let it grow in my garden.  The painting below is titled Garden, Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 21"x26", 2014, ©Kikuko Sakota Art


One of Thousand Suns

Once I painted the sun and stars.  Before I had the first biggest show, which was two person show with my former teacher, I was racking my brain to paint the largest canvas I ever tried.  While walking around my neighborhood, I saw the bookstore that I never noticed before. I stepped inside. 

 I came across a paperback.  Grapefruit Juice by Yoko Ono. 

I knew about her but I didn't know she wrote poems.  (I should have known better.)

More than ten years have passed.  I 've come back home.  While I was taking out books from the cardboard box to put them into shelves, my eyes were riveted on the title, Grapefruit Juice.   I just recalled the magnitude I was dumbfounded by her imperative and imaginative words.

Imagine one thousand suns in the sky at the same time.  

Let them shine for one hour.

(p.119, Grapefruit Juice, Kodansha, 1998)

The painting below is titled "One of Thousand Suns", Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 18"x21".  One thousand suns are too heavy for me to paint.  I just can try one of them and hope I paint one thousand in my lifetime.


My recent daily life-painting, packing, selling, and showing my works

I am preparing packing my works to ship them to Amsterdam Whitney Gallery and reserving Fedex shipping on the web.  While doing so, I am painting new works slowly, and sometimes I am distracted by thinkng about the new direction to which I want to explore, which is 3D with fabric or textile.  There are so many things I want to try, although budget is consideration.

While I was browsing to look into new material and expression for making my art, I was struck by  a sentence. "A real pro works  every day, even though he/she cannot do well."  Obviously this writer does not seem to categorize "my research" and packing into the difinition "work"

By the way, one British Gallery will represent four of my works online.  I guess I'd better prepare cartons for them in advance.  The oldest one among them is below, titled as "Journey Without A Map", Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 21"x18", 2008, ©Kikuko Sakota Art, http//www.kikukosakota.com/


After The Rain

I went to the Ueno Royal Museum where a group show has taken place.  I was happy to see two of my college friends for the first time in ten years.  We enjoyed chatting over lunch.  

This is the image of my painting titled "After the Rain", Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 15.2"x18.2".

While it was raining, it seemed to me to last forever.  But before I knew it, the little light was coming from the sky.  The rain has stopped.  The whole world looks washed by the rain.   I couldn't move on while it was raining.  So it's time to step forward again.

What artists should not do??

Whenever I get stuck in painting, I tend to look back at some of my successful works in the past and try to analyze what is good in that painting and what is missing in the work in process. 

But in many cases it does not work.  I stick to the past image and mix it with what I have in my mind currently, which results in a chaotic picture plane.   Also I just can recall, if my memory is right, what Mr. Masuo Ikeda said in the writing, "Artists should not seek for the successful images of their works in the past."   Well then, I am not a great artist like Mr. Ikeda.

The painting below is titled, Banquet, Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 36"x47", 2015

My brushstrokes look a bit rigid. I may seem to stick to the way  I did in the past.  But I still congratulate on myself for completing this work as the message of this painting.  Good work today.  Move on tomorrow.

Wool

The other day I went to Rokko Mountain Pasture where keeps sheep, cows, rabbits, horses, and pigs.  Since the pasture is located higher than city areas, it was so cold and I went inside the craft center rather than enjoying the natural environment.  I made the sheep below with the wool of the sheep in the pasture.  It took only 20 minutes because it's very simple and there was a kind instructor.  The touch of wool made me feel warm and happy.

Today

Suddenly I realized that there is no another Today.  I tend to procrastinate and be indecisive.    When I cannot decide, it's ok, so at least when I know what I can do or I should do, I choose not to put it off.  This is one of the my resolves this year.  I guess when I wake up in the morning, I feel happy to have a new day, one uqnique day, Today.  The painting below is titled, "Awakening", 13.3"x18", Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 2015.

2015

What is your New Year resolve?  

Last year I decided to paint as many as possible.  I experienced one of the saddest time where I lost my mom.  But I believe my love for art helped me to overcome it.

This year I want to exhibit my art more than I did in  the past.

The painting below is titled as New Dawn (Acrylic and pastel on canvas, 36"x47")  You can see the light even in the darkness and dawn will come at last.  Also I would like to bless the beginning of the new year.  Wish all a very happy new year.


Happy New Year

I stayed at the seaside southeast to my city.  It is warmer, sky is clear, and air is more refreshing.

This is Shirahama town with many hot springs.  I enjoyed relaxing in the hot spring and fresh food with my family.   The sand of beach is so white because it is washed with ground water nearby.  I was enchanted by natural beauty.

ART365 Gallery

I have been featured as one of artists in ART365 gallery, which is an online gallery.   Lars Clausen is an editor.  Website is below:

http://art365gallery.com/kikuko-sakota/