We got in from the bullet train arriving in Okayama and were met by the tenacious and irrepressible Tano-san of Heart Art Okayama.  After lugging our stuff a few blocks she helped us get checked in and gave us five minutes to get ready to go look at the ArtLink Okayama Exhibit, 2007.

Let me say that in 2003 we were impressed and exhausted by Tano-san’s energy and vision for what the artists under her care could do.  Yet despite the strain of a tight schedule and constant rushing, we had the most moving of all our experiences here in Okayama visiting a school and remote art center.

So we shouldn’t have been surprised when the exhibition we were attending was actually a symposium on Japanese and American ArtLink projects and people were lining up to pay to hear us and a panel of Japanese artists speak.  Did I mention that we had been traveling all day? 

While Dave and I were tight lipped, Grace rolled her eyes once and got to work.  She got the translator to take her back to the hotel to retrieve the computer with the digital images for our presentations and came back looking fresh and professional.  Then we all went on stage, sat, banged our knees on too short tables, and listened to the Translator Extraordinaire Hiroko-san give us Harima-san’s introduction.

Two hours later we had survived- Grace-Anne spoke for 40 minutes with poise and…well, grace.  Dave and I spoke for about 15 minutes each, but both endured some pretty funny slide show moments.  At the beginning of his speech, an image of Grace-Anne’s two-year daughter Amelia appeared and charmed the crowd, but it didn’t exactly match Dave’s edgy artistic statements.

During the inevitable party afterwards we met some of the artists that will be coming to visit during our ArtLink 2007 exhibit this summer.  This was a great opportunity to connect and despite the rocky start we know that our time here will be filled with surprises.