Snap! Gallery: Add Your Own Photos

Sunday morning found us on small rainy roads winding their way to the outskirts of Okayama.  Our instructor had promised a morning of calligraphy training with students from the local community.  Hardwood floors were covered with first the blue tarp and then twelve large pieces of felt.  As the student artists arrived they greeted us with smiles and curiosity. 

One particular artist, Nagao-san, immediately headed over to me.  I think he knew we had much in common. Through an interpreter, he asked “Have you ever seen a UFO?” To which I responded, “Yes, as a child.”

Nagao-san then proceeded to ask me if I knew Harry Truman, President Lincoln and Nostradamus.  Before I could respond, we were called away to paint. Large pieces of paper stretched out before us. Each individual took their turn copying symbols from examples that the instructor had provided.  Ink started to fly and sweat came to our brow as we painted, the students painted, and we all painted again.

While catching my breath, Nagao-san came over and said something to me. I motioned for the interpreter to ask if she could repeat what he said. He asked if I knew The Beatles.  We spent the next bit of time singing early songs of The Beatles.  I asked him if he knew “I am the Walrous” and he replied that he preferred the early Beatles. 

At the end of the day we spread all the work created in the large area.  All the works seemed to become one.  When the day began I was looking forward to creating calligraphy.  I never dreamed I would get the chance to do it with a soundtrack provided by The Beatles.

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Scientists often talk about the creation of the universe and sometimes describe it using the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang is the scientific theory that the universe emerged from a tremendously dense and hot state and exploded into being about 13.7 billion years ago.  We heard the sound of creation Saturday afternoon in Okayama.

At an event entitled “The Big Big Band”, part of a three day ArtLink event, people with disabilities sat with professional musicians, all carrying some sound-making instrument. Guitars, drums, traditional Japanese instruments, trumpets, bells and kazoos began to fill the room. Jane and I soon found our selves in the midst of this energetic orchestra.

Two professional musicians instructed the eclectic mix of participants as to what would follow. Jane looked at me, I looked at her and I whispered, “I think we’re in the band.” The conductor then went around the room and had each participant make a sound with their instrument. As he approached Jane, I told her to snap her fingers when the conductor pointed at her and I made a popping sound with my finger and mouth. While we received a few laughs, the man playing the plastic water bottle may have received more.

The conductors then lead us through several exercises, such as having only the left side of the room play, then the right, then the left, now the right softly as the left played louder. All together. Just the drums. Every other person. Several participants stepped forward to conduct and gave their interpretations of how best to create sound.  The result was magical.

After an hour of many laughs and great camaraderie, we made not have created music to every one’s ears, but it was to ours.

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I do not know what it feels like to be diagnosed with a developmental disability.  One aspect of this condition that I can empathize with is the world of miscommunication that so often goes with the territory.  When you are standing in front of someone and they are speaking at super hero speed and what they are saying sounds nothing like the familiar consonant and vowel combinations that you know….well that can only be intimidating.

One curious observation on this trip is that the ice-breakers in every group are more often than not, a person with a developmental disability.  They have been the ones to instantly make us feel welcome and find common ground.  UFO’s, Beatles’ tunes, Las Vegas, we’ve communicated at length on all these subjects.

Jane, David and Sarah were the perfect people/artists to take on this trip.  They jump right in, moving forward in every situation with a combination of gusto, humor and ambassador-like people skills.  I tend to shy behind my camera body, but these folks are making me proud and making Creative Clay more appealing as we go! 

To find out more about Creative Clay visit us online at http://www.creativeclay.org

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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.

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At 3:03AM I woke to the sound of thirty seemingly drunk Japanese people belting out a din nine stories under my hotel room window.  Now three hours later the seagulls have taken over.

I can hear these noises because my dorm sized room doubles as a human pressure cooker.  We have no control over our room temperature so I have to open the window in order to breathe again.  Keeping one’s window open also exposes you to the Saturday evening party rituals that can be somewhat noisy.

After nine straight days of blogging, I hit a brick wall last night.  I was emotionally overwhelmed with the stunning theater performance from Okayama’s ARTLINK 2007 teams.  Then back-to-back we experienced a giant music experiment called Big Big Band.

I need to take time to sort these wonderful experiences with my heart and head, so more to come later, I promise.

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I love Japanese style breakfasts.  There is nothing like it after a night of international relationship building and bottomless sake glasses than a tidy and tasty breakfast of fish and sticky rice.  While Grace Anne-san and Jane-san take a break from fish and nibble civilly on croissants, coffee and fruit, Dave-san and I chow down on groovy looking little pickle things, bowls of miso and tofu soup and a nice oily pieces of cold salmon. 

This morning there was also fresh bamboo shoots that we’ve seen in the markets, looking like the tusks from some beast.  They also make great props for a photo, but lucky for me we’re having some trouble downloading images to this site.

Back to breakfast; the bamboo shoots are cooked, sliced and lightly marinated in something delicious.  Other little dishes are filled with assorted pickled vegetables and plums, a wonderful seaweed dish with slivered carrots, beans and mushrooms.  Under the package of chopsticks is an envelope with three pieces of paper-like nori seaweed inside.  I’m still at a loss what they are officially for, but I throw mine into the miso soup or rice.

Also on the tray with the salmon is a rectangle of egg, like the kind you get at the sushi bars at home, but this is bigger, a little sweeter, and makes me happy to eat.  Washed down with green tea, I am ready to go make and see art for the day!

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“Sarah”, I say, “are you taking your passport with you?” She glances back at me with eyes that peek over her reading glasses.  “Just wait for me in Okayama when you get there.”

Sarah is parched and on a quest for a beverage.  The problem is she only has two minutes at a Shinkansen stop outside of Kyoto to get off the bullet train, purchase three beers (one for each of us) and hop back on the train to resume her travels in her reserved seat.

I secretly think this is a crazy quest, because if she does not succeed, I will likely be the one struggling to navigate with her suitcase and mine, and mine is already bulging with souvenirs.  I fast forward to dreamy images of me hoisting her red trimmed luggage down the overbearing staircases that haunt every foreign traveler. David and I peer out the train window trying to catch a glimpse of Sarah racing through the train platform. Just then she appears, in less than thirty seconds with a giant smile and three cans of cold ASAHI beer.  Once again I am impressed with her tenacity!

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Under a frilly cloud edged sky, Sarah and I venture to a private section of Nara City that is excluded from the free map guides.  Here we find a Disneyland version of a picturesque Japanese neighborhood.  A cul-de-sac that ends at a Shinto temple is surrounded on the west by a mini cemetery.  Every few gravestones there are private altars set up with personal representations relating to the interned.  Upon first glance it looks like someone just forgot their canned beer or juice box, but like some of us in America leave flowers at gravesites, the Japanese leave altar expressions for their loved ones.

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There are two boundaries to Japanese attire, the stiff crisp uniform wearers and the outrageously hip, righteously punk, fashion plates.  Both styles have gained my attention and respect.  In fact, I have attempted quite a few times to add some of this Asian flare to my own wardrobe.  Unfortunately. I have experienced little success.  I am a tallish gal, who has recently graduated to a smaller dress size, but by Japanese standards, I am a giant.  On a recent trip to The Gap in Osaka, I tried on some very hip long sleeve tops only to look at my reflection in a sort of fabric sausage casing.  My shopping companion informs me that denim sizes only go up to size 10, and even those look like toddler pants.

And the shoes, oh, the shoes.  Uniformed Japanese women wear high-heeled, pointy, six-inch ruler-sized torture chambers.  Many women also wear knee socks, often fishnet or opaque black nylons.  I cannot figure out if this is because they are trying to trick us into thinking they are wearing boots, or if this is a layover from there homogenized school days.  Either way, comfortable earth shoes are non-existent and I am sure this is why anyone paying attention to my apparel raises an eyebrow.

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Jane and I ventured out for a traditional Japanese dinner tonight, all alone, which translates as no one to order for us and this is the result:

Beer course:  Kirin

Course 1: Unidouhu – sea urchin with tofu, this had a mousse-like texture and was delicious.

Course 2:  Tako No Karamiponzuae – octopus with bitter orange juice and red pepper.  Simple, yet flavorful.

Sake course:  Kicchou - sweet sake from Nara

Course 3:  Kanipango no ankake – crab ball with vegetables and broth.

Course 4:  Jako to aotou no irini - Dried young sardines and roasted green pepper.  The green peppers taste like a combination of okra and green pepper.

Course 5:  Yasai to bacon no cheese yaki – vegetables and bacon baked with cheese.  We just love the name of this as it sounds like “yes to bacon, no to cheese”.  However, it was more like steamed vegetables baked inside of a ham and cheese crust.  Surprising and wonderful.

Sake course:  Kamoizumi – striking smell, clean finish

Course 6:  Ebimayo – Shrimp baked with mayo and onions.  Not what were expecting, as the unexpected onions left a strong after taste.

Course 7:  Gyuniku no tataki – our favorite dish of the night which was grilled beef sliced thin and served with leeks and ginger. 

Shouchu course:  sweet potato based liquour- probably should have been ordered earlier

Course 8:  Maruboshi – grilled dried sardines.

Check paid, overly satisfied, we strolled back to our hotel. 

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Our free day in Nara started for me at 4 AM.  As dawn turned the dark into fog I dug out a plastic bag for the camera and the 500-yen umbrella I bought the other day in Osaka. 

I dodged early morning traffic and climbed up the hilly retail streets towards the Temples near Nara Park.  Rain spit and the wind blew.  Still, it was warmer than the snowy night in 2003 when I stood, the tallest person in a crowd of Japanese, watching a Shinto rites of spring ceremony that is over 1200 years old.

At the park I began to see Nara deer.  Smaller than whitetail deer, but bigger than Key deer, they are tamer than house cats and expert beggars.  One adorable doe-eyed critter came right up to me.  I melted and dug in my pack for a treat for him and while I did he bit me in the butt.  Hard. Black and blue hard.  I’m serious, if you’re in Nara watch out for these fiends.

Overcast and bitten, I approached the Todoiji Temple.  In an outer compound a priest swept a path methodically.  We made eye contact. We smiled and exchanged Japanese “good mornings” and suddenly we both giggled.  During our tiny connection the sun broke through the clouds and shone like a light turned on in a dark room.  Delighted, we both flung our arms up to the sun together and laughed more. 

When I got into the temple I couldn’t stop weeping.  The Great Buddha inside the largest wooden structure in the world is overwhelming.  I could blame it on the incense, or thinking of loved ones, but I wasn’t alone. 

Later I took a path into the woods above the highest temple in the compound and found myself huffing and puffing up a path to a mountaintop.  Never one to pass a view from above, I kept climbing.  I met an old woman on her way down with a plastic bag full of fiddleheads.  It reminded me of rafting days in Maine with my old friend Sue V when we used to gather chanterelles mushrooms and fiddleheads for quiches breakfasts.  This Japanese woman told me the greens are good for you and offered some to me.  I pretended to eat some raw and she laughed and grabbed them away.

Once I got up high enough I was able to breath again.  The city below was a distant din drown out by spring run off streams, song birds, and insects.  I was also far enough away from the temples where I could pocket a little rock or two without feeling like I’m taking a treasure from Japanese history. 

On my mud surfing ride down the mountain I found a complete deer skeleton and a rock cairn that I didn’t see on the way up.  And so it goes. 

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An equal mixture of art, care and life provide the balanced groundwork for the main concept of Tanpopo no Ye in the hilly suburbs of Nara CIty. This non-profit organization was initially founded in 1973 and received a government permit in 1976.  The first one-story facility opened for service in 1980 and the organization has been growing steadily ever since.  In it’s published agency flyer, Tanpopo no Ye’s mission (translated to English) is “to develop various enterprises to ask about social significance of art and culture of human rights on the theme of social inclusion.”

Tanpopo no Ye is under the umbrella of the Wataboshi No Kai Welfare Corporation who’s vision is “to find and propose future communities where not only people with disabilities but also all people can enrich their lives.” In 2004 the HANA Art Center on the campus of Tanpopo no Ye opened.  It is a large; two-story contemporary building that mixes exposed concrete walls with shiny wood floors and plenty of giant windows in an exquisitely bright atmosphere.  It houses a gorgeous art gallery, gift shop, café station, numerous semi-private art studios and congregate work spaces, a pottery and clay studio, a large kiln room, a room with a dozen weaving looms, a yarn dying station and the ultimate in universally designed, accessible restrooms.  And that is just the first floor!  The second floor has meeting rooms, conference rooms, a presentation space and a resource library.  Beyond the public spaces are offices for the 17 employees and numerous volunteers.  The building is even equipped with a large storage area, one that would make any museum curator jealous.

In several meetings throughout the day, we gathered with various staff members and artists to work out the details of the ARTLINK Japan exchange exhibit to take place in June and July of 2007 in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The exhibit will have an opening reception at The Florida Craftsmen Gallery located at 501 Central Avenue on June 15, 2007 from 6pm to 9pm.

We selected artwork from recent ARTLINK projects at Tanpopo no Ye and also added works from the talented members and staff.  The excitement about this collaboration continues to mount.  The artwork is superb; many mediums will be represented from altered books to contemporary paintings to resin sculptures. It is difficult to describe the intense feelings of joy and acceptance that I experience every time I am in the presence of staff members from this organization. There is a clear community of teamwork here, where the notion is employed that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I have observed staff and volunteers to work from 6AM to 8PM without a complaint.  At the welcoming dinner where employees worked together to prepare us one of the best meals of my lifetime, I asked one of the staff members, K.K., if everyone always gets along, and he smiled and shook his head wildly.  He said to me “there are many times when there are differences of thoughts, but we honor each others’ ideas. We have much fun but take work as serious.” What a great leadership mantra.

It was a perfect day for me, thank you Tanpopo no Ye for making my job as a curator so easy, and for once again inspiring me to do more, be more and live more. 

If you want to further investigate Tanpopo no Ye, I invite you to visit their website at http://www.popo.or.jp.

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We went to the neon lit Dotonbori district in Osaka to find the takoyaki or “fried octopus balls” that the guide books claim might be worth a trip around the world to find.

Under a gigantic blue neon crab and another twenty foot wide animated plastic crab we braved a moving crowd of hip Japanese down a street of stimuli- overload.  There was the clamor of pachinko (kind of pinball), pop music, everyone talking on cell phones and the beyond Las Vegas neon.  Also claiming your attention are the smells; mouthwatering scents of sizzling fish and savory broths.

We found takoyaki at a street vender surrounded by a crowd.  A white-capped man poured an egg looking mixture into a long iron pan with dozens of half round indentations. Then he dropped bits of octopus into each little section.  Working fast to feed the paid and waiting customers, the takoyaki chef flipped the balls with chopsticks to cook the other side.

We got eight balls in a paper tray, dressed them in a type of mayonnaise and another soy sauce based mixture and gobbled them down.  Hot gooey goodness.  Worth the trip. 

Another thing I had never had was paper shaved fish that is sprinkled on a hot dish like the vegetable pancake I had.  The heat makes the shavings sway like sea anemones.  It’s a bit daunting, but delicious.

The food here in Japan is worth a separate blog, and I feel unworthy to write about it, but I will keep trying and eating!  Oh and very soon we be getting photos at the gallery for you to look at.

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Japanese people living in the smaller cities and villages tend to uphold bankers hours.  The hours surrounding sunrise are dedicated to family.  The streets remain empty until late morning.  Most workdays begin at 10AM.  This is a shift from the stories I have heard about the consummate corporate employee who holds his career in the highest regard.  Workers and students tend to end their labor later though, and are out and about around 6pm and eating dinner with family by eight o’clock.

There is a lot of construction going on in Nara city.  The building industry tends to take long periods of time to complete projects.  This is a necessary annoyance and a topic of infuriation for locals and taxi cab drivers.  Construction workers wear uniforms that have the word FUTURE embroidered on their backs. A brilliant strategic plan, who could get mad at someone who literally shoulders potential?

I must leave my cozy hotel room now to find an ATM that is compatible with my bankcard and investigate the fee for a temporary international cell phone.  Wish me luck.

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One of the great opportunities this trip has given us is to meet other artists and see how they are working to use their art to attempt to transform thier community.

We spent a day traveling through rain and crowded Osaka subways to meet at non-profit agencies where artists have used the ArtLink mentor program that we introduced here in Japan in 2003.  Not surprisingly many of the outgoing personalities of the Osaka artists chose performance art as their media to work with persons with disabilities.

In a surreal abandoned amusement park a group of artists have dance, theater, visual space and a café that sponsors poetry readings.  Originally intended to cater to the homeless who live in the area, the agencies now have widened its base to include the community at large. 

Kanyo-san, a poet, dresses in traditional Japanese style for what she calls “inner strength”, but she is actually a very contemporary artist and thinker.  She and a playful performance artist named A-yan-san told about how their programs operated and how ArtLink worked for those involved. 

Stories we heard were of the relationship between professional artists and the persons with disabilities to be overwhelmingly more important than the actual art produced.  It felt like there was a lot of energy and acceptance of all kinds of artistic expression that celebrate relationships.

At one point in the dance performance space several of us cannot resist the soft comfortable floors and begin to play. Two young artists treat us to a hysterical improvisational sumo match.

The book that Frank, my ArtLink 2007 artist and I made came in handy to show a visual aspect of our experiences.  Like Creative Clay’s motto says, “art speaks without words.”

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