Artist in Residence MeiPAM Gallery | Shodoshima - 小豆島, Japan

September 21, 2015

MeiPAM Gallery- Location one of four sites around Tonosho

Shodoshima is the second largest island in the Seto Inland Sea and one of the first islands born to the gods in the creation myth of Japan. The name literally means "small bean island", which technically refers to the azuki bean but today would more fittingly refer to the soy bean or olive as the island has traditionally been a producer of soy sauce and now is even better known for its olive plantations.

Shodo attracts visitors with its Mediterranean atmosphere, offering beaches, resorts, coastal sceneries and a mountainous interior with one of Japan's most celebrated gorges, the Kankakei Gorge. The island is also known as the filming location of a popular movie- 'Nijushi No Hitomi' or '24 Eyes'.

Shodoshima serves as one of the venues for the Setouchi Triennale art festival. Some permanent art installations from past festivals can be seen around the island. These include several outdoor installations.

Tonosho town on Shodoshima is know as Meiro no Mach or 'Little Maze Town'

Shodoshima and a few things that this island is famous for; Olives, Angel Road (a very pretty and auspicious sandbar connecting three small islands to Shodoshima), somen noodles, monkeys, and some epic sunsets amongst a mecca for arts, creativity an… — Shodoshima and a few things that this island is famous for; Olives, Angel Road (a very pretty and auspicious sandbar connecting three small islands to Shodoshima), somen noodles, monkeys, and some epic sunsets amongst a mecca for arts, creativity and culture.

I am so thrilled to be back in Shodoshima. This island is a very special wee place in the world and is fertile ground for creativity, the space to think and develop, and a location of breathtaking natural beauty and the opportunity for immersion within this.

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Above are photos of around my home on Shodoshima- talk about living in the lap of the Gods!

I was so taken with this spot and the wonderful people I met when I travelled through in May- you can read about me finding MeiPAM Gallery here.

My next exhibition is on the 10th of October at MeiPAM- WoooOO- that'll be number 6 for the last year! I am excited to share what this amazing opportunity inspires me to create.

↑ is a sneak peek at new artworks in development. Drawing inspiration from my environment and using natural and synthetic materials, I am creating new works that combine pattern, optics, process and formula. Taking my skills with textiles and embroidery back from the 3D to 2D, these drawings create motifs and depth with mark and line.

I have been working away creating crafty goodies for sale and have art/ language evenings for adults and children scheduled from next week where you can come along and relax, chat and make the funky things pictured above :)

Click to enlarge

Upcoming is the Olive Festival on October the 18th- food, music, hot air balloons and all sorts of fantastic goodies and shows are planned. I will have a stall where you can come make the photographed crafts with me- if you would like more information about this or the evening classes please feel free to contact mail@meipam.net

If you have not already, have a quiz at my Instagram feed- there are daily bits and pieces that catch my eye on my adventures!

Sayonara- until next time! x

⁀⊙﹏☉⁀ (̃⊙.o ⊙.◎) ❤ (̃⊙.o ⊙.◎) ⁀⊙﹏☉⁀

Funny Bumps and Travel Tips for Tokyo (+ a little domesticity)

April 17, 2015

I am a little in LOVE with Tokyo- it's kinda sneaked up on me, very quietly like, and then all of a sudden, I fully recognised how much I very much adore where I am. Cheeeeeeky!!

This blog post is about hitting travel in Tokyo and shares some of my tips for ironing out little road bumps to make things easy like ;)

First a funny wee story about crossing the road... No-one j-walks here- you do it once or twice, and then the feeling of a million eyes on you makes you tap into line pretty quick- although, sometimes it's nice to do it, just to remind yourself you can step out of line hehe. SO: Each time I would come to a crossing I would be waiting patiently for the red man to change to green. As it would flick over I, with my fellow crossing camaraderie, would take a step to move forwards. DOOF! I would nearly walk over the person in front of me! "Gomenasai!! Sorry, Sorry" I would say, thinking- what the hell?! I left plenty of space?! Finally it dawned on me, I was taking a good 5'9" sized step, but my fellow crossers were only 1/2 my height, so weren't travelling as far!

It's the funniest stuff that hit's you sideways here :))

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GETTIN' MOVIN! The tips you need in ONE place to get around Tokyo & Japan

Suica- your best friend for travel in and around Tokyo!

This is a re-chargable (most convenience stores and at all rail/ subway stations), pay as you go card for JR trains, Metro subway, buses and even buying stuff where the pass is displayed. BOOM easy!

Psst- between these, 100Yen shops and Lawson's, you are set for life... seriously.

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Cash Passport- it means you can load multiple currencies and not have to carry wads of cash on you. You can get cash out (without charges at ATM's located at 7/11 convenience stores (logo left)- which are located everywhere in Japan. (They are the only ATM's I have found though that lets you do this). You can pay for goods where credit cards are accepted and it works as a debit card by doing this. Reloading takes three days as you do a bill payment from your NZ account. Super convenient and stress-free, and they even provide you with two cards incase something happens to one of them! Heads up though- Japan runs on cash, so you need cachinga on you- especially for paying for accommodation.

The best app ever developed in my opinion for budget travellers! It GPS tracks you without having WIFI and allows you to download detailed maps of where you are, when you do have a connection. Without WIFI, you can search for all sorts of things lik… — The best app ever developed in my opinion for budget travellers! It GPS tracks you without having WIFI and allows you to download detailed maps of where you are, when you do have a connection. Without WIFI, you can search for all sorts of things like museums, post offices, atm's, resteraunts and clubs etc. This wee puppy has been A LIFE SAVER!

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HULA-JAMMIES and BADMINTON BAGS

So THE COOLEST thang a 7 & 11 year old can have in Japan right now is custom bags for your gear. There's this chick that likes makin stuff- so she's thinking- what better way to put those skills to use right?- cos little girls (just like grown up ones) need pretty things to make life cool ;)

Plus, who can resist sewing a cover for a hula hoop that is called a 'Hula-Jammie' ?! HEHEHE

Feel free to holla if you'd like patterns or pointers ;D

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"KUCHIKASEYA MOIRA" is Japanese Photographer. Fetish & Nard...

I went to an eye poppingly cool presentation by this Babette. Check out her photos HERE

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I love making things for others which remind me of home (click to enlarge) ^=^

CITRUS FUDGE

STRAWBERRY SHORT-KOOK

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Particle Fever is a 2013 documentary film tracking the first round of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. Geneva, Switzerland. The film follows the experimental physicists at CERN who run the experiments, as well as the theoretical physicists who attempt to provide a conceptual framework for the LHC's results. The film begins in 2008 with the first firing of the LHC and concludes in 2012 with the successful identification of the Higgs boson. I see strong parallels in Art, creativity and dynamic thought. I enjoy the way this movie illustrates Human curiosity about our world and why it is made the way it is. Science is fascinating, thought provoking and super cool. I love this stuff ^^

The art in using chopsticks... (check out the hand position and the finger placement) I thought I had it down, until a kind Otoosan (Pop's) gave me a few pointers to look a little more Eastern ^=^

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Life, F.U.N & The 42nd Tokyo Motorcycle Show- Start Your Engines!

April 2, 2015

I was a bit squished out of shape in Tokyo. But I couldn’t put my finger exactly on why I was so anxious and feeling seriously flighty. Japan (through my eyes) has a strong sense of conformity and regiment. Alongside my love for order and method, I crave interaction and playfulness- but am a walking, talking contradiction and combination of juxtapositions- just like my current surroundings. I suppose I am finding things about my identity reflected more so here than at home and this includes the good bad and in-between.

Big city life is about fitting in, becoming part of a chain, going with the flow and being part of an ever moving, heaving layering. The well oiled machine doesn’t work so well if one kog pops a spot, or wants to be bigger, more slippery or fit in the opposite way. Japan’s structure and rules seem to condense in feeling with the parallel in architecture; Tokyo is very different to Hokkaido.

I love being switched on, plugged in and stimulated. A trait you might think would suit an environment like Tokyo- but it's counterpoint is I take everything a little too personally, invert situations and am not particularly slick at the opposite: turning off. Tokyo has an interesting balance of tuning out. People's schedules make sense here when you see how the power naps, rest times and abilities to 'clock out' in crowded situations are facilitated.

Here, you are not secular- you are the group. It's not personal, it's just business time. This sounds really clean cut and logical, but when your travelling by yourself, with lots of balls in the air, without a consistent companion to bat some humour and steam off, subtle changes can get big effects.

I have an opportunity of a lifetime and I had my head in the wrong cloud for a day there. Looking after children is a role I adore, although I underestimated the challenge of this with an added bonus parcel of a little language barrier. (Although I studied Japanese, I can read and understand more than I can speak; It's a damn fast way to get your conversational language skills lubricated) So, my time, behaviour and interaction had very much come down to actions dominating words. In the big scheme, so little from me but meaning SOOO much to them. Made me think of the extreme, uncompromising love and commitment and generosity my Mum & Dad and Grandparents gave to me; the childhood I had where I was encouraged to try ANYTHING, play with EVERYTHING and have opportunity of diverse thought, actions and emotion. Where expression and being heard were qualities that were actively encouraged. What a rich upbringing. The realisation and reality of how very much it is a selfless act to properly look after a child. And how selfish I was being with my world, my needs, my curiosity for opportunities, my endeavours; snip snapping; searching and pushing upstream. Major game changer: Chill OUT and learn the new groove...

Because it had nothing to do with Tokyo and everything to do with me being a complicated dick.

SO! The 42 Tokyo Motorcycle Show was shiny, well oiled and so spick and span, it was like a sales pitch on steroids. Held at the Tokyo Big Sight it contained many interesting stalls, including a fantastic setup by my favourite: Triumph ^=^

Ducati Scrambler

BMW Juggernaut- I would totally own this!

MV Augusta- L.O.V.E

MV Brutale Corsa... my next baby?!

Suzuki Katana!

Unicorn Japan- tricked out Suzuki's

Triumph Street Triple- I MISS YOU my gurl!!

Royal Enfield- classy classic

A lot of my enjoyment came from watching the other attendees and the bikes come to and from the event + the monorail trip to get from downtown to the Tokyo Wharf area of Koto is a yummy sightseeing tour too as it emerges from underground to curl around over the bridge and onto the island.

Sign me up for the Japanese Police Force!

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After all the bogans and bikes, it was culture time with a PHENOMENAL exhibition current running at The Ueno Royal Museum of up and coming contemporary Japanese artists (sorry no photos on this one guys as it was on lockdown ^.^ but check out the following artists who have seriously inspired me!)

Mariane Maiko Matsuo's work (click below for enlargements) was sublime. She is a Brazilian Artist of Japanese decent who works in Osaka. I am in love of her large scale, feminine and extremely intricate artworks. Murata Mineki's artwork called 'Breakthrough Drawing Ball Point on Plywood' was incredible. Mineki is a performance and predominantly 3D based Artist- so his selection for the exhibition was interesting as it was plywood that had literally been hacked and scraped through to make a bark like texture through the ball point pen markings. It was incredibly powerful- maybe more so to my eyes as I felt the time, pressure of application and intensity that had gone into the work through my own experience.

Screwing on a new pair of legs it was a bee-line to The National Museum of Western Art for the Guercino exhibition which blew my socks off, followed by their Matsukata Permanent Collection.

Guercino (1591-1666) was one of the major painters of the Italian Baroque period who further developed the Baroque aesthetics begun by painters Caravaggio and Carracci. Conversely, he was also a painter whose style helped form later academic painting methods, and in the past has numbered amongst the most famous painters in the history of Italian art. Around the mid 19th century, when the art world began to express new values and views, Guercino was dismissed and forgotten, only to be the subject of rediscovery from the mid 20th century onwards.

David Teniers, the Younger's "Temptation of St Anthony" completely captured me- see the detail in the flying monsters below- pictures 6 & 7.

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Seibuen Yuenchi: the play-land of Hello Kitty (no question I was a fizzing furball, if not more excited than the kiddies as we screamed off to the Viking boat for first ride). It's located a wee way out of Tokyo- but has a genuine air of actual fun. Proving that the expensive is not the best and that time and experience is best thing there is- and yen can't buy quality time!

One of my favorite artists (above), Camille Rose Garcia referrs to Disneyland as being the 'saddest place on earth’- as is often the way; the fun, laughter and real joys are not in the places where they are advertised. Do I still need to visit Tokyo Disney? Nope- can't replicate today- plus I went up the best 'Tokyo Tower’ ever on the Ferris wheel with 4 adorable monkeys ^=^

A bit of NZ baking- 'lolly cake Japan style'

Lolly Cake: A New Zealand favourite with a Japanese twist. No 'Eskimo' Lollies so we had marshmallows with blueberry jelly centers instead- and damn! they did the trick!

雪の天- Snow Heaven

March 10, 2015

Hokkaido: NISEKO

Mt Yōtei (the "Mt. Fuji of Hokkaido")- looking at hiking the summit of him weather permitting!

Nothing about Japan is cold. Paradoxes and parodies abound with Formality and Tradition the big brothers to the young mischievous ruckus of Kawaii Super Cute and Neon Love.

Night boarding at Grand Hirafu- like a boss- board in board out Boom !

A part of my soul has come home. Japan is sublime. From the moment I boarded the flight from Auckland to Tokyo, an experience filled with juxtaposition, contradictions and an unflustered air began. NZ95 must be the well pressed trooper of the fleet- from a beige & more formal past time. It was service with a smile, comfort with rugs and pillows and coloured by beige and chocolate brown interior highlights. As NZ slipped away, a very gentle calm descended.

Check out Flowstate by clicking above...

Writing this is hard- where the hell to start- it is all epic?! Currently I am in the most Northern island of Japan- Hokkaido, and a couple of hours south of Sapporo in Niseko. I am here for a relatively medium sized length of string (I never have plans set in stone); the next week is with an international group of adventurers for a gathering of likeminded individuals who are exploring new concepts of how creativity effects the neuroplasicity of the brain. Mindfulness and Flow are high productivity techniques that are achieved through self awareness, structured goal setting and by pushing ourselves out of the comfort zone. How activity, movement (mediation and yoga) and risk management (aka adventure sports) effect our process to hit the sweet spot of performance, how to nurture and care for ourselves after passing through this stage and ultimately, how to reach our full potential. HARRO!

The day I arrived I blew in with an ENORMOUS and unsuspected dump of snow- EEEeeoooW!!

In three days I have snowboarded in day and night, three fields- An’nupuri, Grand Hirafu and Hanazono. I have hiked the summit Mt Niseko An’nupuri, trekked, meditated, Chi Gong'ed (Japanese Tai Chi), yogi'ed, noshed amazing food- geeked out on incredible packaging (which is packaged in another package, within a package- you should see the recycling regime!!), met amazing locals and people from further abroad and fallen in love with Onsen.

“All the things that truly matter- beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace- all of these arise from more than the thinking world”

— Eckhart Tolle

A few things I have loved and of note so far:

Onsen (hot-pools) are communal group bathing pools with a custom and ceremony which I have found instantly addictive. Women and men are split and bathing is done nude, yet a graceful and considerate respect is between all participants. Relaxing and taking care of yourself at the end of the day is a beautiful reflection time without rush or distraction.

The Western world could do with dipping her toes into this concept. I enjoy observing how this arrangement facilitates a time for women to gather and relax together without self conscious and concerned with image. This custom and many other examples in Japanese culture have made me realise how very young new New Zealand’s culture really is. Which is rather intriguing really, because we have geothermal pools and history and heritage in enjoying them- but it's a very different energy and protocol. We are but the gravel starting to seal at the beginning of a road paved in time.

Green Tea.. flavoured anything. OMG. Picture says a thousand words.

Simmering subtext... it's all just under the surface bubbling away ;)

I like being Gaijin. I like opening my eyes and ears to unfamiliar surroundings and observing other traditions to assimilate into my new surroundings. Anonymity and my curiosity are a well suited pair to my adventurous spirit which is allowing me to find, seek and explore new physical, mental and conceptual platforms.

HEATED TOILET SEATS. Nuff said- revolutionary. I need one good reason why this aint global?

The countryside is picturesque and strangely familiar as it really is like the woodblocks and ink works I have admired and studied over the years. The images of my dreams are reality and lead into my sense of familiarity. Even though I have a knowledge of Japan- I was conscious to put aside expectations and arrive without assumptions- there are surprises everywhere^=^