Another thing that grabs me visually is traditional Japanese design and art. I think this is rooted in the childhood memories I have of dressing up in a kimono that my grandfather purchased while stationed in Japan after World War II. I'm sure that by traditional standards, it probably wasn't a great kimono, but I thought it was so beautiful. In the fourth grade, my class did a unit on Japan and I still remember almost everything I learned. I was fascinated by the language, the culture, and especially the visual flavor of the buildings, textiles, and papers we were looking at. I still make paper cranes out of gum wrappers.
As an adult, I've become fascinated with the visual appearance of
geisha and their elaborate
kimono. I recently read a wonderful book called
A Geisha's Journey about a young modern-day Japanese teenager who elects to become an apprentice geisha (
maiko) in Kyoto. It's an absolutely stunning book, full of beautiful full-color images of the elegant
maiko Komomo in all her colorful finery.
The complexity and color of kimono is starting to work its way into my ceramic work, which is a profoundly new direction for me. My work has always been elegant and much of it has been colorful, but in a stripped-down and minimal fashion. As my skills have increased, I have grown more interested in complexity and detail, and those things are starting to show up in my work. It will be a while before any of these complex pots make it onto the public stage of the Internet, but they're on the studio shelves as we speak, slowly coming into existence.
Another thing that grabs me visually is traditional Japanese design and art. I think this is rooted in the childhood memories I have of dressing up in a kimono that my grandfather purchased while stationed in Japan after World War II. I'm sure that by traditional standards, it probably wasn't a great kimono, but I thought it was so beautiful. In the fourth grade, my class did a unit on Japan and I still remember almost everything I learned. I was fascinated by the language, the culture, and especially the visual flavor of the buildings, textiles, and papers we were looking at. I still make paper cranes out of gum wrappers.
As an adult, I've become fascinated with the visual appearance of geisha and their elaborate kimono. I recently read a wonderful book called A Geisha's Journey about a young modern-day Japanese teenager who elects to become an apprentice geisha (maiko) in Kyoto. It's an absolutely stunning book, full of beautiful full-color images of the elegant maiko Komomo in all her colorful finery.
The complexity and color of kimono is starting to work its way into my ceramic work, which is a profoundly new direction for me. My work has always been elegant and much of it has been colorful, but in a stripped-down and minimal fashion. As my skills have increased, I have grown more interested in complexity and detail, and those things are starting to show up in my work. It will be a while before any of these complex pots make it onto the public stage of the Internet, but they're on the studio shelves as we speak, slowly coming into existence.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment