New start in fall... yes, even in San Diego!

Fall is already around the corner and I can feel the change in the air even here in Southern California. Our tomato plants are ending and I am clipping the last batch of them probably this weekend. Although I love summer and usually sad to hear the summer is over, I am actually looking forward to the cold (well, cooler) weather and all the holiday cooking and baking to follow.

I am working on the new series of notebooks for my Etsy shop, since some of them happily left me to new owners' hands. I am so happy about that, but now I need more work in my shop. This time I am also making some photo albums. I made one to put all the photos from this summer with family. It is so lovely to have a physical album, especially for the special photos. The new ones for the shop, they will of course have embroidery on the covers, and the photo above is the one in progress.

I just started to teach book arts class at Poway Adult School. It is the same format as my previous workshops at the Huntington, but this time there are 2 meetings for one course, so I will see the same people next week again. I am very excited about the idea that we can actually develop our skills during the course, rather than just say bye after one meeting.

This month I am also taking classes on In Design and Illustrator. It is simply fun to sit in the classes and learn new skills... I am looking forward to putting these new skills in good use on my own projects.

Now it's time for more sawing!

 

This is a new start! Today is the clean-up and organizing day. The studio is full of stuff moved from work and my previous apartment. Goal is to make a room to actually get things done by the end of this week, hopefully earlier.

Cookie has been a nice company but now it's 10:30am and her nap time, probably telling me it's the time for me to get as much things done as possible.

meow!

MFA Book Arts/Printmaking Thesis Exhibition Chapter II

I cannot believe that this is actually happening- My MFA thesis show reception is on this Friday, 7th, 530-830pm.... I don't even know how I feel about it, in a very very good way.

Photographs will be up later this weekend :)

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hot off the press! (new business card)

it was my first time printing with the lovely platen press during the workshop with donna globus this morning. here is the outcome! new business card!!
the workshop was very well organized. each of us had the type set up, and we learned the lock-up and operation of the press.
i am so pleased to have the stack of new cards with me! i used the extra press sheets from my offset project for this, and it is perfect... see the paper airplane? (that was the masterpiece by the way :))

We and Stories Exhibition

Now the We and Stories, the exhibition on personal narrative is over. I posted some pictures of the show and the link is on the right column under "Links", please take a look at them! Great thank you to everyone who participated!!!

Call for Entries

I am going to curate a show which will be up on February 2010, and here is the call for entries.

I would like to have works of art that deal with personal narratives.

Please please contact me if you are interested in participating!! I would like to have many submissions!!

We and Stories

Prospectus:

This exhibition will show contemporary art work that deals with personal narratives. Investigating how artists represent / tell / transform the personal narrative through their work, examining the dynamics of their approaches and the notion of the personal and the universal. How can one’s personal story impact others? How can visual art function to deliver the personal into universal? How is storytelling important to each artist and is their process visible in the finished work of art?

Date/Venue:

The exhibition will be in February 2010 at the 6^th Floor Printmaking Gallery, Anderson Hall, at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Call for Entries:

Eligibilities: Artists’ work must deals with a personal narrative (either artists’ own or others). There is no size limitations for submitting the works, but it would be a consideration because of the limited space at the venue.

Submission Guidelines: Please send following by January 5^th, 2010 via e-mail to (asayoshie@gmail.com)

- 1-3 JPG images each of 1 or 2 works, 72dpi, approximately 600 x 400 pixels

- A word document that has a brief description of each work, including size and year. (about 40-70 words)

- Artist’s Bio (about a paragraph long)

- If the work is a video piece, please contact the curator directly via e-mail before the final submission.

*Please label each image file with artists’ last name, title of work, and number as needed for details.

Timeline:

-Deadline for Submission of work: Jan 5^th 2010

-Announcement of selected works: Jan 10^th 2010

-Delivery of accepted works: Jan 25^th 2010

-Opening of the show: Feb 5^th – 26^th 2010

-Reception: Friday Jan 5^th 2010

-Closing of the show/ de-installation Feb 27^th 2010

-Return work by 2^nd week of March 2010

Loan forms will be sent to each participant.

Shipping Instructions will be announced after acceptance of work.

Book Party

We have Book Party every year in the end of each semester here at UArts!
December 17th, Thursday, 4-7pm
Come and get artists' books, blank journals, prints, T-shirts, etc... perfect for Christmas gifts and it is fun with good food!

Poster is made by me, printed silkscreen on handmade recycled paper :)))

paper airplane in progress

This is the project I worked on throughout this semester. The title is Paper Airplanes. It is printed offset at the Borowsky Center in the University of the Arts.
There was an opportunity to donate this book to the collection at the arts library at Oberlin College, and the collection is exhibited together at the Free Library of Philadelphia now. The show is called Show and Bestow, things are organized by Alice Austin at the Library Company of Philadelphia. The collection is for her friend, who found out that her life will be cut short by cancer(from her description on this collection). At the reception this past Monday, we could handle some books that are in the display cases, and they are really an impressive collection of artists books.
My Paper Airplane could be a part of the collection, and it was pretty nice and I felt greatful... the fact I handed it to Alice right after the deadline because I just finished binding them and she just happened to be at the school....

I am in process of binding the 130 copies of this book together. The book comes with 6 post cards in the paper wrapper and I am selling it for $15... if anyone is interested, please contact me....

I am also printing the posters for upcoming book party in December! Before that, I am also participating Book Paper Scissors at the Free Library of Philadelphia, which is kind of art/craft/book fair. I will get a table with friends and sell some small good things :)

DC trip and National Gallery Library

on friday, we went to the field trip to washington dc. it was my first time visiting the place. although i was very excited, in the morning i felt a bit unfocused because of the lots of work i left behind in my studio.
we went to visit the rare collection room in the library at the national gallery, where the librarian had pulled the selection of books for us to see, and touch. last year, we went to the rare collection room in morgan library in nyc.
in short, it was an amazing selection. he showed us fist the book of hours, printed on vellum, bound in the beautiful red tinted leather. there is a book illustrated by leonardo da vinci, studies on the proportion of human body, archticture, etc. there is one done by albrecht durer: his famous signature is printed big on the title page. there are many other that were all fabulous. lots of great engravings and large scale etching plates of night scenes. there were books with beautiful chromo lithographs of all different kinds of brushes. i wish that i can describe better on everything one by one.
there were some contemporary artists books. the insect alphabet by anna hepler was one of them and it was such a sweet tiny book, incased in the clear plastic cube with a magnified glass. each insect's name is starting with each letter of alpharbet, and the image of insect is done with tiny etching.

afterwards we went to have lunch, and went around some museums around the mall. it was nice getting away from the studio, inspired by the different things.

Nag Hammadi Codices Workshop with Julia Miller

We have the workshop week every year in our program here at UArts. This year the workshop was taught by Julia Miller, a book conservator and a book artist, and Pati Scobey, a printmaker and a book artist. We got to chose which workshop to take for these two days, and I chose the book binding workshop with Julia.
She showed us many of her models of the historical Nag Hammadi codices, which she has been studying for years. In this workshop, we followed the structure of the Codex VI - that's how they distinguish each of this particular historical books.
We learned the different ways of decorating the leather, simple, but so intriguing - she showed us how to do the blind tooling and use the paste wax. She went through each parts of the book with details and historical references, and they were so fascinating. After a while, even though this was my first time working with the leather, I felt pretty comfortable handling this material and want to try more. It was a perfect way to dive into the world of leather.

Reception

The reception of our exhibition, Pages of Pandemonium, on last Friday went well.
Great people, great food, great art. Thank you for those who came, and thank you for all the support we got.

Pages of Pandemonium

Our Works in Progress Exhibition, Pages of Pandemonium, is now up! It looks good in the NEW gallery space. (another exciting part!) Please also go to the school website, (www.uarts.edu) and the image of the postcard is up at the front page! that leads to our exhibition blog!

I am very excited for everything is now together.

I have two books and cite specific installation with handmade paper in the show. More pictures to come later.


(the vinyl is the one that Steph did :))

SWEETNESS!

My friend Steph from SF generously accepted to cut the vinyl signage for our work-in-progress exhibition which is coming up this weekend. I just received the package last night and opened it this morning. I was ready to tackle peeling off the vinyl, then I was surprised to see the vinyl ready to go on the wall. She did the beautiful job, not only cutting it, but peeling excess off for us!!
And she included the black feather, black ribbon hair pin and a bag of cocoa with small marshmallows.

I cannot find the word for this. I am happy happy happy!
Thank you Steph!!

back to philly

I stopped by at Terminal T in Atlanta International Airport. My gate was at B Terminal but I really wanted to see this exhibition called Paper Runway, so I took the detour.

I left the meeting on Saturday evening to catch the flight back to Philadelphia. My WIP (work-in-progress) show is installing in a week, so needed to get back to studio as soon as possible.

Still felt my heart beating fast from the excitement in the meeting of FDH, it was nice seeing the show at the airport, ending my trip of papermaking festivities at Atlanta.

Everything was so inspiring at the meeting. The talk given by Erica Spitzer Rasmussen was about the history of paper garments in different culture, and it was very organized with lots of research. I felt grateful for being able to attend the talk and got lots of inspirations. Some of her work, the paper dresses/garments, were in this show at the airport.

Now I am back in the studio, going to pick up the paper for my book that I put in the drying box before leaving to the meeting. I feel my heart beating fast again, from the nervousness and excitement for the show coming up so soon.

starting my specimen

I am in Atlanta for this papermaking conference/meeting of the organization called the Friends of Dard Hunter.
I have met so many people in these two days. Oh yes, not just people, Papermakers!
This is the first ever conference I attended, too, and it ended up to be the right decision for me to make it as my first one. It is a delightful experience.

I am also staying at my dear friend/studio-mate, Mandy's relative's house for this trip.
They generously offered me to stay at their place, which is only 20min walk to the hotel, where everyone else is staying for the conference.

Tomorrow is my last day. I hope to tell more about my experience at the conference later.

I thought that this is maybe the right time for me to start something on the web ( I have been trying to set up my website for a year now). Something quick and easy...so this blog.

I hope to continue on as much as I can. And hope to keep in touch with people that I have met in this conference.

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*the image is from the hands-on workshop given by Steve Miller and the students from the University of Alabama: hand papermaking by using Alabama banana stalk.