for a moment...

As the semester fires up with galleries open, it has been wonderful to see the reaction of visitors to the space. I hope many more will crowd the gallery before Ayomi and Bidou head back to Japan. They have been more than generous with my scant Pimsler Japanese practice sessions and are incredibly kind and open.

As an installation artist myself, I have incredible respect for Ayomi's ambition and intentions with "Yedoensis," especially in taking a new direction with the work. Or more accurately, fusing her installation and spatial sensibilities with the organic nature of her earlier more traditional printmaking.

The installation process is the embodiment of labor yielding beauty. (I stopped in a week ago, and had to try my hand at it after instructions- and it is a serious undertaking.) 100,000 gestures of a hand (not counting putting the prints on the glue dot strips) and the attention paid to create each mica print on the delicate gampi has lead me to a place without words… Luckily I met an incredible poet at an artist residency who printed a broadside with me at the KHN Center for the Arts a few years back. Forgive me, Mira Rosenthal, for taking your words out of context…”I can’t… count the bees caught behind the baker’s glass, nor tell you how their labor becomes sweetness. But I do know our nature is this, to turn one’s hardship into another’s pure joy.” Seeing reactions to "Yedoensis" and gauging my own- thanks to all who made this possible. It has been incredible to see all the work from behind the office door. I hope those involved and those who made it all possible will take a few moments to just enjoy the fruits of their labor as it happens.