One of the pleasures of this project has been seeing our NIU students interact with Ayomi’s students from Japan. They share music and look over each other’s web sites. The crew takes a break together in the late afternoon at the conference table in my office. So far there has been an endless stream of sweets being baked and delivered. It is a good thing the Recreation Center has reopened so that folks can go exercise.

If calculations are correct, almost ½ the blossoms have been applied so far.

A new batch of Ayomi's current students will be arriving tomorrow.

So, what happened to the red dots? Our early PR had red dots; the essay written by Margaret Hawkins deals with salvaging and incorporating the detritus of the creative process back into a piece; minimalism, maximilism (?), the color red. Instead, the gallery walls have been covered with vinyl printed a scrumptious pale blue green (somewhere between robin egg blue and a tender spring green). Instead of repetitive geometric pattern, the walls are animated with organic form in the silhouettes of mighty tree trunks and delicate branches. Instead of utilizing the wood chip pieces resulting from her carving to cover the surface, the walls are being covered with the prints themselves. 100,000 one-inch by one-inch hand-printed cherry blossoms to be individually placed by artist and crew. (Note to self: will need to talk with Margaret).

What happened to the red dots? Ayomi has just said she knew she could not do the same thing again here. I wonder if the space has not influenced her shift back to nature as a source of inspiration. Something about the formality of Altgeld Hall, the iron work of the central staircase, the architectural filigree, the cherry wood trim….What she has captured is the breadth (and breath) created by the apse of the Rotunda and here is creating an orchard that embraces and surrounds. Having just come in from the snow outside, this hint of early spring is enchanting.

What happened to the red dots? They’ve gone the way of all creative installation projects – subject to change…. It is incredibly exciting to have Ayomi commence a whole new approach and project here at NIU.

Arrival at Chicago

After some delay trying to reach each other’s cel phone at the airport, NIU driver Reid McAllister and Ayomi and Bidou finally met up. Reid brought them to DeKalb where we got them set up with a rental car and into their apartment (thanks Michele and University Heights Apartments!). Helen Nagata had dropped off a basket of essentials (green tea, miso soup, rice crackers) and Christmas cookies before she went for a family visit in California. A quick trip to Shnuck’s grocery and Duck Soup Co-op and then these two travelers needed to rest (and get a local cel phone).

Departure for Chicago

Lots of paperwork and arrangements to hope will all go smoothly. An artist is a brave soul.

Ayomi in NIU

When the NIU Art Museum’s guest curators Helen Merritt and Helen Nagata were planning the exhibition from the Richard F. Grott Family Collection, they found that they would need to have one gallery for the 19th century ukiyo-e prints and another gallery for the 20th century sōsaku hanga and shin hanga prints. In that case, what better sense than to have the museum’s third gallery display a contemporary Japanese exhibition?

We discussed our preferences whether to have an artist do an installation or put together another exhibition to highlight contemporary prints. Several artists and approaches were considered including prints by artist Ayomi Yoshida, fourth generation in the Yoshida printmaking dynasty.

I looked at Ayomi’s handsome web site and the animations of her recent installations and couldn’t help but think about the possibilities of her doing an installation in our curved wall Rotunda Gallery. We could have a print artist do an installation - and have a familial link to our other exhibitions. How synchronous! Amazingly enough, through the internet you can reach almost anyone and soon I had an email response to my inquiry from Ayomi herself.

In the late summer, Ayomi had work to do in the Midwest so offered to stop by and visit in DeKalb so that she and her husband Bidou could view the gallery and we might discuss possibilities for an installation. She was agreeable and intrigued with the space. Ayomi and Bidou brought many beautiful books about the Yoshida family of artists and donated them to the museum’s library. We went to the local Farmer’s Market in Palmer Court and had dinner at the Thai Pavilion in DeKalb before they went to visit Ayomi’s school friend Laura in the southwest suburbs.