Tag Archives: bird

Zine One (Revisited)


A small sculpted wood.
Head lights in a wing mirror.
An artist's hand.

All photographed in 2015.
The photo 1 and 5, respectively:
A Wing (1996) – wood, silver.
An Ally (2014) – self portrait (as a child), pencil on paper, detail.
(Please allow me to lightheartedly add: ‘one eye’ is a happenstance.)

A small bird.
A pencil drawing of a child and a bird.

Back in May 2015, I did a post titled “Zine One”. At that time I was psyched to put together images of what I made up until then like a casual portfolio and bind them into something between a magazine and a photo book, something creative while keeping it easy and informal. I tested a few printing options and got kind of disappointed with all. So I dropped the whole thing and deleted the post :(

Fast forward to December 2016, while I was not looking the idea revived itself. to create a series of small booklets with a personal touch and pack them with the excitement of creativity bit. Photos are the ones loosely in consideration for the issue one, put together as an experiment with a new spin. (What I picked in May’15 turned into a photo series. )

Thank you for your visit. Keep warm if applicable, stay cool, and enjoy the festivities!!

Additional note: Entry edited – shortened – on June 10, 2018, while the idea still alive in back burner. Time flies; savor the fruits. :)

Dried persimmons from Sado Island made me think of.

Sea gulls over water surface.

Here’s a joke. Don’t feel offended.
A Turk
goes to see a doctor.
He tells him:
“When I touch my body with my finger, it hurts.
When I touch my head, it hurts,
my legs, it hurts,
my belly, my hand, it hurts.”
The doctor examines him then tells him:
“Your body’s fine
but your finger’s broken!”

    – Abbas Kiarostami, Taste of Cherry (1997)

Sea gulls over dark water surface.

I decided December will be a movie month. I’m gonna watch as many Kiarostami films. Maybe not all though, save some for later, ‘cause no more coming from the maestro.

Photos are from my trip to Sado, early August 2003. Shot, with a single use camera I got in a hurry at a kiosk somewhere, from the last ferry boat of the day, my way back to Tokyo. On the isle time passed like a deep sea current, with the kind of depth that does not weigh. I watched for a long time the fading silhouettes, its picturesque rocks and the dark sea widening between us.

Yesterday I closed my eyes and consumed a semi dried persimmon from the island. Sugar in the fruit spoke to me in Sado, and the characters I met there came to life again: silver-scaled sushi fishes in clear teal sea that gets cold at 3pm sharp, a crane with black and red design who had to nearly brush this tourist’s windshield, a coffee at the goldmine that came with a surprise gold flake floating.
Then I thought of the film, words between a man and his third passenger, the depth that doesn’t bind. And the director who passed last July, the way he used time as his medium, and the subtext that does not force meaning.

(The persimmon in question is sold under the name “Anpo”. Melty on the inside, look for the ones from the island.)

Monochrome Diary, June 2016

Everything’s got a little black within it.

Flowers and a sketch book.

A discovery on Swallows: a compact aerodynamic frame was accompanied by the expression of an eagle.

Swallows on phone line.

Crazy, sexy, cool. Naming just a few, start from top: Oxalis (Imo Katabami), Spiderwort (Murasaki Tsuyukusa), Meadow Sage / Salvia Guaranitica

Oxalis flower detail.
Spiderwort flower detail.
Salvia Guaranitica flower detail.

Cast of characters, clockwise from top left: Yarrow, Cherry Sage, Can’t Recall, Salvia Guaranitica (flower only), a cuppa java, my best friend Sofi asleep in the phone, Pentax WG3 in micro-macro mode.

Flowers, a coffee cup and cameras.

Thank you, to the month of June, for all the scents, shades and shapes,
and Thank you! for your visit.

Edited Black and White Images

An abstract pencil drawing over ocean waves.
A dead gull on the beach and painted feathers.
A flower petal drawing over ocean.
A hand painted dress on the beach with painted feathers.
A hand painted dress with a wing drawing.
A hand painted dress and a magnolia blossom.
A hand painted dress and the oceanic horizon.

All derivatives from Dyed Threads series.
From top:
Spider Lily – early sketch, monochrome (2015)
Wing Diptych 1 (2015) The bird was photographed in September 1999, and became the inspiration for the Wing Dress series.
Spider Lily – study, monochrome (2015)
Wing Diptych 2 (2015)
Wing Diptych 3 (2015) The drawing was of an imaginary wing, and preceded the Wing Dress series.
Dragon Dress Diptych (2015)
Dragon Dress Prototype (2015) The dress in the photo was created around 1999-2000 with fabric marker as the first experiment for the Dyed Threads series.

Grain Haiku

Ocean with Clouds.
Fishing cormorants.
A yacht at a port.
A gardenia blossom.
Foggy sunset with crows.

All images were photographed with iPhone 4s during the hottest days of summer 2015 at sundown. Grainy textures came, mostly from the lack of light, and a slight bit from editing with vscocam.