Tag Archives: visual poetry

Photo A Day, November 2023

November 10, 2023Art, Diary, Journal, photo a daycafe solitude, creative process, experiment, flower, flower journal, photo journal, progressive post, sea, seashells, thoughts on creativity, visual poetryYuko

This is an experiment with “progressive” style posting: relying completely-clumsily on my hunch and letting the story unfold.
Photos are taken / edited / mostly posted on the day.
Photo title-caption is in image URL / embeds.
You are invited to tag along (and let Your story unfold), also to leave comments.

Afterword

As noted in the beginning of this post, I spent my month of November 2023 posting one photo a day. While searching for the image I focused only on what feels right within. To the sea or make a tea; each step of the way I consciously consulted with my innermost self.

Inspiration is a whisper and my thoughts oft in doubting of it. The pressure to “get a shot” daily was an exciting challenge I gave myself, also was laced with creative tension.

Throughout the month Creativity wove a continuous tale mostly of personal significance. Images ‘coincided’ over and again in ways I could no way have coordinated*. The tale unfolded guided me to the greater degree of trust in Benevolent Unseen.

Collaborating with The Creativity Itself has been my greatest ambition since long. Spent decades up to this date, clearing from within myself what counters my such aim, I’d like to think now the battle is over in most part. I noticed however, during the month’s experiment the fear, a certain kind of nervousness, was still present. It’s an impulse to hesitate, to recoil from the Dynamic Creative Current, although no longer a paralyzing dread**.

But that is alright, for I’ve come to suspect, it is the tension, in longing for and fearing of Creativity I find what compels me to dare, to make my minuscule version of The Ultimate Beauty.

*I decided against giving examples, for too often what’s awe-striking in this manner is so very personal, and detailing it becomes like explaining a joke. Instead, I will let you, the visiter, experience something if it’s there for you.
**When I talk about “creative block”, basically this is what I am talking about.

History:
Published on 03Nov23 at 09:11
Turned private on 03Nov23 at 13:25
Gone public / published again on 10Nov23
Added “Afterword” on 05Dec23 at 21:27

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Spider lilies, a shell and a book. — 2021.12.19 -Here Is Your Scarab – Happy Coincidences in Creativity.

August (Alone with Waves)

September 11, 2023Art, Journal, Processabstraction in nature, creative process, nature as an inspiration, sea, spider lily red, summer, sunset, visual poetryYuko

Things I learned this summer:

Basically I am swimming in a translucent sculpture of ever-shifting Perfection.

I realized I am painting waves!!*

…and guess what? Shells are, too!!!

Present is the present with no strings attached.

Ocean humbles me but humility sets me free.**

All images were photographed in August 2023.

*The artwork in progress (photo 4, 5, 7 from top) is an abstract interpretation of a flower petal. How so in one post from 2019.11.27: Process is the Destination!!

**Please allow me to specify what I mean by “humility” here.
I am not coming from stereo-typical Japanese “politely lowering oneself is a virtue” presentation (as in, nationalism-based virtue signaling, say). This is an art website and I work within myself to write as a creative.
Ocean is bigger than me. My silly pride as a skilled, long time swimmer had gotten shattered numerous times against the sheer force of the Ocean. Surprisingly though, such surrendering to Majestic did not defeat me but has been having the opposite effect on me: it permits me to release the dynamic/energetic/unapologetic side of me. As if the Ocean itself tempts me to become more. “Be more. You won’t scare me away.”
I wrote about one of the times when I got my ass handed: 2020.12.30 – New Moon in Virgo (An inflatable buoy tied to my waist since.)

Edits:
12Sep23 – added the “**” paragraph about humility.
14Sep23 – minor corrections.
27Sep23 – minor addition.

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Artwork in progress with ocean surface. — 2019.06.22 – Sea/She

Desert Sensibility

March 22, 2023Art, Diary, Journalcalifornia, travel, visual poetryYuko

Stirring, white light, the desert sun of California, the sand beneath the asphalt.
I remember how it shone evenly, on beauty, bizarro, and every wound concealed.

Photos: 2006-2012. Images from different times, new edits. I am not of Christian faith in case you wonder, but I do like the symbol.

Thinking of you California.

Published on March 22, 2023 at 2:23am JST, unpublished 2 minutes later (I had my moments), re-published at 3:22am. Today is New Moon in Aries at 2:23am JST, also the Astrological New Year, the official start of the Spring.

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A wood carving and natural objects. — 2017.03.31 – Abstraction in Nature, a Tribute.

Ume Sentiment

March 11, 2023Art, Journal, Processflower, layered photography, scribbles of a blocked creative, sea, spider lily red, sunset, thoughts on creativity, ume, visual poetryYuko

Ume = Japanese Apricot / Plum. Pictured in photo #1 and #3.

“Demure, delicate, their fragrance so faint, their buds mature during the coldest time of the year, petals push open against late winter chill.
Soft yet Strong, they flower to signal the end of the Winter, and quietly retreat as Spring triumphs and flourishes in magnificent varieties of shapes and shades.”

The middle photo is a casual iPhone snap of the piece “Spider Lily Red – Flare 2” I’ve been working on, taken on February 28, 2023 at 16:29. Turned it into monochrome and part soft/off-focused to simulate a hand-held blur using Lightroom phone app, then applied vsco A5 filter, then, taken into Photoshop on computer and layered with a ocean/gull pic and the scribbles I’ve been using for sometime. In short, over processed some. It’s an experiment.

What I think is so wonderful about subtlety is that, it brings out a hunter, a seeker in a person, the opposite of things that explain themselves so loud they put you in a position of a mere consumer. If creativity is about connecting dots in new ways, it then naturally asks you to be the initiator.
Initiate, but not overbear. Intend, yet keep it open-ended. Candid, without making it all about me. I think about all this while remembering the fortunate times when I found myself encased in an elegantly subtle Ume scent cloud*.

Decorative text in the middle:
I have audacity to quote (in fancy font!) my own post from May 2021 called “Subtle. Sincere.”.

References:
Link to all the posts about the project “Spider Lily Red” since 2012.Or,
its creative process in one post: “Process Is The Destination!!”.

*Ume scent travels on breeze, like a cloud, you’d be hit with it even when you are away from the actual Ume tree(s).

Published on March 11, 2023 at 22:06 JST.
Edits:
Added the “*” (no that’s not a face) on March 12, 2023 at 16:13 JST.

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Abstract drawing of a spider lily petal. — 2020.10.10 – Beauty will save the world.

Way Finders

January 22, 2023Art, Diary, Journalanimal drawing, bird, greetings, hand made journal, illustration, rubber stamp print, scribbles of a blocked creative, visual poetryYuko

Dear Visitor,
Happy New / Bunny Year!!
Wishing you a truly awesome-to-you 2023,
Yuko the webmaster/artist.

I woke in the middle of the night and seen, in my mind’s eye a flock of swans, would be perfect for the New Year’s greeting card I was designing in my head for a few days. It was like 3am on winter solstice, 2022. When I woke again it was 8 in the morning, opened the window and saw, a flock of swans flying away heading south, just as I imagined.

Editions:
09Feb23 – additional text about a flock of swans.

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Wild swans at sunset. — Let the Wild Be the Wild.

Untitled.

December 19, 2022Art, Diary, Journala year in review, bird, flower, gardenia, quote, sakura, sea, seashells, ume, visual poetryYuko

2022: a year in review.

“He put his hand in the air and waved at Preston across the dark expanse. It was a crazy kind of wave – done with the whole arm, his hand swinging at the end of it, full of childish exuberance. And as he watched, Preston raised his own arm and waved back.”

Last December. We had 19 more days left in the year. Short walk to the beach I watched a leaf circling in breeze drawing an endless geometric pattern.

“Leaves generate Energy that way.” Suddenly I was not alone. And everything, surrounded, came alive with wings of its own.

The leaf, the movement, the way I felt that day. Stayed with me the whole year. On my mind. In my heart.

Images above best represent my 2022, photographed mostly this year, a few in recent years, except for one, forth from top back in 2005.
The hand-written letters in the pic are typed out just beneath, from Kem Nunn “Tapping The Source” (1984, p.77, No Exit Press).

Just how, a snapshot of my then apartment from 17yrs ago, and an unforgettable paragraph from a book a friend shoved in my hand saying, “you read this.” in as early as 1984, like pieces of the puzzle finding their places in the picture of my life, years later.

Sixth and eighth, of a piece Spider Lily Red – Flare 2, in process, as of September 2022. Flare 1 is completed.

I took a grande break from posting Journals for a year to focus on other things. (Except for these ones: link to UPDATES page)

Wishing you Very Happy Holidays…

Compiled: December 12-19, 2022.

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Dry branches and moon. — 2013.01.20 – So Still.

Spring Song Revisited.

March 30, 2021Art, Diary, Journalblack and white photography, poetry deconstruction, sea, visual poetryYuko

a snake, a stone,
a silvery glow
a hawk, a thrush,
a thorn in your hand

the tale of the night
the bed of the well
three shadows of blue
a stroke of the sun

a loss, a find,
the dead of the night
a sliver of light
the promise of spring.

Originally published with color version of the same photos, taken in 2013 (ripples) and 2014 (tree) with a poem “Spring Song” on March 30, 2014. and was removed long since.

Removed due to feeling protective of the poem, which was “birthed” as if without my effort.
Shared part of it in my Digital Zine 1: Own Your Shadow however.

This version was published under “select social posts” on March 30, 2021 and moved to “diary” on December 06, 2021.
You are more than welcome to leave a comment, we used to do that and it was really fun before things online got very centralized….

Text is my “deconstruct – re-structure other people’s poems” series, the victim this time is Jobim “Water of March”.

Last Edited: December 06, 2021.

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A little bird by the Sea. — 2019.10.14 – Your Soul Is.

Monochrome Diary, May 2020.

May 23, 2020Art, Current, Journal, Processabstraction in nature, artist at work, black and white photography, macro photography, sea, seashells, spider lily red, visual poetryYuko

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An artist at work. — 2016.10.29 – Monochrome Diary, October 2016.

Flower pencil sketches. — 2013.02.19 – Lily sans Red.

An artwork in progress. — 2016.07.27 – Monochrome Diary, July 2016.

Cocoon.

April 29, 2020Art, Diary, Journalartist studio, bird, black and white photography, flower, gardenia, monochrome diary, sea, self-portrait, spider lily red drawing process, visual poetryYuko

She was a compact two wheel drive in the modest shade of silver.
Previous owner from western Japan left a cigarette burn on the driver’s seat.
Sales man at the lot remarked on my face, said I look rusted like the car’s old engine.
Purchase was made in autumn 2011, the year everything felt like one big defeat.

Thought nothing good would come from this, turned out couldn’t be further from the truth.
Soon there were nights parked on a sand dune, curled up to hear the endless loop of waves.
We’d ride up the hills, into the storm and rest under the trees, wrapped in their unquestionable resiliency.
Most importantly though, she was a shelter with changing sceneries, encased my shedding, the morphing, the reaching for Creativity.

My humble, sturdy sidekick fell silent in the late February 2020.
“Cocoon spat me out” I said, I felt like a cicada freshly out of his, with soft pale green wings that harden overnight.
100 months in my modest silver cocoon, had brought me to where I always dreamt I’d visit.
We took one long ride together, thousands sunsets enclosed us along the way.

This post is dedicated, an ode to my sidekick, we had parted our ways in early April.
Photos are mostly taken with iPhone, all edited using vsco B5 filter.
All artworks are from the series “Spider Lily Red” (2012 – ).
The second selfie: “one eye” is a happenstance, I am so very much a ‘commoner’.
The sales man did not receive my vendetta; figured him being him would be the punishment enough ;)

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Port view from a car window. — 2017.12.31 – FAQ: What took you so long?

Ocean waves in blur. — 2015.12.26 – Almost Transcendent Blue – the year in review

Uno Suprema

July 28, 2019Art, Diary, Journalabstraction in nature, macro photography, nature as an inspiration, quote, sea, seashells, visual poetryYuko

“It is in the struggle between good and evil that life has its meaning.”

Visuals:
Collaborative works with The Artist, who did the photographed pieces, all ocean-worn, collected in recent weeks.
Magnificent time working with You, always.
Quote:
“….and in the hope that goodness can succeed.”
Scott Peck, People of the Lie (p.266-7).

Or Perhaps: 
Life is like a waterslide, you jump in with a bang, tossed around with gusto and then spat out, into the splashes catching the summer sun, bursting into laughter like blue sky saying, 
“it was really fun, let’s do that again!!”

Lastly:
This post is dedicated to my two special friends, one entered, the other exited in July,
to their unforgettable bang/gusto/laughter now imprinted in my heart where I create, I try to, from.

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Sand dollar, inner part. — 2014.07.01 – Biofluorescents.

A flower petal close up. — 2014.09.24 – Every petal’s a masterpiece.

A camelia blossom detail. — 2018.05.27 – Mimic.

Yuko Nagai. Artist.

Eternity In A Single Line.

Tag Archives: visual poetry

Photo A Day, November 2023

Afterword

August (Alone with Waves)

Desert Sensibility

Ume Sentiment

Way Finders

Untitled.

Spring Song Revisited.

Monochrome Diary, May 2020.

Cocoon.

Uno Suprema