Tag Archives: wing dress process

Trinity.

2010’s: A Decade in Review.

Sea shore at sunrise.

A forming ocean wave.
A coffee cup on a beach driftwood.
A dress with a dyed wing detail.
A dress with a dyed wing detail.
A dress with a dyed wing process.
Moon above shore.
A hand painted wing dress on sand dune.
Worn sandals frosted with snow.
Swimming pool geometrical cross pattern.
A hand painted flower petal dress.
A hand painted flower dress on the shore.
A Walk on the Beach.

Ocean waves at sunset.

Moments lived once, from top. year/month/day/time:

2010/01/01 07:13
– The first sunrise of the decade.

2010/09/06 17:58
– That summer I swam a lot in the sea, daily at sundown.
Until I became transparent and merged with the changing colors of the ocean lit by the setting sun.
Like one of them sea creatures in the deep, see-through with neon dots.

2010/11/26 11:03
– Ocean Cafe, a practice I started in late 2000’s.
Did my “don’t laugh I’m trying to surf” thing around this time as well, the last time before Fukushima blew up.
It was on a moon-lit night, just after it was full. The practice – Night Surf – I started also in late 00’s, fascination and desire to rely solely on my intuition outweighed my fear. I thought it’d make me a better artist.
Not sure if it worked but I haven’t forgotten how I felt: very, very alive.

2011/01/28 15:19
2011/01/22 14:18
2011/02/09 14:27
– “Wing Dress – Velocity” in near completion.

2011/02/18 17:56
– Light Calligraphy, another naturally emerged “practice” in late 2000’s.
I literally close my eyes and move my camera like a calligraphy brush to “draw” with the light source.
By relying solely on my intuition I thought it’d make me a ….

2011/08/28 06:10
– Tottori Sand Dune. I got there before sunrise, carrying a sewing body while still dark.
The mini dune sounded intensely quiet, like it does in a desert, especially in those hours.

2011/02/11 16:15
– Classic Japanese nondescript flip-flops.
A pair carried me to the sea everyday, so worn, I remember even today feeling the bumpy, warm asphalt beneath my soles.

2019/09/10 15:58
– From the last outdoor swim of the year. I swam so much throughout the summer, sharing the rectangles in the sun with a small group of enthusiasts.

2017/05/24 17:11
– “Spider Lily Red – Flare 1”, in process.

2017/12/30 time unknown
– “Spider Lily Red – Flare 1”, in association with the ocean.

2019/08/31 18:01
– On the last day of August I barefooted into the sea, ankle deep in the part of Pacific I’ve known for so long.
The first time since August 2012, a year after the thing blew up.
I was alive again in no time though, like as if I never left.
Like dried wakame reviving itself in water.

2019/12/31 16:15
– The Last Sunset.
The spectacle at the beach was a gift from The Artist who knows, obviously, how to end the decade with a bang.

Additional Note on “Night Surf” (2020/03/09) :

Possibly redundant but I think worth mentioning is that, accessing the intuition seems easier if I collected enough data, such as, in this case, my strength against the power of the water, the rocks, the depth, the hazards such as sharks. Before hurling myself into the pitch-black water I consulted a fisherman and a surfer knowledgeable about the particular beach, and there on my own made enough mistakes under the sun. The angle of the moon was worth paying attention to as well.

Like a navigation map the human in me wanted to know where I am at, in order to best utilize fear as a fuel so that I could, to my utmost, surrender to the Intuitive.

Moreover.
Panic grows instantly when in the sea. Especially since I was neither skilled nor enlightened, I made sure I was ‘trusting’ enough before each try. Nervous, not frightened, anxious, but excited, eager, than reckless – it is in this longing / resisting I find the spark that enlivens the Creative.

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.

Wing Dress in the Making

ALERT:
This video contains flickering / flashy lights and could-be dizzying movements.
(Strong sunlight reflections at the shore, and may be felt as disorientating camera work.)

In summer 2009 I started recording the creative process on videos – mainly of me working on my dyed pieces,
as a vlog version of my then blog “art is a process” (2007-2012) which documented the making of two Wing Dresses.

Above is titled “Wing Dress in the Making, October 22, 2011”, my most favorite, also one of the last videos of my finishing up the second Wing Dress “Velocity”, synched with a fantastic music I discovered through blogging.

The “synching” thing was what I somehow naturally arrived at. I had a lot of fun experimenting stuff that way.

Special Thanks to Ms. Betsy Grant for her piano piece – the short piece feels to me has the kind of preciseness I always adored,
to the point, on what it takes to become ready for love.

Last Edited: November 18, 2019.

Art is a Process, Revisited.

Dress with a dyed wing creative process.

i would like it some day, somehow i become a master like this artist
flow in the jizou moment and leave behind me
a little something someone can sit by
and know that everything’s cool, if only for a little while.

– “it must be (love).” October 10, 2011, written about these masterpiece jizous.

Artist at work on a drawing.
A wing drawn on a dress.
Layered photos of a textile art piece.
Feathers drawn on silk.

All photos from a blog “art is a process” (on blogger/blogspot, 2007-2012).

How time flies.

I published the first post on May 10, 2007. It was titled “in the beginning there are scribbles.” It was about a new project “Wing Dress”, the idea conceived while on the train, April 27, 2007, according to the post.

This was, apart from a few posts I shared on Myspace earlier in the decade, my very first blogging experiment. Started out writing about anything that caught my attention along with how the Wing Dress project was growing in detail, a bit like a kid reporting to mom about her exciting new discoveries.

Excerpt is from one of my later posts, my personal favorite I wrote about the neighborhood Jizous that are carved so simply yet masterfully, the carver/artist “must have been in his Jizou moment when he did it”.

(Simple is hard. Nowhere to hide. What’s in you spills out whether you like it or not.)

I learned with each post, to write with audience in mind, share candidly but also selectively, as in, tap into what wants to be spoken and flow with it (i.e. in “Jizou moment”), knowing I will never know what exactly I did, if I got it right.
It is from me but not about me, which is a practice easier said but I aspire, to this day, every step of the way.

Published first on March 24, 2022 at 03:07.
Revised, with long text on June 13, 2023 at 00:44.