migratory patterns - part one

installation at walter maciel gallery

hello. right. so my show.... migratory patterns.... basically the premise for this show is the following [this is how i answered a question for an interview on balancing the tide - a blog on creatives/mothering]:

This new series of work is rooted in the idea of migration. It has components which are both highly personal [my and my family’s migration] and also reaching for a worldlier view [the migration of radiation from Fukushima]. This is the first time I’ve been able to combine these interests - personal life story telling and work that has a more political and greater awareness – under one banner. This is both thrilling and scary. 


today i'll post about the personal work. i generated a series of portraits - of myself, my mom, my dad, my husband, my grandparents. components of the pieces link to places they live - on the graph papers are drawings that represent state flowers and fish and birds and dogs. the mark making is representation of the mileage between locales - so for example i moved from LA to Santa Barbara before i started high school - 94 miles. so i made 94 marks. i clock the mileage for everyone between each locale - each mark or sewing stitch represents a mile. the marks make up a map of sorts - although not in the traditional way. i think [hope], though, that they read like like... traversing a distance. map abstracted.

danne san [husband], 2012
graphite, acrylic, colored pencil, felt, pins, machine stitching on paper and duralar
20 ½ x 28 ¼ inches framed

ocasan [mother], 2012, graphite, colored pencil, machine stitching on duralar,  16 1/2 x 12 1/2 in framed

ottosan [dad], 2012, graphite, acrylic, colored pencil, felt, pins, machine stitching on paper and duralar, 16 ½ x 20 ½ inches framed

ojisan / obasan [grandpa and grandma], 2012,  graphite, acrylic, colored pencil, felt, pins, machine stitching on paper and duralar,  20 ½ x 20 ½ inches framed

watashii [me] california girl, 2012,  graphite, acrylic, felt, pins, machine stitching and embroidery on paper and duralar, 16 ½ x 12 ½ inches framed

watashii [me] home sweet home, 2012, graphite, acrylic, felt, pins, machine stitching and embroidery on paper and duralar, 20 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches framed

in this piece i drew the 3 main houses that i've lived in - and in the lower right i embroidered home sweet home in japanese.

i also did this series of drawings. 38 of them. all places i've been - some from photos i took, or of indicators of place [state birds, flowers, etc], or of objects that are really important to me in my life/art practice. as i was making the drawings for the portrait pieces i admitted to sydney that if i were brave i would just do a whole show of them. because i loved making them. drawing in black and white and adding color as a chart - just like i was making my students do in color theory. and she said: why DON'T you just make a bunch of them. like they are waiting to be put into the other drawings. all i needed was the permission... 

here's a slideshow of the flickr set - [you may have to click out of a reader to see it. and it's flash - so anyone on an ipad/phone sorry]. there are detail images there of the above works too.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

i'll talk about the other 1/2 of the show next time.

a couple of other things :: hanging out with LA friends was really really heavenly. and a couple of hip moms pointed us to LACMA and their NEXT GEN program. the little can now go there for FREE and take me [or any other grown up] until she's 18?!?! brilliant.

 we went to go see the amazing metropolis II by chris burden. which was really spectacular.

but i have to say my favorite moment might have been when she laid on the floor in the richard serra sculpture.

and if you are still with me... i posted on poppytalk too. wendy kawabata.....