2017 - a hectic year of TRYING

Wow, how is it already December!?

Apologies to my sadly neglected blog but this year has been a heck of a ride.

In looking back over all the things I've done and struggled with this year, I suddenly had a (mildly incensed) urge to write it all down and make sense of it before another year rolls around.

Let me paint a picture of the hectic year just gone.

→ I dyed a commissioned noren (split curtain) for an Australian Tea-master who lives up in Newcastle with his own tatami-floored tea-room. It's a homage to spring with magpies, which also happen to be the emblem of the area where he studied Tea.

privately commissioned Noren featuring Australian magpies

→ I started making textile jewellery that I've called tameshi, using trial dye samples and un-used edges from dyed works. These have been proving popular and I feel good about the fact that they are mini artworks in themselves and re-use fabrics that I would have thrown away or put in a box somewhere.

Tameshi jewellery - tameshi means sample or test. Available through stockists in Canberra and on my etsy store https://www.etsy.com/au/shop/someru

→ I sent work to a group show by dyeing artists in New York. As the only artist out of the group who wasn't Japanese, apparently people said mine looked the most Japanese! With all the deadlines for later in the year, I didn't manage to get to go the US to see the show but still, it felt like an achievement.

My series of 6 yuzen/katazome dyed works on display as part of "Wafting II" at Medialia Gallery in New York, June-July 2017

→ I participated in a four-day residency out at Tidbinbilla nature reserve thanks to Craft ACT. Four of us selected artists got to stay in a newly renovated cottage inside the reserve and spent four lovely sunny days at the tail-end of winter hiking in the bush, sketching, writing and sharing tales over cheese and wine.

The delights of early spring at Tidbinbilla - Gibraltar Peak, Early Nancy, Flame Robin.

→ I travelled to Japan and held a solo exhibition in Galerie H20 in Kyoto. My first solo show there in 4 and a half years, always a joy to be there and to catch up with so many friends and new connections.

entryway and Japanese garden at Galerie H20 in downtown Kyoto

view of solo show at Galerie h20, October 2017

→ Whilst in Japan I made time to visit and interview a bunch of great humans, friends new and old who are doing innovative and interesting dye-work. The plan is to write up a series of interviews from all the meetings and I've created a new project Somé 20:20 to house them and to move forward with. It's a reference to being able to see clearly - without acknowledging tradition how do we move forward? and how will dyeing art survive into the future, 2020 is just around the corner. A work in progress, my new website for the project is over at some-20-20.com

the wonderful people who agreed to be interviewed for my Somé 20:20 project.

→ I came back and setup another solo show at ANCA gallery in Canberra! The theme of my works this year have been "beautiful weeds", and I managed to create some new works that are really where I've been wanting to head for a while now; layered and sheer works that are a new form of collaged landscape.

Solo Exhibition "Naturescapes" at ANCA Gallery & Studios, Canberra, Oct-Nov 2017

detail of "The Beautiful Weeds of Canberra" series, on show at ANCA Gallery, Canberra

→ I ran workshops and demonstrations in dyeing at the 2017 Canberra-Nara Candle Festival. For the demonstrations, I dyed a massive 9 metre length of resist-printed cotton in one go while a crowd watched and revealed pattern and birds and text as I went. The workshops saw nearly 100 people dye their own kata-yuzen bookmark using pigments and stencils.

Kata-yuzen workshops and Hikizome demonstration at the Canberra Nara Candle Festival, October 28, 2017

→ I ran another afternoon of workshops on the last day of my exhibition, dyeing katazome postcards. Participants could dye pre-printed washi and wash away the paste to reveal the patterns. We had great warm weather and it was a lovely bunch of enthusiastic people who came along.

wonderful postcards dyed by participants, drying on the outside windows at ANCA

→ I even had an article published in the Kyoto Journal, on katagami stencils.

Kyoto Journal, a volunteer-run publication, making a return to print from this issue.
It's great! you can get your hands on a copy here

PHEW!

What this run-sheet doesn't show is the sleep-deprivation, self-doubt, expenses, rejection letters, missed deadlines, extensive preparations, hours spent at a day-job and the constant juggle.

On paper, (or in digital text, I suppose) this looks like a hugely successful year. In a sense it was.
But it was also really, really hard.
I don't think this level of productivity is sustainable, or even very enjoyable.
I also didn't really sell much art. Not through exhibitions.
Where I really made progress and, to some extent, a profit, was through connecting with like-minded people, through making custom pieces, through sharing affordable things, and through trying to promote the unique genre of Somé.
Which has me re-thinking my approach to all of this.

Given that my work places me in a sort of odd position in between ART, CRAFT & RESEARCH, (odd in the sense that I don't fall neatly into funding categories or job titles) I'm thinking that instead of struggling against that and trying to slot myself into prescribed categories, why not embrace it?

Can I be a CRAFTISAN?
Can I be a RESEARCHIST?
Can I be a CRAFTIST?

I'm tired of feeling like my specialties (being able to dye pictorial textiles, being interested in craft, being knowledgeable about tradition, having Japanese abilities -though not bilingual by any means, being interested in smaller, affordable art) are a liability, or something I need to adjust so I can be in the same game as everyone else. And of feeling like my particular set of skills don't add up to anything. When in fact they do! and they are a killer combination despite what the grants categories, arts bodies, or professional membership organisations would have me think.

So consider this my personal passion project for 2018; finding a way to be my own kind of craftisan, pursuing research and researching through making.

Thank you for putting up with the silence on this blog but do feel free to check in over at my website and project site to see what things I get up to in 2018.

What a whirlwind : First Solo Show @ Gallery h2o Kyoto. 初個展が無事に終わりました。

It's been a week or so since my first solo exhibition wrapped up at h2o Gallery in Kyoto. What an incredible two weeks it was! I spent most of the time at the gallery, talking with visitors, explaining my work and just generally speaking a lot of Japanese!

ギャラリーh2oでの初個展が無事に終わってからほぼ一週間が過ぎました。素敵な経験でした。期間中、大体在廊して、客さんと喋ったり、作品を説明したり、すごい日本語の勉強になりました！

The entrance to Gallery h2o leads onto a long corridor. The gallery's  trademark is to hang a different noren curtain each time they are holding an exhibition. This was the first time they'd had an artist who dyed their own noren!

ギャラリーh2oは展覧会を開いている時、いつも違うのれんを掛けます。せっかく染織作家ので、自分ののれんを作りました。自分ののれんを染めた作家って始めてそうです。

View of the main gallery space. 

All the works were completed in the last 2 years whilst a Research Student
全部の作品はこの二年間（研究生だった間）に作ったものです。

I also had washi postcards and fans out for sale. I sold the majority of them!
染めたハガキや団扇も販売していました。結構売りました！

The Japanese-style room off to one side was perfect for this scroll piece and the Lorikeet Lacquerware platter that I've shown you before.　茶室の床の間に作品がぴったり入りました。掛軸のような作品と前に紹介した漆器。 

Lots of people actually showed up for the opening that was organised very last minute, yay! オープニングに沢山の友達や学生が来てくれてうれしかった！

Look who else came along! My Dad happened to be in Japan on a bicycle touring adventure of sorts and was in Kyoto just in time for the opening. It was so nice to have him there. それでこの人も！父です。ちょうど自転車の旅行で日本に来ていて、京都に居るにあわせてオープニングパーティーをしました。父さんが来れてなんて嬉しかったです。

This is a little teaser! crew from MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting) came to film me and my exhibition. More details soon!!
これはティーザーです。MBSの人が展覧会の様子を取材に来て、インタビューもしたんです。近いうちに詳しいことをアップするので、楽しみにしてください！

The experience of talking to all different kinds of people about my work was very rewarding. I took away all sorts of interesting comments and ideas and I feel like my work was very well received. I think most people grasped what I was trying to achieve which is very encouraging. It gives me the enthusiasm to regroup and start making new work all over again!