In praise of photography
How cheap has photography become? So cheap that we don’t even have to pause and breath before snapping. We don’t have to frame, compose, breath art and life into a shot because hey, a photo is just a downloadable photo close to free except for the printer paper and ink. Now try explaining to a […]
The Art of Self-Introduction
When meeting people for the first time do you get nervous? Do you feel like your whole life is being reduced to a location, a job, a family role and you don’t know what to say? We can use the Genesis Cards to break out of this rut and make self-introductions fun and truthful, especially […]
Five years go by in a flash
Five years ago, the first week of November, I opened Genesis art Lounge on Nodai Dori, the busy shopping street near our home in the Kyodo area of Setagaya in Tokyo. If that sounds specific, in Tokyo you’ve got to speak very specific because the city is so vast that coordinate points are marked by […]
The Outward Form of the Inward Search
In 1987 I traveled to my mother’s country, England, to visit family in London. After kissing my grandparents goodbye, I traveled southwest to Devon and Cornwall. I was 27. I had just finished grad school where I had studied arts administration. I was visiting England with the eyes of a writer, eager to meet artists, […]
Smile and the world smiles with you!
When Mirai drew herself smiling, the confidence she saw in the pretty young woman smiling back at her gave her confidence to draw wonderfully. This was right after she complained to me that her drawing often looks as if a little kid had made it. Notice the smile in the photo and how Mirai reveals […]
When Art Imitates Life
I love it when art imitates life!! I drew a pretty ordinary looking guy working on his cell phone at Starbucks back in Spring, about six months ago. I didn’t look at the paper while I drew him and the results are quite hilarious and syncronistic. I never imagined a dancer could hold a pose […]
Artists Influence Each Other in the Creative Process
A Genesis art trial session is an intimate partnering experience between a few people, sometimes only you and me. I’m drawing with you. There are no rules to get started. Just pick up crayons and draw. I want you to see what I’m drawing and if you feel compelled to imitate the first strokes of […]
Outdoor drawing at Baji Koen
１０月８日（月）「公園で自然の恵を描くワークショップ」 お天気がよければ世田谷区の馬事公苑で１０：３０～１２：３０に開催いたします。 料金は３０００円です。 Join me for a two-hour workshop in two of Tokyo’s most lovely nature sanctuaries — Baji Koen (Mondays 10:30-12:30). This workshop is for all nature lovers — to delight the senses, arouse intuition, and heighten your sensitivity to plants, flowers, trees and the creatures who make these settings home. Learn simple and […]
25 Years in Japan Reminds me that the Adventure still continues
9/27 marks 25 years in Japan. I feel extremely sentimental and appreciative. Taking out my photo albums and pouring over 25 years of pictures I came across this one taken on August 25th, 1996, my 36th birthday. I was at Pam Honda’s ‘Dragon Center’ near Lake Kawaguchi having given myself the ultimate birthday present, a […]
Remembering artist Charlotte Salomon
As I write, as I connect with my past, writer friends and readers of my Japan Times articles of long ago are reconnecting. Thank you Margaret Stawowy for pointing out the connection between my art and the autobiographical watercolor paintings of Charlotte Salomon, a gifted young painter who perished in the Auschwitz gas chamber. I […]