August 2006

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the kyoto journal asked me to submit some work for their upcoming issue on gender in japan. i know some frequent contributors to the kyoto journal, from before i moved to canada. i submitted two drawings, one of which they’re planning to use for the table of contents page. also, one of my loudsilence photos may be used to illustrate a short story. i don’t usually draw from a theme. i just draw whatever comes to mind. so it was interesting to do a drawing with a particular theme in mind: gender in japan.

in my drawing, a boy is having breasts sewn over his eyes. he’s happy about it. he is being made more feminine. usually, that means taking something away (castration). but this is an addition, not a subtraction. i think femininity, including traditional parts like motherhood, is a positive thing. men and women are both better off if they can be feminine. not instead of other things, but in addition to them.

this drawing is not going to be used for the kyoto journal magazine, so i’m finally showing it on my blog. i’d been keeping it on hold. it’s one of my favorites. since doing this drawing, i did other drawings that also ended up following some sort of gender theme. “inside of me“, “20/20” and “my secret elephant” are some of the examples. they might be used by the kyoto journal as part of an online feature.

UPDATE: you can buy a print of this drawing from my SHOP.

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…that you’re a big fan of mine, but don’t get too extreme…
– ultraman

drawn on monday. i was invited to join the tokusatsu group on flickr but i don’t have any figurines, so…

僕に憧れるんはわかるけど、無理した～あかんで、きみ
－ウルトラマン

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kon’nichiwa to my new visitors. my blog got linked from metafilter last night, and a couple of thousand people have stopped by already. at first, the site crashed, because i’m not used to so much attention. it took awhile to get back up. paul has turned off the lightbox pop-up effect and the flickr gallery plugin, and now things are working better.

i love the way my drawings were described in the metafilter link: “she has a way of making flayed flesh disturbingly cute.” “disturbingly cute” is the best compliment i can ask for. one of my friends on flickr, motocchio-chan, described my drawings as “guro-kawaii” (grotesquely cute). that was a good one too.

i had a good laugh reading the thread on metafilter. some people wanted a “NSFW (not safe for work)” flag in the post title, because some of my drawings show nipples. i don’t have a job, so i have no idea what’s safe for work these days. obviously, some people have issues with some body parts like, THE NIPPLES.

i’ve had this sort of excitement before. once my submission got rejected by a local public gallery due to the possibility that parents might be offended if their children saw my drawings. i guess it’s always wise to predict what people might feel and take precautions in advance, right? anyway, that precious experience inspired me to slice off my offensive body parts and soak them in bleach (warning, might be NSFW because of nipples that aren’t attached to a body anymore). in the end, the metafilter post about me was tagged “mildly NSFW”. i’m almost disappointed — might as well be “strongly” not safe.

hmm, maybe this is also “mildly NSFW” for its hallucinating effect…

anyway, welcome to my mildly controversial website. the blog has my drawings, pages from my amigurumi storybook, and some of my experimental cooking. there are some longer posts where i’m trying to be funny — don’t worry if it doesn’t make any sense. since the gallery plugin isn’t working, my temporary “gallery” is my flickr photoset page. we’re working on setting up a shop, but it won’t be ready for another month or so. i’ll be selling smaller originals, prints, postcards, palapala (flip) books, and some of my useless toys. you can read about me on the “about the author” page.

enjoy your visit! irasshaimase!

UPDATE: this is my self portrait, age 17. it’s the new header image for this blog. and i’ve made prints of this drawing, available in my SHOP.

i did a t-shirt design for a local radio station, CFCR, for their annual on-air fundraiser. from september 16th to 29th, anyone who makes a donation of $75 or more will get a t-shirt designed by me, along with other prizes including cd’s and gift certificates from local merchants. there’s also a fridge magnet with the same design which is available for a smaller donation. to support CFCR, you can call (306)664-6678 or visit them in saskatoon to make a donation.

the theme of this year’s fundraiser is “inside your head”. but for t-shirt, it’s “inside my head”. theo, the station program director, kindly asked me to design the t-shirt. i met theo at my phonographique show back in february, after i dropped off one of my postcards at CFCR to invite the cool people there to come to my show. as you can tell from my drawings, i like to draw the human body taken apart in some way. :) i had a good time coming up with ideas. it was my first time doing a t-shirt design like this (a vector drawing in photoshop), so i had to teach myself. i’m planning to do more t-shirt designs, now that i’ve joined threadless.

the t-shirt comes with a chocolate brown/white image on a baby-blue t-shirt. the magnet is the same image in black and white. i hope people like my design and make a donation to support their community radio station. i’ll be looking out for this t-shirt around saskatoon!

CFCR 90.5FM
saskatoon community radio station
103 3rd avenue (lower level), saskatoon
(306)664-6678

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“i wanted to be a housewife…” — tomeko
“主婦になりたかってん、うち…”　—　留子

this was done with a black paper♥mate ballpoint pen. it’s been awhile since i did a line drawing like this.

i also recorded myself drawing, while listening to daniel wang’s “let’s go to mars”. my fave. it’s part of a mix CD paul made me that i listen to all the time.

right at the end of the video, you can see the desk where i do most of my drawings. yoda and emo philips are watching me.

i uploaded my video to youtube. you can search my name there and find this video, plus the one i made for inseparable.

happy afternoon drawing :)

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freshly drawn yesterday.

“i wanted to be a flight attendant…” — sumiko

”スチワーデスになりたかってん、あたし”　— スミ子