i was contacted by a writer, carlos resendez from a blog called “art junkie” from mexico.  he wanted to do an interview with me.  he told me that this will be the first interview on his blog.  i was happy to answer his questions.  he kindly asked questions in english for me.  the interview on the blog is in spanish.  so here’s the english version.

1.-Do you think that things that are real and things that are surreal are not separated? If so, how do you think they are related?

to me, surreal things are created in a reality, my reality. what i draw is deeply connected to how i feel at the moment. my images are my realizations of my ideas and emotions, captured by color pencils. that’s how i express my reality.

2.-How do you think that animals are linked to humans?

humans are linked to animals, i think, not other way around. our behavior is very animal-like.

i have a two-year old son. i enjoyed his first non-verbal year — being very aware of eye contact, smells, touch, etc. when i was cuddling with him, i felt like a bear.

(( i find things sensual amusing. for example, i remember a particular smell of my childhood. every time i encounter the smell, i’m back in particular time when i was a child. ))

3.-In which way did your children influence your art?

i was using vivid colors when i was pregnant. before then, i mostly preferred gentle pale tones.

i drew ‘new heartbeat’ right after i first listened to my baby’s heartbeat with a doppler. i used very vivid colors for the drawing. after giving birth, i continue to use both pale tones and vivid tones.

spending time with my boy, observing him growing every day, has had a strong impact on me. sometimes, i almost forgot that i was there. i was always watching him. i didn’t lose my eyes, but my eyes were always looking outward and never looked inward last two years. at one point, i think i forgot what i looked like.

in retrospect, i was drawing a girl with a huge heart on top and eventually the heart ran away and grew a tree with no leaves during that time.

eventually my head grew back, but so far i don’t seem to have a body yet.

4.-What are most likely source of inspiration for you, “bad” feelings or “good” ones?

frustration with unfairness or dishonesty helps me a lot. i visualize things simultaneously no matter what, but when i’m angry the images flow.

(( so, for your questions, it’s good and bad feelings, both. ))

5.-what is art for you?

i still feel uncomfortable describing what i do is art, or calling myself an artist. drawing makes me happy.

6.-Could you share one of your biggest fantasies?

i want to be an ugly flying invisible woman, who worries about her appearance even though no one can see her.

7.-Coffee or tea?

i go for milk. i drink coffee more often than tea, but the coffee i drink is 80% milk.

8.- Do you use art as a shield, or as weapon? why?

it’s more like a fish net trap. i don’t use my drawings to send a message or relieve my feelings. often i only realize what’s in my mind after the fact. i’m surprised by what i end up drawing.

9.- what do you know of mexican culture?

not much, sorry.

i like movies though.

“Y tu mama tambien” and “Children of Men” directed by Alfonso Cuaron. He’s fantastic.
and “Amores Perros”, directed by Inarritu.

10.- do you know any mexican artist?

frida kahlo.

i don’t know much about art history and i don’t really follow much of what people are doing in contemporary art.

11.- which museum or gallery would you really love to expose your work?

nowhere, really. these days, i’m not particularly interested in exhibiting my work in a gallery. i like the act of drawing, not showing. i don’t even look at my drawings after i drew them. i don’t display my drawings at home. they all sit in a closet or a file. i’m not interested in looking at my drawings at all.

i use my blog to keep track of what i’m working on. that’s enough for me. to me, drawing is something internal.

12.-do you think that the difference between oriental and occidental culture has affected your work?

i don’t think so. i don’t think physical location determine what you create. it all depends on your place of thought. whether i live in japan or canada or anywhere else, i basically live in my head. my work will be the same. but the time might affect how/what i draw. i don’t/can’t draw the same things that drew in 2006 even though i know they are very popular. i’m a different person every day.

13.- what advice can you give to all the emerging artists?

don’t listen to what other people say — just listen to yourself. having no ears might be a good start.

my work in the flatlanders group show at mendel art gallery this fall was mentioned in the review of the show in galleries west magazine.   they compare my work to salvador dali and frida kahlo, two artists who i look at all the time, because i have their magnetic finger puppets on my fridge door.  elijah used to carry around salvador dali and chew on his head when he was teething.

(10 months old, april 2008)

The show veers from the enigmatic to the comic with the addition of the amusing works of Yuka Yamaguchi. “Art is like being a farmer,” she says in her artist’s statement. “I’m farming my brain and my heart to grow something. After that, it’s up to other people to cook it in different recipes and digest it for themselves.” Yamaguchi’s brain is one whimsical playhouse, and she shares more in common with painter Salvador Dali than a local grain grower…

(read more on their website)

i’ve been invited to show my drawings at the cracow screen festival in poland. the festival is taking place in the centre of cracow. there will be 2 music stages and video and art slideshows on a large screen and on 12 projections on the sides of buildings. it’s a 3 day music festival, may 2-4 2008.

the festival website is here.

16 performers, 3 days, 2 stages, visual art screened on buildings, houses and screens – all this can be expected during first cracow screen festival which will be held in cracow from 2nd to 4th of may, 2008. the event will start the festival season in poland, as well as the tourist season in cracow. in the long run the csf is designed to become one of the largest live music events in the country and the biggest annual video art presentation in poland.

over the three may days (the traditional polish ‘long weekend’) the historic cracow squares (jan nowak-jezioranski square and szezepaniski square) will witness live performances of well established bands and shows of visual art, created by artists specializing in video art and artistic film.

visual art will be ubiquitous: films will be shown in most public spaces, esp. on ATM screens, video screens, tv sets in shopping malls, etc.

the festival will host two distinctive visual artists: floria sigismondi – italian born photographer and director, known for working with bjork, white stripes, marlyn manson, david bowie, the cure, muse, interpol. and maria mochnacz, known for her unique portraits and videoclips of pj harvey.

the three days will turn cracow into one gigantic music screen.

two main stages will host seven bands daily. the audience can move about freely from one square to another, thus creating a festival programme of their own.

the first cracow screen festival will host many international artists, who haven’t made it to poland before, such as cirKus feat. neneh cherry (sweden), slut (germany), the raveonettes (denmark), bryan ferry (uk) and some, like mattafix (uk), who turn each visit to poland into immediate success.

some, like underworld, with their amazing light show, will satisfy both visual art and music fans. the festival auduence will have a chance to confront thir shows with concerts of the most interesting polish acts, such as wilki, smolik, cool kids of death, pustki and others!

i wish i could be there in person. i’m a big fan of underworld, especially. maybe i can see photos from the festival and some video clips on youtube.

here is my favorite youtube video using underworld’s music and film from koyaanisqatsi:

the owner of a fashion boutique in taiwan, TUAN TUAN, contacted me to request the use of my drawings for a promotional campaign. she wrote me personal emails to express their company philosophy as well as how she felt close to my work. she has a strong passion for art and treats fashion as art. i felt very touched by how thoughtful she was and how much she likes my drawings. so i decided to work with her.

she chose my drawings “new heartbeat” and “my precious egg” for this campaign, announcing the opening of their new boutique in taipei. i think they are great match — i did both drawings when i was pregnant with elijah, and they both have the idea of birth and new life.

the ads featuring my drawings appeared in taiwan’s biggest newspaper, “apple daily“, back in september (7th and 14th). i was told the ads would be full page, but i didn’t realize the effect until i received the actual newspaper, they’re so big… the ads also ran in a fashion magazine called madame figaro in taiwan. i was interviewed by madame figaro for an article, which i’ll post here soon.

TUAN TUAN carries COMME des GARCONS, junya watanabe, camper, 45 rpm, maison martin margiela, undercover, and BALENCIAGA. they will be making a tote bags using my drawings, for sale in the boutique. you can buy a print of “new heartbeat” from my online shop.

(click the image to view close up)

“irregular flow” was done by 4khz, a vimeo user from istanbul. the colours in this are so lovely, and the music is very peaceful (it reminds me of the music from the orisinal video games).

via lisacat on videosift.

a couple weeks ago, i was interviewed by felicia chen, a writer for the sheaf, the university of saskatchewan student newspaper. she came over to my apartment. this was only my second time being interviewed so i was still nervous, but she was very friendly.

the interview lasted for three hours. even though it was a long interview, surprisingly it wasn’t long enough to cover everything i wanted to say, partly because my answers tend to be meandering. it’s hard for me to talk about what i do, and especially hard in english if i’m a bit nervous. i get really excited and i can’t put my thoughts together. when that happens, people who know me can understand what i mean but for someone i just met i’m probably confusing. :D

after the interview, i felt i hadn’t explained my thoughts clearly enough. so i wrote my answers to her questions and some additional information and sent her an email. it was a good exercise for me. a lot of the questions were about my artwork. i don’t like to talk about “ART” in general and i have a hard time explaining what i’m doing. so i thought about it for a long time and wrote a really long email. felicia was very nice and read the whole thing and some of my ideas showed up in this article.

i’m very happy with this article in the end. it’s really good at showing my floating thoughts. like i keep saying, my mind is everywhere.

you can read the article about me and see the whole newspaper (PDF) at the sheaf website. there’s no way to link directly to the article yet, so i’ve uploaded the two pages here. you can open them in PDF and read the small newspaper text. there are 2 files to open, one per page.

page:1 page:2

see also: the first newspaper article about me, from the saskatoon star-phoenix (july 1st)

“puzzle” by rinpa eshidan.

no wonder i couldn’t find anything about rinpa eshidan. their name “rinpa” uses the kanji “輪派” in japanese, not “琳派”. both combinations of kanji sound the same, “rinpa”. it’s a common problem in japanese that it’s hard to know which kanji are used to write someone’s name, since there are usually several possibilities. most japanese names are chosen as sounds first (in kana, the japanese syllables) — then you find kanji to make up those sounds.

i figured rinpa eshidan’s name would be written with the same kanji as the historical art style called rinpa (琳派). especially because “eshi” is the old-fashioned japanese word for a (traditional) painter. but instead, they chose the kanji “輪派” to spell “rinpa”. i guess they did it on purpose, to show a connection to japanese art tradition and to show their own philosophy at the same time. “輪” means circle in japanese. according to their blog,

rinpa is “circle” style. it’s a group that values the connections between people. the members are big fans of hip-hop and art. they get together once every two months to perform at clubs.

how did i find out about them? through the magical mystery of the internet. the director of the rinpa eshidan videos, daisuke yamamoto, contacted me through MIXI, the biggest japanese social network site (5,700.000 members).

i joined MIXI a few weeks ago after being invited by a japanese girl who used to live in saskatoon (i found her blog online, but she moved away just before i got here). MIXI is sort of like MySpace in japanese, but the pages are not so ugly. all MIXI members have to be invited by another member. anyway, i’d been wanting to find out about rinpa eshidan, so i wrote about them on my MIXI page.

a couple days ago, i posted their video, “1 week of art works” on my blog. just the next day, that video got promoted to the front page of YOUTUBE. the video now has almost 600,000 views and people really like it. since there isn’t any information about “rinpa eshidan” in english online, my blog post shows up when people search for them. but unfortunately i didn’t have any information about them either…

…until now. after he contacted me, i visited daisuke’s MIXI page and read a little bit about him. he’s a grad student at a fine arts university in tokyo. the video, “1 week of art works” was done for his graduation project (i’m sure he did very well!). he’s obviously very talented. at the same time he sounds like a very humble person as an artist, which i like.

he said that he’s working on setting up a new website and is also working on another new video! he’ll let me know about them when they are finished. so i’ll post about them then. also, it sounds like ABC will be showing a rinpa eshidan video on TV soon (or maybe it’s already aired. i don’t know. i don’t watch ABC).

Go rinpa eshidan, go!

this is a timelapse video by japanese street painters called rinpa eshidan. i don’t know anything about them, but i found their video on youtube (following a link to a different painting from tv in japan) and posted it to videosift. the video is called “1 week of art works”. they painted and repainted a wall for 7 days and took photos of it all the time. i really enjoy watching their work build on what they did before. their use of lines is very stylish, and the music is perfect!

“rinpa eshidan” means “rin school painters group”. “eshi” is an old-fashioned japanese word for “painter” and “dan” means group. rinpa was a style of japanese painting from the edo period (18th century). the style was to decorate everyday items to color life itself. i like that point of view so much. it’s cool that this new group of painters has named itself after the rinpa tradition, especially since they do such new work in decorating our modern urban lives.

you can see more rinpa eshidan videos on youtube.

update: more on rinpa eshidan.

the reception for my regina show was saturday night. thanks to everyone who came down to see my drawings. this was my first time doing a show away from where i live, so i wasn’t sure anyone would show up. but there were more people there than i expected.

the art project gallery was opened a few years ago by regina artist rob bos (that’s him on the left with glasses). it’s been home to all sorts of interesting art projects over the years. rob was playing a video slideshow of the previous shows on a tv. i noticed some familiar faces from saskatoon, like jon vaughn and carrie gates. very cool. unfortunately, the gallery will be closing at the end of september, after the “rooms for change” group show.

the photo above was taken around midnight, as i was starting to take down my drawings (it was a closing reception). i brought my portfolio in and people started looking through it to see the drawings i didn’t put up in this show.

later that night, paul and i stopped by the freehouse at the cathedral village in regina to see brendan schick‘s drawings. he does very detailed pencil drawings. i liked them all. i knew where to find his work because i met him at the reception and we had an interesting talk.

the reception was fun but a bit tiring. i have a hard time talking about art. i just love drawing.

today, on canada day, there’s an article about me in the saskatoon star-phoenix! paul took my photo (you can almost see him reflected in the shiny desk lamp).

i was interviewed by steven ross smith back in april. he came to my apartment. the interview was supposed to take 90 minutes but we ended up talking for three hours. i’m not very good at talking about myself, expecially to someone i don’t really know, but it was fun talking to him. he was very pleasant.

he asked me a lot of questions about what kind of work i do. he also asked me what kind of artist i am. i didn’t really know what to say. i mostly just do things to amuse myself. i don’t have a particular concept that i’m trying to achieve. i just work on my technique, especially for drawing. i really don’t know what kind of artist i am. i’m not even sure that’s important. so it’s hard for me to answer questions like that.

the photo caption says “yuka yamaguchi is a conceptual artist, blogger, and new media artist”. i mostly use colour pencils and paper, so i thought i was old school. but i guess i do use a digital camera…

the interviewer seemed to think this entire website is art. he even thought the giant pink grapefruit jello i made was an art project. that’s quite flattering, but honestly, it was just me wanting to fulfill a lifetime dream: to make a giant pink jello. maybe it is art, i don’t know, but i didn’t intend it to be art, just fun. in the end, it was jello — high-fibre jello. it really was a lot of work to eat it all.

overall, i’m very happy with the article. i think the interviewer tried very hard to understand me — it’s not his fault that my ideas aren’t very clear. i’m also proud to be in a canadian newspaper as an immigrant from japan on canada day. i like meeting other immigrants here: today i had coffee with a couple from iran. we talked about iran and japan and canada, and many different soccer games, including the thrilling england-portugal penalty kicks today. another nice canada day.