during my summer holidays from elementary school, i was supposed to do a drawing every day showing the growth of  a “morning glory” flower i planted in the spring.  it was a combined science and art project.

i always drew the entire made-up 6-week record of the flower growing two days before school started at the beginning of september.  my drawings would end up showing a bigger, more beautiful and impressive flower than actually grew in real life.  a big bloom would show up suddenly in my drawings on august 30th or 31st.

one year, my flower died because i forgot to water it.  i did the same kind of drawings anyway.

i’m inspired by the ugly patterns on the textiles for baby clothes at the fabric store. happy clowns and baseball patterns and weird pastel-coloured bears with eyes too close together.  they are so ugly i’m having nightmares.

these are some photos of ‘tinyshop‘ show at double punch gallery in san francisco. the curator, antoi calls this wall “cute wall” and my postcards are on it — yay! she displayed so nicely. i wonder where my matchboxes are…?

i wish i could go see the show… those little creatures that the artists made are so good.

i like naoshi’s work so much!  she will be showing her works at mogra gallery in shibuya, tokyo (12/27 - 1/12).  i’m going to tokyo for my show (1/7 - 1/11) at cafe pause.  so i’m totally going to go check her out.  it looks like i missed a ‘chindogu’ show at mogra gallery…  tears.

i submitted matchboxes as well as some postcards. they are for sale.

(photos from ‘tinyshop’ blog)

Nov 21, 2007 - Jan 11, 2008
opening night: Nov 24, 2007, 6pm-9pm

double punch gallery
1821 Powell Street @ Filbert
2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.399.9785
www.doublepunch.com

tinyshop info: www.tinyshop.blogspot.com

my profile page on tinyshop

title:: “boku datte gyu-nyu- (i’m also milk)”

(SOLD)

this is one of my matchbox drawings for a group show coming up at double punch gallery in san francisco in november. the show is called “tinyshop“ — everything has to be tiny (maximum size 6 x 6″).

check out “tinyshop” blog to see other artists.

opening:: november 24th saturday, 6-9pm

(click the image to view close up)

title: “relaxation space”.

(SOLD)

this is one of my matchbox drawings for a group show coming up at double punch gallery in san francisco in november. the show is called “tinyshop“ — everything has to be tiny (maximum size 6 x 6″).

i mean, this drawing…

“shi- shimatta…” (oops…)

“sayonara.”

this is a pala-pala (flipbook) type story that i drew on yellow post-it notes. i felt so embarassed when i realized this, i had to throw my emotion out somewhere.

i’ve been working on a set of drawings for my part of the group show coming up at compound gallery next month. several of them featured roosters. once i realized this, i stopped drawing roosters and started drawing other things, like a heart with legs sitting on a bench and a boy with breasts for his eyes sewing the head back on to a trout.

i’ll put those drawings up here over the next couple weeks. even the ones with roosters.

anthony easton is curating a show at the art gallery of alberta based on the ed ruscha drawing, will 100 artists draw a 1950 ford from memory. he got permission from ed ruscha himself. 100 people have agreed to draw a 1950 ford from memory for this show.

anthony contacted me, so i had to draw something. i was supposed to use basic white paper - like the one you would use for desktop printing. since i had to draw from memory, i was not supposed to use any reference images of a 1950 ford.

it turns out, i have no clue what 1950 ford looks like. i have no memory of it whatsoever. i think it might look like a mama-chari bicycle. plus it says “ford” in japanese on the mama-chari, so it’s clearly a ford. the maximum team power ducks are impressed, except for the one evil duck who is trying to puncture the tires…

THE 1950 FORD SHOW
guest curator, anthony easton
september 21, 2007 – january 6, 2008
opening reception: friday, september 21, 7pm
curator’s talk: saturday, september 22, 1pm

art gallery of alberta
enterprise square
100-10230 jasper avenue,
edmonton, alberta
780.422.6223

this is my attempt to draw a newspaper-style comic. the caption says:

“anything you want to say?”

“…………………….. no.”

as a japanese, i know many different ways to apologize. humbly apologizing is a japanese tradition. somehow i think people in western countries might not have as many techniques for giving an apology. here’s an instructional video prepared by social scientists at the japan culture lab, designed to help everyone appreciate the japanese art of apologizing, and learn how to use these techniques for themselves.

also posted on videosift.

the kanji says “hangaku”, meaning half price.

i went to earls restaurant in saskatoon on st. patrick’s day. the restaurant has several ostrich heads mounted on the wall. there must be at least 15 of them. i was wondering what happened to the rest of their bodies…?