dear elijah,

your mama is still horrified by the idea of putting her hand into a beheaded and skinned dead bird. so there will be no turkey dinner for you this year.

as a compromise, your mama asked santa to give her a super power to make ‘maximum team power duck headgear’ free hand. she had been thinking about how to make this headgear since you were still in her body. in her mind, ‘beheaded’ and ‘bird’ parts are all covered. so it’s basically the same thing.

i hope this headgear will keep your head warm all winter and you find it somewhat festive. it’s a festivus for the rest of us.

best wishes,

yuka-mama

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

(sold)

in japan, it is very important to follow specific instructions to master the tradition of eating sushi. otherwise, you’ll end up being turned into sushi yourself.

yes, the rules are strict. but after all, that’s the samurai way (”naruhodo, samurai no kuni desu ne”).

in my high school, there was an after-school sushi ceremony club （寿司道 = “sushido”), where we trained carefully in the art of eating sushi under our sushi-master, Kinpachi-sensei. students who didn’t follow his directions exactly were sliced carefully into sashimi with his katana sword.

outside of the formal sushi ceremony, the rules are more relaxed, especially for foreigners. but there are still many subtle cultural nuances that everyone who eats sushi should be aware of. luckily, there is now a video demonstrating (in japanese with english subtitles) the way for everyone to eat sushi.

a page from my amigurumi storybook: “the boring life of spencer, the ennui dog”. spencer is my favorite amigurumi (he’s so handsome). his life is boring, but he has many adventures. also appearing in the book: maximum team power (duck), fiona (spencer’s love), goro-chan (a “lone wolf” on wheels), and a pink jeep cherokee.

i launched the book last night at the aka gallery / paved art book fair. this was my first storybook. i took pictures of my amigurumi (on location here in saskatoon) and paul did the layout. the story is appropriate for adult children (it’s a cute story with a hint of backstabbing).

i’ll be posting more pages here over the next couple of weeks. i’ll also explain how to make amigurumi.