nightmare

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.

(click the image to view close up)

this is a drawing for an exhibition in spain in 2007. this exhibition is called “dreams” organized by roger omar in spain.

In 2002 I started a project of dreams. I ask kids from
different countries to write their dreams during 2 weeks.
From hundreds of dreams I made a selection of 60 very short
dreams from kids of México, Spain and Brasil.

he invited artists to select and draw one kid’s dream, to make an artbook of 60 dreams/artists. from the interesting children’s dreams, i chose #32.

32. (SPAIN-GIRL) - Yuka Yamaguchi
I dreamed that I married my dog. I was in the altar, dressed in white, with my fiancé. When the priest said “Kiss the bride”, I saw that my fiancé was a boy with my dog´s face.

usually i’m not good at drawing with a theme in mind. but to my surprise, i had a good time drawing this :) i hope the girl who dreamed this dream will like my drawing.

this result of this project will become an artbook. The exhibition of the project will take place in Cadiz-Spain, 2007. The kids dreams and the images of the book will be exhibited, as well as some other things related to the project, like photos and some original kids-written dreams.

along with their drawing, the artists are asked to submit one dream that they had in 2006. oh boy… i have tons of dreams to choose from. i dream a lot, or so it seems. after seeing my drawings, some people have asked me if i have nightmares. i really don’t. i have some scary dreams featuring cats (i’m scared of cats), but i’m not sure if those are in the nightmare category.

i have some of the same dreams over and over again. here are my recent dreams:

• i enter Nijo castle (in kyoto) at 2am and have to run around and around the castle 10 times before dawn without being caught by the security guards. it’s hard, because Nijo castle has special “nightingale floors” that squeak when you step on them (protecting against ninjas!). cats keep getting in the way and i can’t run past them…
• i’m on an escalator with hundreds of steps, and it’s not moving. i need to get to the top of the building because i need to buy a toy from the toy department of this department store. but by the time i get to the top of the stairs, a different dream starts…
• i’m riding on the electric streetcar in kyoto, but i’m on the wrong train, going in the wrong direction. i’m carrying a suitcase that i have to keep secret and safe.

none of my dreams are really nightmares but they’re pretty stressful. maybe i’ll draw them someday.

well, there was a huge storm friday night and everyone ran for cover. i’d only been at my table for an hour. saturday was sunny but too windy, so i stayed home and slept all day. so the fringe festival only started for me on sunday. today was a holiday, and it was gorgeous — lots of people out having a great time.

i set up my table at noon and stayed until 9:30pm. i met all kinds of interesting people. some of them were from out of town: regina, winnipeg, and even ibaraki, japan. some of them remembered me from the fringe festival last year, or from one of my local shows. it was nice to see some familiar faces.

i probably talked to at least a hundred people today. i was happy that a lot of people liked my stuff. i like watching people laughing, and people laughed a lot when they read my spencer book. it was fun to find out what they thought about my drawings. i got a lot of positive comments, and quite a few people saying “ew” or “yuck!”. both are great feelings to express. :D

here are my favorite things people said to me at the fringe festival this weekend:

10: you’re so japanese. (am i?)
9: those are awesome! (everyone in saskatoon says “awesome”)
8: ouch!
7: there are many strange people, but you’re good at expressing yourself.
6: wow! these are super cool!! where is my wife? (his wife ditched him — she didn’t like my drawings)
5: do you know dali?
4: do you have nightmares?
3: that’s disgusting! (she whispered it under her breath as she walked by)
2: craziest stuff i’ve ever seen
1: do you take any medication?

i’m selling postcards and 8.5 x 11 prints of my color pencil drawings. they’re both printed on white cardstock, so they’re not too expensive to make. i’m selling postcards for $2 each, or a selection of any six for $10. single prints are also $10. the images are the same, only bigger on the prints, and the postcards have my name and the title printed on them. for this kind of street festival, i think it’s the right thing. sales were okay, but i’m just happy to think that my postcards will be put up on someone’s fridge or mailed all over the world.

here are some of my postcards (click to enlarge — slideshow):