20 Years at The Arts & Crafts Conference at Grove Park Inn

As I board the plane to attend the 32nd Arts & Crafts Conference at Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC, I’m in disbelief that I’ve been exhibiting at this event for over twenty years!?!? But no surprise there when I see my ever-increasing gray hair.

Some of you asked me recently whether I get tired of making a blockprint. It’s really a good question and so I’ve been giving it a thought or two.

And I have to say I do NOT get tired of this art and craft. Technically I’m about half way from where I want to be. I still want to master more skills in carving and printing.  Artistically I have many more subjects I want to work on.

The new “Waterlilies” triptych is a perfect example of my continuing exploration. I did make a Koi Pond print over ten years ago based on my memories from my childhood in northern Japan.  I liked the Koi print then. Yet I still wanted to work on it again, this time with more fish, with waterlilies, with more mysterious dark ripples where these brilliantly-colored fish hide.

Like Claude Monet‘s obsession with his lily ponds I’m fascinated by the interplay between the light and the dark, — the seen and the unseen. In the dark murky water, the memories remain in my subconscious. But occasionally an image or two comes to the surface with such clarity and light. Where there’s darkness, a shadow, we cherish life’s fleeting brilliance.

And that’s why I still make prints, trying to capture this sense of living, after twenty-some years.