Our Rockwell Moment...

For the past few years my tradition has been to hold a "Thanks-For-Nothing" party on the day after Thanksgiving.  The reason being that on Thanksgiving Day we all have to play nice with family and folks who may not get along.  So the next day, when we are done being thankful, we gather up the left-overs and gripe with our friends at the Thanks-For-Nothing Party!

Its also a great chance to bring people together who, for various reasons, may not be able to go home to for the Holidays.

"Brrr... I need feathers!"

My nephew's Thanksgiving turkey drawing.
What happened to tracing the hand?

Sketchy

David Sketching at 4th Presbyterian, by Midori Tajiri

David and I went sketching the other day.  We've got kind of a "Jack Sprat" situation where he only draws inanimate objects (architecture) and I only draw animate living things (people and animals).  No matter, he drew the steeple of the 4th Presbyterian Church and I drew him!

I had forgotten how cathartic and enjoyable it is to draw.  It inspired me to scan some older sketches.  Here are a few of my favorite dog sketches I did several years ago.  The first is my beloved dog, Mono, who passed away a few years ago.  The other sketches are dogs, Jane and Rudy and their owner, my old friend, Sean. 

Mono, Sleeping by Midori Tajiri

Jane and Rudy, Sleeping by Midori Tajiri

Sean '00, by Midori Tajiri

"The Berlin Wall", photos & book by Shinkichi Tajiri

20 years ago today the Berlin Wall fell after having divided East and West Germany since 1961.  I remember marveling at the fragments that my family brought home and framed.  At the time I had just returned to Chicago from Los Angeles and was focusing on getting accepted to SAIC, The School of The Art Insitute of Chicago, where several of my family members, including my parents, had attended.

The fall of The Berlin Wall, November 9, 1989 

My Great-Uncle, Shinkichi Tajiri, had also attended SAIC on the GI Bill after WWII.  This was after he fought as a decorated US Soldier in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team with his brothers Jim, Tom and my Grandfather, Vincent Tajiri, and before he expatriated to Europe, where he spent the remainder of his life.



 

Rubble from the Berlin Wall

Like many young Americans in the 1940's, my grandfather and his brothers were fiercely American.  They were born in Los Angeles, grew up speaking English and had faith in their government.  Like many Nisei (first generation Japanese Americans), however, he and his siblings were classified as "4C" or "Enemy Aliens" after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (which ironically fell on Shinkichi's 18th birthday).  Nonetheless, they still fought for their country, even while their family was interned by the U.S. Government in Arizona at the Poston "Relocation" internment camp and their family property, real estate and home were confiscated by the U.S. Government, never to be returned.

Barracks at Poston, the interment camp built by the U.S. Government on a former Native American Reservation to house Japanese American civilian families for the duration of WWII

U.S. Government Issues Instructions to Japanese Americans re: "relocation" to internment camps

Although the U.S. Government initially segregated the 442nd due to suspicion based on their Japanese heritage, they became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients.  Despite this fact the soldiers of the 442nd experienced intense racism upon returning home to the U.S. and were denied jobs and homes due to their race.  Even other Asians did not want to be mistaken as Japanese during this time, lest they also experience ostracization. 

Japanese American shop owner declares citizenship the day after Pearl Harbor in a futile attempt to avoid racism, Unknown Photographer 

Naturally disillusioned by all of this Shinkichi chose to leave this country and returned to Europe where he could live and pursue his career in art in a (somewhat) less racist environment.  In 1969 his travels brought him to West Berlin and to the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.  As someone who had experienced, on a very personal level, what it felt like to be segregated, ostracized, trapped and forbidden in his own country, he must have felt a special affinity to the significance of the wall and the political situation at the time.

Brandenburg gate, 1969, Unknown Photographer

He began a photo project that lasted several months and documented every kilometer of the inhabited areas near the wall in 550 black and white photographs.  He could not have known the significance of this project or what would become of the wall over the years.  His photographs show the wall and its surroundings in its "clean" state, in 1969, before it was covered in the colorful graffiti it became known for, and before its fall in 1989. The project was shelved for 30 years before interest in it was renewed.  

Excerpt from "The Berlin Wall", Shinkichi Tajiri
 

During those many years his art career soared and he became known for many different works, most notably his "knots" which have symbolized, among other things, a "coming together" of separate forces; an ironic or perhaps idealized concept considering the subtexts of these significant experiences early in his life.  Through his many "knot" sculptures he symbolically reunited what was, in his life, divided. The walls that kept him emotionally separate from his family and place of birth would not fall away before his death, like the Berlin Wall.  But in his work he found a way to bind them together.

"Friendship Knot", Shinkichi Tajiri (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA)
 

Shinkichi passed away earlier this year.  I saw him one last time in January.  We discussed this project and we spoke about ways to promote the book and the collection of original photographs.  He was ill at the time but hanging on fiercely for many reasons, the completion of projects among them.  Or perhaps, it was the continual addition of projects that gave him new reasons to continue hanging on.  

Either way I have come to understand the many roles that art plays in our lives.  That we, as visual, auditory, sensual creatures, find ways to communicate and create solidarity through creative expression.  To leave our mark on the world and to let others know, in good times and bad, that they too are not alone.

The current exhibition of Shinkichi Tajiri's "The Berlin Wall" opens today, November 9, 2009 (on the 20th anniversary of the fall of The Berlin Wall) at the Exposorium at the VU Free University in Amsterdam, Netherlands where it will run until January 6th, 2010.

For information about the Shinkichi Tajiri Foundation you can visit the website at: www.Shinkichi-Tajiri.com.

News: CNN iReport Link

"You Know Me": "Reality Killed The Video Star" vs. "Video Killed The Radio Star"

Perhaps its just my ongoing obsession with rabbits and their seeming symbolic proliferance in my life right now (seriously, what does that mean?), but I love this new Robbie Williams video, "You Know Me" from his new album "Reality Killed The Video Star".

It is a beautiful song, but would I be as drawn to it if he weren't dressed as the March Hare... maybe not.  Either way the video is gorgeous and evocative.  I love how it combines the fantasy of Robbie Williams imagining himself as the rabbit and then the rabbit imagining himself as a playboy surrounded by Vargas-esque "bunnies".

 

Also amusing is the topical reference to this generation's level of media evolution wherein reality programming (including things like YouTube), which have put the camera, the subject and the audience all in the hands of the masses, may potentially make former music formats obsolete.

Therefore, if "Video Killed The Radio Star" in the '80's,  then reality may kill the video star now? Not completely... yet.  However, the growing popularity of reality based programming, including YouTube, have significantly decreased advertising and therefore revenue to formats such as radio, making production budgets smaller as corporations turn more attention lower budget vehicles such as Reality and YouTube.  Time marches on, March Hare.

"You Know Me", Robbie Williams, Reality Killed the Video Star"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDb9fpSj34k

"Video Killed The Radio Star", The Buggles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWtHEmVjVw8

Silent Scream

Sometimes, when you are really frustrated and want to scream, but you can't, do you imagine it?

That's what I am thinking when I look at you like that.

This piece was done years ago, as part of an attempt at collaborative work with my friend Sean Watson.  He did the photography and photoshop.  I mostly just screamed ;)... (and did hair and makeup).

Benetton, I Blame You!

I've always been inspired by creative make up artistry.  Art you can wear, that transforms you as a person.  It all began with those Benetton ads in the 80's that I took waaay too literally.  I haven't been able to find some of the ones I remember, ones that had bright, tribal-esque or theatrical inspired colors in geometric shapes painted asymmetrically on fresh faced models.  If you find them, please, please forward them my way!

 Makeup and Photo by Panda Cat Baby on Flicker

In junior high I remember going to school with my hair in a side ponytail with a neon orange stripe painted on one side (I think it was supposed to be a lightening bolt).  Once I wore a mime stripe over one eye and another time it was a black cross, again, only over one eye (matched my Madonna inspired rosaries). The most avant garde look I came up with involved one green eyebrow and pink eye shadow with little "seeds" painted on the lid.  It was supposed to look like a slice of watermelon... I know.  This last incident may have been the one that inspired the Principal to call me out of class to ask me if "everything was ok at home".

Sadly I don't have pitcures of those early attempts of my own, but I did find these lovely images on Flicker by Panda Cat Baby.  She did the makeup and photography for the image below and the one above.  I still haven't gotten through all over her albums, but already I'm all "Rachel-Zoe-I-Die" over her.

Makeup and Photography by Panda Cat Baby on Flicker

In high school I only continued to get more... "creative" with my hair and makeup themes, which were frequently "conceptual", but I'll save those stories for later ;)

Obviously I still take every opportunity to play "dress up", whether its for a party or a holiday, (or just watching a period film).  My friend sent me this link to the MAC Facebook site that shows techniques for some of their outragous looks: MAC FREAKS OUT BEHIND THE SCENES.

One of my favorite looks from this collection is the Roy Lichtenstein inspired comic book heroine face, painted with little dots:

MAC FREAKS OUT BEHIND THE SCENES.

Roy Lichtenstein

Another favorite source of inspiration is Japanese street fashion.  A constantly evolving melange of western and asian influences, there is always something unexpected transforming there.  

I'm collecting images of my own MUA work for my portfolio... coming soon :)