a little about the show

Monday
Last night at the bathhouse I was surprised to see another westerner. He looked pretty grumpy, a man of about 50. To lowered myself into the bath and looked over at him.

“Can you speak English?” He immediately asked me in an almost angry tone.
Yes, a little. I joke. Where are you from? I ask. “Northern Japan.” He says. “No, I mean, where originally?” He looks at me and says, as if frustrated with the question, “I was born in Japan, lived here all my life.”

He then explained that he was with a few others evangelists who travel around Japan preaching the world of god to all the demon and idol worshipers in the country. He asked me my religious background and I said Methodist and he let out a sigh of relief. I then told him that I practice Tibetan Buddhism. He looked at me in disbelief. “That makes no sense, how can you be Christian and Buddhist? “
I told him that the Buddha never talked about God so there is no contradiction.

I told him that I thought the Dalai Lama is exhibiting Christ love in his unwavering compassion toward the Chinese government. “Talk about loving your enemy.”
“But the Dalai Lama worships demons and idols and tells lies. He and his religion is just another tool of the devil.”
I said I didn't know anything about that.
I told him that I met the Dalai Lama and he said to follow Jesus. The man said he couldn't believe it. I said neither could I, but after I heard the Dalai Lama say that I knew that he spoke the truth. I said that if he turned me on to Jesus and the bible, how could he be a tool of the devil? I probably sounded like an asshole. But I was being honest and I wanted to keep the conversation away from hatred and persecution. While naked.

Interestingly, another one of his crew was a 22-year-old Japanese boy who seemed equally unhappy. After the bath they showed me their van which had huge speaker on the roof out of which the blast their message. He gave me some literature full of scary pictures of Jesus casting screaming people into a lake of fire to burn to death. My friend Katsu standing next to me couldn't understand what they were talking about.
Maybe that was a boring story.

The painting show ended yesterday. I pulled a tom sawyer and organized a clean up party. With friends and students helping it took no time at all to take everything off the walls, load them into a couple cars, and take them back to my apartment. A couple I met in Takamatsu the other weekend (a two hour drive away) came to the show and bought the cicada drawing. The lady who was going to buy the dying man’s face instead got the rabbit painting.

I have so much I can say about the past two weeks. I went toe the gallery every day after school. Interestingly, some older ladies would put their hands up to the paintings to feel the energy.

Many people came to the show, especially on the last day I went to the gallery every day after school and all day on the weekends. This got tiring, having to be present and talkative whenever anyone came in.

I had a party on the first Saturday and many people came from all over Ehime and I was very happy. Except that my neighbor complained about the noise. There were about 20 of us making noise and laughing. Two of my friend did all the dishes. And there were a lot of dishes. That was a great gift.

Guru Yoga

One of the most wonderful moments in my life was when I first made eye contact with the Dalai Lama. I was attending his two week long spring teachings at his monastery in India, standing along the path he makes as he leaves the courtyard. The experience I had totally caught me off guard. It was like a rush of light and love and acceptance and confidence erupted like a geyser within me as soon as our eyes met. I was filled with devotional love, a smile filled my face, and my hands naturally touched in prayer and offering to this holy, holy soul walking and giggling towards me.

This experience is not unique to me at all. People from all over the world flock to India in order to feel his presence. And you really can feel it. It even effected my sleep. I had lucid dreams and remembered five or six dreams every night i was there.

But the point I am trying to make is that the light and love and acceptance and confidence all arose inside of me, out of me. The Dalai Lama was just a spark. I was the flame. Same thing happens when you fall in love, i think. When you fall in love, when you swoon and melt into the eyes of your lover, all those feelings of perfection and adoration arise within YOU. They are coming from your own being, your own presence, your own mind. The lover is just the spark, the igniter of all that love. The spiritual teacher, the guru, the mountains, the ocean, the art, and ultimately even your own reflection in the mirror can become the Beloved and throw you into the fire of love, sometimes so forcefully you feel as if are literally falling. Falling for hours and hours, the wind, the weightlessness, the freedom, the rush, all happening inside your belly and heart.

So, by seeing the Dalai Lama or any teacher as a manifestation of pure love, as the Christ, as the perfection of god, the teacher’s presence has the ability to transform your mind and therefore you life forever. True, it might seem like you are RECIEVING all these new and wonderful qualities. But in reality you are really only experiencing your own qualities and potentials being seen, coming up to the front of your awareness, awakened and inspired, and then projected. It all arises from within. It is not given, but is intrinsic to your very nature.

The universe is creative, and at our core, we are the universe, each of us a center of awareness for the universe to perceive itself. If you believe that we were created in the image of God, then He created us creative. We are all artists. Each of us is a mirror reflecting our own true nature, a reflection of the Creator. Each of us has everything god has as our very nature and soul. We are His very reflection. (Here, it appears that God is the creator and the created, the alpha and omega, the ground and goal, source and summit, the cause and the effect, each reflecting and embracing and becoming the other forever and ever.


So, if you notice right now, you are reflecting the universe with your mind, seeing it with your eyes, hearing it with your ears, feeling it with your body. This is already happening, it takes no effort on your part. You are born with this mirror capacity.

A fascinating thing begins to dawn, though. And that is that the mirror itself never changes; its reflecting capacity never wavers. Only the experiences and sensations it's reflecting change: only the objects in the mirror. Things come and go, a river of experiences flow by, and the reflective film or shine that is consciousness remains unscratched and unchanged. It also begins to dawn on me that the mirror is never apart or separate from its objects, but instead gives them their very existence. And, at the same time, the reflections give existence to the mirror. Both paradoxically merge as one happening, one play of light occurring, empty of meaning and substance, and also over-flowing with meaning and substance. Empty of separatness and thus full of fullness; the empty mirror.


My painting teacher awoke a similar confidence and love inside me that the Dalai Lama did. When he was with me I looked into his eyes and made believe he knew everything, which wasn't hard to do since he seemed to be a limitless reservoir of knowledge and experience, and he laughed alll the time.

Artists are constantly observing and experimenting, reorganizing old knowledge while gathering new facts and exploring new imagery and techniques. And, on top of that, the artist is supposed to be genuinely human and honest, as well as an original thinker. This can be very discouraging to most people, leaving many repelled from even trying. But when we have a teacher there with us, someone we can imagine holding all the knowledge and experience of a master, then our own knowledge and experience can arise to be projected onto the teacher. With my teacher, I felt like we were in a sacred and secret conversation all the time. it was so exciting. As a student I was awakening my own inner knowledge by resonating with my teacher’s creative energy. But this could only have occurred in direct relation with my ability to open, accept, and receive. It's like I surrendered to the knowledge of the teacher, and immediately a connection was established between the rhythm of me-a beginner-to the reservoir of liberated forces residing within the teacher. And all he had to do was be present with me.

In the teacher’s presence, there occurs an atmosphere of acceptance and inspiration, fearlessness and creativity, where it seems anything can be imagined and all connections can be made. I’m talking about my painting teacher, but any spiritual teacher or lover can create this atmosphere.
Now, even just looking at a picture of the Dalai Lama can bring back that rush of confidence and compassion.

I thought of this when I was spending time with my friend Kamaji at the gallery. He is so calm and still and graceful. While looking at his face the waves of my mind are calmed, my posture straightens, and my breathing becomes deeper. I am at the same time thrilled to see him. I now understand that the reason he seems so beautiful and peaceful is because he awakens that peace and mindfulness within me.

All these pictures were from today. The red bike is mine.

pics from the show

I want my art to help create a setting or mood in which people can
meet and connect with each other; where conversations and positive
ideas can flower and flourish.

私の作品について、ポジティブな思想に会話がはずみ、人々がお互いに繋がり合える様な空間を作り出す手助けになって欲しいと思っています。

I am fascinated with patterns found in nature, as well as the way
light falls over forms. I'm also interested in the power of symbols to communicate ideas that
language alone cannot. I think it is interesting how each symbol only has
meaning when the viewer creates the meaning.

例えば、形あるものに降り注ぐ光の様など、私は自然界に見るパターンというものに魅力を感じます。
また、言葉では表すことのできないアイデアを共感・共有させ得る様な表象(symbol)が持つ力にも興味をそそられます。
それにも関わらず、人々が意味を付与することで初めて個々の表象は意味のあるものになる、とい事実も興味深いことです。

My newest work circles around issues of impermanence, natural forms
and patterns, mystical symbolism, and light. The intention is to place
these images into a context of contemplation or spirituality and
invite the viewer to perceive more and more of this world as a gesture
or play of the Divine or Sacred.


自然の姿・形、それがおりなすパターン、象徴的なシンボリズム、光な
ど、私の最も新しい作品は非永久性・無常という点に注目しています。
そしてそれらのイメージを黙想・霊的なものと捉え、それらが神や神聖
なものの振る舞い、意思表示・しるしであると、さらにいっそう見る者
に気づかせることを意図しています。
I strive to grow in understanding and experince of mystical or
trancendental states of mind, and then drag that into my art. In
doing so, I hope to remind people that this world is a dreamy,
diverse, colorful, mysterious, energietic place. Here we are, a few
of the countless eyes through which the Universe uses to look at
itself. Here we are, bodies through which the earth can feel itself. Here we are,
creating a world in every moment, painting a world with our minds and
hearts, then stepping into that painting. May we see the dreamy glow
and light surrounding us, and relax into the flow of life.


人智を超えた、もしくは知性を凌駕した精神・心理状態の理解と経験を
増すよう努め、そしてそれを作品のなかに取り入れるよう努めていま
す。そうすることでこの世界は夢のようにすばらしく、多様性に富み、
色鮮やかで、神秘的、そして力強く活気に満ち生き生きとしているとい
うことを人々に思い出させることができれば幸いと思います。この宇
宙・森羅万象は、私達、数えきれないほどの無数の目、を通して自身を
見つめています。大地・地球は私達の体を通じて自身に触れ、自身を感
じています。そう、私達は全ての瞬間で絶えず世界を創造し、意思や心
で意識せずに世界を描き、そしてそれに足を踏み入れているのです。私
達を取り巻く夢のようなすばらしい輝きや光を見、そして人生の潮流を
穏やかにくつろぐことができますように。

My paintings are intended to provide the viewer with a simple space
for rest. Moreover, my art is intended to help alleviate suffering by
pointing to the patterns that connect the endless diversity of natural
forms together into one growing and glowing web of life, the
transcendental ground that unifies.

私の作品は、見る人々にシンプルな休息の空間を提供することを目的としています。
加えて、成長し(growing)生き生きと輝く(glowing)生命の網もしくは単一化する超越的な領域へ
自然の姿・形の限りない多様性を結びつける構図を提示することで、苦しみ煩いを和らげることを意図しています。

untitled

So, this week was a busy one. On Wednesday after grade school I went to Matsuyama to meet up with Dianne Daugherty, my Japanese teacher from high school, and the 11 high school kids she brought. We went to Dogo onsen, the first onsen in Japan, and for all of them it was also their first onsen. The girls had a big problem choosing what private part to cover up. The boys were a little nervous at first, but then relaxed and were able to walk around naked freely. All the students were beautiful and smart. A handful of them and I accidentally stayed up in the hotel lobby until about 3 talking about everything. Racism, homophobia, the war, religion, even the fear of death. I mostly listened. These kids had some great ideas.

But the highlight of the trip I think was during the last 30 minutes before my train arrived to take me back to Niihama. Dianne told Claudia and I a detailed account of her mother-in-law’s death and how amazing hospice was. She also told us all about her brother’s death.

Saturday evening I set up my show at the gallery. Katsu and Mako helped. A rush of energy filled me up when it was over. Then, Shun and his friend Jije picked me up and took me to dance in Takamastu. I met a beautiful girl there who helps people with mental disabilities and we talked about ourselves while sitting on the pavement outside.