BLOGGIN.

Now to end my blogging from Japan. The next few weeks I will be traveling around the place with Jonathan, Tom and Lucy and we are definitely more dangerous than our names suggest. We are going to tear Nippon UP! Nah we will probably very politely trot around and maybe visit an island or two. I will of course have my camera and snap pretty much anything and everything, however I will not have the internet. So, prepare to be overloaded with posts on my return, however they will be coming from England. AH! I cant believe it is the end already. There have been many a moment I was a bit fed up - being completely isolated from all your friends and family for 4 months is a little bit of a strain, but Japan has become my second home and I am genuinely sad to be leaving. I have made some pretty snazzy new friends, Japanese and otherwise, and have thougherly enjoyed myself.

Now why is there some pretty COOL photos of my in a loo? Bought this (straight-out-of-the-90s-and-onto-my-back) Fils cropped shirt for 30¥, thats 21p. Also bought a complete navy woolen skirt suit with navy short sleeve shirt to match for 100¥, 70p. See, how can you not love it here?

PEACE OUT JAPAN. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PROPOSAL.

Now although I hold our exhibition EXCHANGE in rather high regard, I am also pretty excited for the sister show in the second half of the gallery, PROPOSAL of second year painting students. Here are a few of my most favorite pieces.

NICE RICE.

As I have mentioned before, instead of having twee gardens, the Japanese have strips of land which they farm for themselves. Like allotments but longer and thinner. These most of them are used for rice. The rice shoots were tiny at the beginning of our stay but now look at them! A field of green.

SUMO.

Yeah thats right we went to a Sumo tournament and it was amazing. I do have a video of the actual fights - although they only last 40 seconds, my computer deems this too long and wont upload them. Ill have to just re-enact them for you when I`m back on English soil.

SOMETHING, LIKE NOTHING, CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE.

My work was on this giant wall so I had to fill it up with LOADS of prints. I think I jammed them in quite well.. Over by the window is Sheldon Stansfield`s beautiful cups and box. I think the two sets of work looked pretty damn swish next to each other! Also the massive glass wall on that side of the gallery is my favorite part of the building I think. The green of the trees made for a nice comparison for my hanging baskets.

CUTS.

This is my other piece, some vinyl cut out and stuck up on the window at the front of the gallery. That window is 5m sq. and very high up. I had to be on the top step of the biggest ladder. A little before and after pic.

EXCHANGE. PRIVATE VIEW.

Here are some pictures of our private view for EXCHANGE, our final exhibition at Nagoya University of Arts. It was so nerv-wracking as I`m sure my face shows! We each had to give a little speech about our work and I totally lost my confidence, stood rod still and stared at my piece of paper for the full 2 min 12 seconds I was speaking. Shelly, Lucy and Anna all were amazingly confident and gave their speeches perfectly! We `made` scones too with jam and butter which seemed to go down very well, and quickly actually. Can you see all the tables of food? I ate pretty much all of it. The other 147 people there didnt get a look in.

HUNGRY CATERPILLAR.

This is the best thing I have seen in all of Japan so far. My friend Sae made it for our Farewell Party. Not everyone gets to be a giant caterpillar you know. Wanna come?

FRAMING THE WAY.

Some more photos from around printmaking. These brown boxes all have frames in them. You know for your work so that when you have an exhibition, at Uni or away, you can borrow them to put your work in. How socialist is that?! It is honestly the most fantastic system ever and I think we should have it at our Uni too. It is ridiculous the amount of money we have to spend on our degree shows. And dont give me the, oh well just stick it up with blue tack, because you wouldnt tell a Med School Kid to write his final exams in lipstick, would you? Well you might depending on the Med School Kid I suppose. But anyway, it is one of those other costs that they dont consider when dishing out the blanket loan to Art School Kids, and it really pisses me off. Maybe if I stick around Brighton Ill open a Frame Rental Shop and rent out frames to the printmaking department. Or some other people who want to frame their work. It is becoming increasingly common for Art Competitions to ask for work already framed. Anyway, rant over, and I promise there is a very stereotypically Japanese ordering system to these frames...

PREPARATION.

Most of my work is done for the exhibition. Just putting the glazes on the woodcuts and need to sew up my hanging baskets. I was taking down some test pieces for my window print and saw all the bugs on the window sill; not uncommon I know, but there were so many of them I thought it was piles of dust. Decided to take some and spent the rest of the afternoon painting them white. Did you know that the surface tension in water is stronger than a fly`s leg? Spray paint was the way forward.

PRINTMAKING.

Just a few photos of what has been my home for the last few months. Nagoya Printmaking isnt the slickest of departments but it is the bestest. My desk is huge. I can put loads of stuff on it. And I do. I will definitely miss this place, there are lots of things British Art Schools could learn from the Japanese I think. To have a real community at University is really important and wanting to be somewhere will always result in more work being done and students beeing happier. Surely thats what it is all about?

ILLUSIONS.

Got confused didn`t we. Sat down for a cosy film after a night out till 6am (Kareoke is that addictive) and I got a bit muddled up.

The Illusionist is a lovely little cartoon about a sorry parisian magician who goes to Scotland. The Illusionist is a sepia drenched film about a cocky magician who goes to Vienna. The baddy`s house had this cool hallway though.

ON LOOP.

Just a little clip of the kind of things you find in arcades.

HEAVY PETTING.

These are the printmaking Pets. Mess with these badboys and youre in trouble. Some advice Cameron; PR is a politician`s bread and butter. Stick a few of these round Universities and they might not have been so angry.

Joke, definitely still would have but still, Japan Printmaking Department 1 - 0 English Printmaking Department.

INTENSE.

I forgot to put this picture up last time. It is of the giant incense burners they have at most temples. You buy a few sticks of incense, chuck them in, say your prayer and then woft the smoke over areas you wish to heal or make good. Popular with the oldies and, sadly for the unwitting child, intense mothers.

KEY TO PARADISE.

As well as the super cool Monkeys, Nagano has a very lovely temple which unusually has two Abbots. One male, one female. Personally I think they couldnt have only a female abbot so stuck a man in there too. Not that I`m remotely bitter about the sex division in Japan. Which of course in 2011 there isnt. Much. Anyway, not wanting this to sound like an even worse version of Pray, Eat, Love, we woke up at 5am to attend the morning service. I got blessed twice, once by each Abbot and found the key to Paradise. Not bad for a days work. It was of course much more beautiful than I made it sound, but you know, cutting back on the smush these days. Gotta Be Cool.

MONKEYING AROUND.

This weekend we went to Nagano. I have been looking forward to this trip because it is probably the-most-amazing-place-I-heard-about-in-Japan-so-far. In Nagano, they have... wait for it... MONKEYS THAT GO IN ONSENS!

Having only recently experienced the magic of onsens with an improp-due late night jaunt with some friends from Painting, when we booked our tickets a while back I wasn't sure exactly what they did. This is what they do:

Because it gets cold in the winter, super cold, the natural hot spring baths have been a luxury for many a cold japanese. In the 60s some time, the trusted story goes, that a local onsen owner left food out for the monkeys because they were looking a little thin. Edging closer to the small town for the food left out, the monkeys also found the magic of onsens. (Which I completely get. Heaven is an onsen.)

Now, where are your amazing photos I love to drool at/make me jealous, I hear you ask? Battery died. Oops. Did take a few snaps on the old iphone though so I will get on loading them.

PAPERMATE.

I know I have mentioned this quite a few times, but Nagoya Arts University is the best place in the world. Not only do they let me openly abuse quite a lot of the facilities here, they also let me mess around in there paper making class. Didnt really come to much work wise, but I do have some rather special looking postcards to send out. Coming to a doormat near you. Maybe.

BORING BITS.

Heres a few images of some work I`ve been doing directly onto windows and, as I like to accurately call them, building bits.