OSHIMA!

わたしの夏休み。

言葉にできないほど最高な一週間だった。コンビニもない、高層ビルも電車もないこの島で一週間をすごした。インターネットの使用もほとんどなく、私たちの楽しみは魚達と泳ぐこと、魚釣り、浜の上でのひなたぼっこ、自転車の旅、バーベキュー、他の旅人と大島の住民たちとの出会い、など。会ったひとたちはひとりひとりすごくあたたかく、大島での滞在をもっといい思い出にしてくれた。まず、もりおの夫婦、ケンちゃん、原さん、みわさんの３人組　（もりで魚を釣る方法を教えてくれた）、ヤンディー＆ company, ゆうへいさん (釣りのコツをおしえてくれて、サバの正しいさばきかたもおしえてくれて、ロブスターといさきをプレゼントしてくれた）、イタリアからきたカルロス夫婦　（デザイナーとアーティスト夫婦）、オーストラリアから来たDavid＆日本人の妻’＆父親、オーストラリアから来た女の子３人、明治大学を通っている女の子、などなど。。この夏休み、日本にいて本当に正解だった。

ビーチでひなたぼっこ：

relaxing on the beach:

killing & cleaning the saba i caught. mmm, so bloody. i killed and cleaned out a total of 5 sabas that day. smelly hands.

サバのさばきかたをならって、実際やってみた。ワイルドメグっていうあだながついちゃった。あの日５匹釣れたおかげ、合計５匹のサバをさばきました。そのあと、手に魚の匂いがしばらく残った。

this is OSHIMA.

we hitchhiked on our way back. we had no energy left. it was a 15km bicycle ride with lots and lots of slopes.

fortunately a really nice old man was willing to drive us in his leeeeetle truck.

秋の浜からの帰り道はヒッチハイク。もう力果てたから。１５kmで、チャリだったし、坂道が多かった。幸い高尾電機のおじさんがトラックにのせてくれた ;=)

JUMP FOR OSHIMA!

barbeque with the guests at the guesthouse. i was soooooo STUFFED. もりおのゲストハウスのゲスト達とバーベキュー、おいしすぎて、食べ過ぎて。。

so so happy eating the saba i caught. 自分が釣ったサバを食べるのは。。。最高だね。

beautiful.

everybody managed to catch one. except for me, i caught TWO! ;=)

ripping off heads.

lobster sashimi  &  lobster in tom yam.

‘shime saba’  &  grilled saba.

korean gimbab!

もりおの夫婦。the morio couple. this was our last supper. it was such a feast. :=) もりおさん達、お世話になりました。

さよならを言うまえにかき氷をつくってくれた！before we said goodbye, morio san made us shaved ice. mm…

goodbye oshima.

最高な夏休み。

progress.

My mannequin arrived!! It’s lined with linen and it’s super light. I love it!

It’s so much easier to piece everything together now. Now that I can freely poke pins onto a human figure that is not mine.

横須賀！

最高な一日。Bruno Munariの本をちょうど読んでて、Bruno Munariの展示が見れて興奮した。横須賀のあたたかい人たちに会えて、釣り立てのサザエやタコの刺身をビールと白ワインと一緒にサービスをもらって、最高においしかった。いっぱい話せて楽しかった。夏休みは日本に残ってよかったと思う。

hafu

今日はハーフ三人組でハーフ展示をみにいきます。わくわく。

Gonna be going to a ‘Hafu’ exhibition today with my ‘hafu’ friends. (hafu: half Japanese, half something else)

Ended up not getting any sleep last night. I already had myself 3 cupppas. I hope I survive the day!!!! Oh, and I managed to find a bunch of super cheap mannequins on yahoo auction. Ordered myself one :=) yaaay.

1930′s America.

Found this on Glen Hansard’s twitter. He put up a link to a site featuring America after the Great Depression. Here’s one that I particularly liked.

high on peace?

Once again, I am procrastinating going to bed and its probably gonna get bright soon. I reread some of my old posts, and I totally understand what Ruth told me the other day as she was rereading her old blogs: ‘I used to be able to write!’

When I was in a relationship, going through all its ups and downs, I probably used my head and heart more. Now I feel as though I’ve gone all stoney with so much peace in my life. I’m high on peace. hahaha. That shouldn’t be a bad thing I guess.

I’ve made the sleeves and bodice of that dress. And man, I’m in dire need of a mannequin. I really want a mannequin. I’m using my own body as a mannequin and I keep getting poked by pins and whatnot…

I’m beginning to love the blues more and more. Been listening to a lot of Motown’s blues, Jimmy Reed, and the John Mayer trio etc. etc.

And if I were to narrow down the things that I’ve been taking the most interest in lately, it’d be, music, fashion, and cooking. Oil painting isn’t anywhere on that list. I don’t understand myself.

for reuben&ginny’s wedding

Let’s see how this turns out.

a little read over a 2pm breakfast.

DESIGN AS ART. – Bruno Munari

Today, it has become necessary to demolish the myth of the ‘star’ artist who only produces masterpieces for a small group of ultra -intelligent people. It must be understood that as long as art stands aside from the problems of life it will only interest a very few people. Culture today is becoming a mass affair, and the artist must step down from his pedestal and be prepared to make a sign for a butcher’s shop (if he knows how to do it). The artist must cast off the last rags of romanticism and become active as a man among men, well up in present-day techniques, materials and working methods. Without losing his innate aesthetic sense he must be able to respond with humility and competence to the demands his neighbors may make of him.

The designer of today re-establishes the long-lost contact between art and the public, between living people and art as a living thing. Instead of pictures for the drawing-room and electric gadgets for the kitchen. There should be no such thing as art divorced from life, with beautiful things to look at and hideous things to use. If what we use everyday is made with art, and not thrown together by chance or caprice, then we shall have nothing to hide.

Anyone working in the field of design has a hard task ahead of him: to clear his neighbor’s mind of all preconceived notions of art and artists, notions picked up at schools where they condition you to think one way for the whole of your life, without stopping to think that life changes – and today more rapidly than ever. It is therefore up to us designers to make known our working methods in clear and simple terms, the methods we think are the truest, the most up-to-date, the most likely to resolve our common aesthetic problems. Anyone who uses a properly designed object feels the presence of an artist who has worked for him, bettering his living conditions and encouraging him to develop his taste and sense of beauty.

This book is so good, I’d type everything out if I could. Reading it makes me feel like I’m sitting in the front row of a church listening to a really good sermon, with me wanting to shout out ‘PREACH IT!!’ from the pit of my stomach. I never got to finish this book, so now I’m making my second attempt, beginning from the beginning.

When I’m feeling disillusioned with art, Bruno Munari cheers me up.

.

What’s wrong with wanting everything to be aesthetically pleasing?

Yes.