Paint + Collage + Craft, Personal Musings

Postbox Haiku Painting exhibit artifacts from the Goat Farm

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+ Postbox Haiku Exhibit at the Goat Farm: In which I combine love of poetry, painting and postal mail and recaps an exhibit at buddy Mac’s goat farm.

So happy to share my mixed media project with a new audience at a very special place

Gist: Produced by dDesign to promote Okayama design, tourist and culture, the campaign included a painting in Shibuya as well as paintings of post boxes and office in: The Vatican; Kathmandu, Nepal; Olympia, Greece; and, Muscat, Oman as well as a new haiku on a postbox about “nonconfidential postcards” along with a book of paintings, a book of postboxes, and postcards of well… postboxes with poetry – both painted and functional.

DaveO at Goat Farm with postbox haiku, both sides now sport a custom poem
Transported the paintings in a velvety suitcase (notice the key for keeping them imaginary safe)
The paintings of postboxes had custom postcards with shodo ink by Junko Fujita and decorated up with appropriate postal and inky stamps by me

Location: Rural Caprine Farm: yagimilk.com

Mac’s “Rural Caprine Farm and Market” has a massive gingko tree which was the first of several paintings i made for my honourary gallery + my “artist’s portrait” on insta-snap next to… you guessed it, a post box
Freshly painted haiku on postbox next to “the other side” haiku on the cover of a book of my postbox and others paintings

Variations: Sometimes a poem comes out in one fell swoop, other times takes some teasing out… take a look at the variations i wrote (on site at the farm) before choosing the final Haiku in *unconfidential* kokoro postcard series

Super happy to share my projects with a new engaged audience
Of course, at Mac’s farm, the bar-b-q was rolling with slabs of exquisite meat
My good pal Mac had kind words about me and our 29 years of friendship to the assembled (safe) audience where i stood with his grandson as my “bodyguard”

Postal Club: Let’s be Penpals – join DaveO Postal Club to learn more about my mixed media projects and/or find out when new postcard art is up for purchase. 

Bonus: dDesign Okayama exhibit blurb

More: about Painting / Haiku ~ exhibit intro in Shibuya Tokyo (preview) 

My postbox haiku painting in Shibuya as part of Okayama Design exhibit with Rural Caprine Farm – photo sent by an attendee

+ Provincial Poetry, Wine and Goats in Shibuya, Tokyo + Was very proud to see my haiku postbox painting supporting sempei Mac Kobayashi’s display.  Happy that many in Tokyo area stopped by to dig it all and send a note (maybe i sent you a postcard to say thanks and continue the art project).

the painting of the postbox haiku on display with Rural Caprine Farm items at dDesign gallery in Shibuya

Video: Tour the Farm (with Postbox and Paintings and hear Mac Kobayashi’s friendly voice at my favourite place in this dDesign media riff:

The exhibit book is really nice and my postbox appears 4 times! You can purchase the catalog at Mac’s farm or by emailing dDesign folks. History: The painting was “just the postbox”, then i found a matching mailbox and installed at the farm, wrote the haiku onto the postbox, and then added to the painting to complete the meta circle. oh then made postcard prints and a book and mailed to the postbox… haiku on a postbox, and a painting of a postbox with a haiku / which came first? the original is unfaithful to the translation. everything comes together!

The “original” side of the haiku postbox

The origin: Today – a Letter! Written as you ate a peach In last weekend’s SUN

in notebook, summer of 2018 when “everything changed”
where everything changed and begins, again and again

Thanks: to wife Ryoko, in-laws – especially Junko for shodo calligraphy of (not surprisingly) postcards to introduce the paintings, and Takeshi for hanging lights, of course Mac for his 30 years of friendship and kind words, and the folks who came along to check out what i am up to sharing my consortium of creations.

commemorative blurb for the exhibit in Shibuya, Tokyo

Variations: Postbox Haiku in *unconfidential* kokoro postcard 

Finally, at the goat farm market, you can purchase the postcard of the postbox haiku / the circle is complete – you can even mail it to the postbox in the photo :)

Let’s be Penpals – join DaveO Postal Club to learn more about my mixed media projects and/or find out when new postcard art is up for purchase. 

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