+ 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 poemTransported 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
Another en plein air oil-on-stretched-canvas painting view of Gravelly Beach for a bit of sunshine in your day.
Shadows & trees at the end of Puget Sound, 2005, oil on canvas
Note: Shall I make a batch of postcards for sale from the series?
PS Many folks don’t realize that VvG was an early adopter of pre-mixed oil paints in tubes and often used them direct from the tube (both in terms of not mixing colors, and sometimes not using a brush)… Previously, generally painters ground their own compounds and mixtures into oil paints in studio. Of course these convenient tubes allowed him to create very rapidly finishing a canvas or sometimes two in a single day outside.
Rocking a plaid track suit, Dave catches up about an exhibit of postbox haiku and paintings at pal Mac Kobayashi’s goat farm and in Shibuya by dDesign and shares the story of the post box haiku and painting plus details of: Kathmandu, Nepal; Muscat Oman; The Vatican, and Olympia, Greece (including accompanying postcards of course) and riffs about importance of personal archeology and making things for future generations while drinking including coffee and jamu and digression about persimmon chutney.
Special ahoys to Gary, Beth, Arild, Jared, Erin, Sandra, Lance and especially you.
Postbox haiku exhibit corner at Rural Caprine Farm (more to come)
Often, a poem comes out fully-formed, fiddling and remixing only dulls the knife, sometimes however, variations are eager to come out to shine light in another corner: Lonely, Joyful, Melancholy, Mysterious.
In this case, (my) familiar themes of un-confidential love letters on postcards mailed from foreign places and glanced by – or maybe sadly not glanced – by personnel along the way who (may) add their pathos to the journey.
One version of this (do you care to guess which?) will go on the reverse of the post box at Farmer Mac’s goat farm – Perhaps another painting will follow… and then a postcard a photograph of the painting mailed to the post box and so on. Always be remixing.
No pardons for redundancies, variations on a theme require riffs on the same blues.
My postbox haiku painting in Shibuya as part of Okayama Design exhibit with Rural Caprine Farm
+ Provincial Poetry, Wine and Goats in Shibuya, Tokyo +
Very proud to see my haiku postbox painting supporting sempei Mac Kobayashi’s display. If you are in Tokyo area, please consider stopping by to dig it all and tell yer pals (and maybe i’ll send you a postcard print of it #hint).
* Session: Friday, September 18, 2020-Monday, November 30, 2020 * Time: 12: 00-20: 00 (Last Admission 19:30) / Closed on Wednesday * Place: d47 MUSEUM (03-6427-2301) 渋谷2-21-1 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 150-8510 * Fee: Free admission + Advance application: Unnecessary
As part of Mac Kobayashi’s Rural Caprine Farm exhibit at “d Design Travel Okayama Exhibition” in Shibuya, Tokyo (right near the famous scramble intersection), visitors can see my painting “Postbox Haiku (blue)”.
Hope folks can see the display for inspiration to visit the goats (and see more of my paintings).
Details: 会 期 2020年9月18日（金） – 2020年11月30日（月） 時 間 12:00〜20:00（最終入館／Last Admission19:30）／水曜休 Closed on Wednesday 場 所 d47 MUSEUM（03-6427-2301） 料 金 入場無料／Free Admission 事前申込 不要 渋谷2-21-1 Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 150-8510
+ Tour the Farm (with Postbox and Paintings +
Take a tour of Rural Caprine Farm in Okayama in this video by d design travel 編集部 / starting at 5:34. See the “actual postbox” which goes with the painting of the postbox (which came first?) and hear Mac Kobayashi’s friendly voice at my favourite place.
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 (note to self: add email address here).
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.
Today – a Letter! Written as you ate a peach In last weekend’s SUN
New addition by Jean Smith (see also: Mecca Normal) / this lady reminds me of someone, somehow… do you know who?
Needs properly hung but wanted you to say “hello”.
Also, glimpses of: * Miyake Noriko * Grateful Dead pacific Nw box by Roy Henry Vickers (thanks Trev!) * Gravelly Beach series (me)
Elsewhere in house: Michal Korman & many others (this is a note to self to document further)
Note: There is another by Jean who is doing so many interesting projects to build an Free Artist Residency (FB) somewhere in BC… check her interviews for more of her great story.
My painting of a haiku on a postbox is representing Okayama design and culture at an exhibit in Shibuya (Tokyo), ergo:
Detail of the exhibit catalog and the stand ( No. 14) for Rural Caprine Farm & Market
My *post box painting* is featured in the physical exhibit in Shibuya, while the *painted post box* is featured no less than three times in the magazine, including on one of the introduction pages.
Note: The painting and the post box feature a traditional 5-7-5 syllable Japanese haiku poem in English. Deposit box accepts usual mail daily.
I share space with the remarkable Ohara museum filled with post/impressionist art, a coffee roaster housed in the 90-year-old former post office, a couple of brothers bringing youthful energy into the historic denim industry in the Bikan area of Kurashiki, swordsmith, fibre weavers and so on. Plus unique regional restaurants from Setouchi to Hiruzen to add to wishlist.(The magazine features most text in translation to English for your convenience.)
Additionally,.. t he catalog for the dDesign Travel exhibition sharing unique design and culture from my home Prefecture was released in glorious four-color bleed, mixed-paper goodness.
Features so many interesting artists, museums, artisan businesses & unique accommodations (& curious stats about school uniform + riffs about Momotaro legend) plus, you can do a “stamp rally” meaning collect a stamp from each of the locations featured on the map.
Sponsors include my beloved Uno Bus & Ryobi Group.
Hoping to share more of my poetic postal paintings with these institutions & more. Ideas for collaboration or exhibits? Let’s talk. My thanks to Sempei Mac Kobayashi (in the magazine wearing a black sabbath T-shirt ;)) at the 4th generation Rural Caprine Farm for this chance to contribute to local culture/economy (and, really, life in general).
Really, do you go visit this pleasant hangout (let me know if you have any questions) where you can see more of my paintings amongst other delightful foods and goats.
Grateful to be part of HERE. Let’s enjoy.
Me and the exhibit magazine/map/catalog at Rural Caprine Farm
Artifacts from the Okayama design and travel exhibition in Shibuya featuring Mac Kobayashi’s magical goat farm & my postbox haiku / painting.
In this case: first snapshots (by the farmer himself) of the exhibit’s catalog (or is it a “mook = magazine/book?) with pictures of the aforementioned farmer (shockingly) wearing a black sabbath rather than usual Grateful Dead T-shirt.
Nevertheless, the haiku post box looks splendid and, I am working on the right words for the opposite side. Stay aware.
Photos by Mac the goat farmer.
Update: now have the words for the other side of the post box… follow along for amusement
Lots on my mind to riff about sometime about with various dangling topics & conversations unfinished and yet the days go by so quick, ergo:
* libraries (lost in Showa) * meeting Ed Abbey (for Heads Lifestyle) * my next postbox paintings/poems * Ryoko’s new Fluevog shoes(!) / below (note: Vancouver company but these came from the Amsterdam store in the magnificent box with extra treats. She will look so great in these, and hopefully can wear in her next concert sometime this autumn if things well, get safer.) + I kept an eye on the sale section and special sale days to find just the right pair at well, a good price and this was my third attempt * Dennis Kearns & Quinn Hughes * Canucks family cook book circa 1981 (contents thereof) * paintings by Noriko Miyake (She’s local to our area but spends a lot of time in France making her vag!na goddess art. We have 2.5 of her pieces. Purchased this “wild hot spring” as a surprise “momma’s gift” for Ryoko Olson) & Jean Smith (she’s rocking it so well right now) * reducing humidity for book and record archiving in kura barn * Fast Times (film & soundtrack etc) * Itami’s “The Funeral” film * scheme for house modifications/extension (safety & efficiency) * so many letters out in the post, absolutely fantastic custom and complicated… And time-consuming(!) but so worth it * Ichi-Stan’s CDN paperwork / checkmark #io * The Queen never getting to know the pleasure of making a perfect grilled cheese sandwich * further annotations re: hemp in Japan (state of & unpublished artifacts) * recap #daveo50 / 190+ posts project * wild boar sausages & inflatable pool (+ impending typhoon) * how i ended up in Japan this time around * how are you? * condolences for losses (i see you) * yes *the illness* persists #chronic #complex yet research drastically increasing (note: One strange /good thing is with *the virus*, there’s suddenly a lot more attention and awareness and research going into CFS/ME vis a vis so-called “long haulers” / Would be so wonderful to see so many people get so much of their lives back #MillionsMissing) * “Hollywood” Scurlock (for Dark Poutine Mike Browne) #weird * etc * full email box #trying * autumn is best season in Japan * questions??
> in the meantime…
Note: The reality is, I wrote this as a little bit of “stuff I’m thinking about but I can’t do anything about right now“ list when I was in a crash mode from my silly consortium of syndromes.
(When I “crash“ I can only be in bed with the lights off, audio playing but not video, no outside light or noise,… but my head is swimming with ideas of stuff I really really want to do but can’t. In this case, three days of almost complete an activity aside from bathtime with baby.)
Dictating out a “laundry list” of thoughts, helps the brain calm down and well, means I’ll maybe address the topics eventually… maybe.
“Champey” Fluevogs for Ryoko (bit of another Noriko Miyake painting)
My university journey in general, and Evergreen college time specifically, had many starts and stops taking in total from 1987 at Utah Technical/Valley Community College to 2004 graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Inter-disciplinarian studies at Evergreen in Olympia, WA.
Digression: While there are times I regret not having an “usual” university experience which I had anticipated being an “outstanding student” during much of my school time, there are some advantages of being a non-traditional student of having more diversity of age and background and expectation in the classes.
Anyway, along this journey, my pal Jay Stewart and I restarted Evergreen doing a class (something about Global Management and Leadership) which was held in-person on Olympia campus one complete weekend a month, with online work filling the time between.
[Noting: this was “early days” online learning which was an interesting thing to observe. Plus, the comprehensive weekends allowed you to do a lot of group work in a short period of time.]
Yeah, Evergreen in particular is particularly in love with “group work” and we had various group projects, some of which we could choose our group and some we were assigned a group… Ostensibly to teach us to work with people we weren’t necessarily familiar with or whatever.
Now, my usual inclination is to be that “person who drags everyone with them and makes a fun community out of the whole thing” but I was determined not to do that but, sort of ended up that way as much of the group floundered and spent more time talking about “why they couldn’t do things” than they did actually doing anything, and spinning useless energy on deciding when and how we would meet to talk about how and when we would do things. Generally very frustrating.
On the day of the presentation, some members went completely off script thinking that they were so fucking brilliant and loquacious they should just change everything on the fly because they were super good and a 10th grade debate class or something and I was fantastically unimpressed. (hey look i was learning!)
Our presentation with something about reforming labour laws in sweatshops or building up unions in emerging economies or promoting economies while protecting environment… something like that. So, I wrote a couple of plays (note to self: find these plays and publish them) set in a Central Asian, post-Soviet country (called Stanastan in the finished work) and did my favourite sorta arts-and-crafts part of making giant backdrops on refrigerator boxes with powder tempura paint. They were spectacular – ha!
I was so frustrated at the end of the talk that the prop some cells were left for custodians or late night ravers to dispose of, but in going through old notebooks, I found some sketches of my mock-ups.
Of course the finished works were even more majestic :) and interesting but looking at them brought back the flashback of just dealing with a bunch of hangers-on in the group. Probably a bad thing that that’s my memory but there were some other part of the class I enjoyed I suppose,…
I remember a presentation about poet-dissident-president Vaclav Havel and the frequent requirement of public speaking in the class (obviously) was a benefit for me. Plus hanging out with Jay during our clandestine lunches was cool.
As it goes, I went on to do some more of these kind of weekend classes, in some cases, going out to the Aberdeen campus studying legal/judicial systems, economies and privacy with a notion to go to law school which fortunately, did not pan out.
Set design: oil fields in a post-Soviet, central Asian country
