Art by Alicia Bay Laurel

Alicia’s artwork

Alicia Bay Laurel 2018 Japan Tour

Posted on by in Alicia Bay Laurel - Live in Japan - music album, Art Exhibition, Blog, Concert Tours, Friends and Mentors.

This year I am having a multi-decade solo art exhibition from September 1 through 20 at fashion designer Aya Noguchi’s Sison Gallery in Daikanyama, Shibuya, Tokyo.  The opening event will be recorded as part of a documentary about my work by Setsuko Miura’s environmentalist television show, Kotonaha No Midori.

Sison Gallery show brochure-color-web size

My concerts are also CD release parties for my newest recording, “Alicia Bay Laurel: Live in Japan,” which you can buy here.

ABL LIVE IN JAPAN 3000X3000 for CD Baby


Here is the tour schedule in Japanese and then in English:

2018年8月11日（土）ニュー・ムーン・コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：白浜豆腐工房。18:00スタート。1,500円。住所：千葉県南房総市白浜町滝口1477

https://www.facebook.com/events/242954323164704/

2018年8月18日（土）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティー。場所：安房里山房るんた。18:00スタート。1,500円。住所：千葉県安房郡鋸南町217

https://www.facebook.com/events/257584581504181/

http://lungta.petit.cc

https://muraken5.com/piece/kyonan#top

2018年9月1日（土）アリシア・ベイ・ローレル個展“ダンシング・ウィズ・ネイチャー”オープニング・パーティー＆コンサート。場所：代官山SISON GALLERY。15:00～20:00。ミニライブ＆小倉美保さんのフラダンス19:00～。住所：〒150-0033東京都渋谷区猿楽町3-18　電話：03-6886-8048

2018年9月2日（日）～9月20日（木）個展“ダンシング・ウィズ・ネイチャー”。場所：SISON GALLERY。12:00～19:00。※月曜休館。

http://sison.tokyo/info/2175262
https://www.facebook.com/events/274301256687815/

2018年9月6日（木）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：横浜ライブバー＆レストラン サムズアップ。オープン18:30、スタート19:30。共演：井上オハナ、小倉美保（フラダンス）通訳：キンバリー・ヒューズ。お問合せ：045-314-8705。前売り：2,800円、当日：3,300円。住所：〒220-0005神奈川県横浜市西区南幸2-1-22相鉄Movil 3F

http://www.stovesyokohama.com/

2018年9月7日（金）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：ピープルツリー自由が丘店（フェアトレード・ファッションブランドの東京フラッグシップ店）。オープン18:00、スタート18:30。共演：Rie Nobuso（創作舞）。住所：〒152-0035東京都目黒区自由が丘3-7-2

http://www.peopletree.co.jp/shop_jiyugaoka/index.html#shop_map

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/shopping/people-tree-jiyugaoka

2018年9月9日（日）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：横浜cafe ゆっくり堂。オープン17:45、平和の祈り18:25、スタート18:30。共演：馬場尚子（司会）、Rie Nobuso（創作舞）。1,500円+1オーダー。住所：〒244-0002神奈川県横浜市戸塚区矢部町125。JR戸塚駅東口より徒歩7分。電話：090-1795-0341。

https://www.yukkurido.com/access

ご予約：info@sloth.gr.jp.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1115536298622481/

2018年9月15日（土）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：神戸Modern Ark Pharm Cafe。19:30～21:30。住所：〒650-0012兵庫県神戸市中央区北長狭通3-11-15。お問合せ：078-391-3060。

https://www.facebook.com/ModernarkPharmCafe/

2018年9月16日（日）大阪アート＆エコロジー・センター“THE BRANCH”を応援する小さなコンサート。場所：大阪THE BRANCH。オープン15:30、スタート16:00。住所：〒559-0011大阪府大阪市住之江区北加賀屋2-8-20

http://branch.sociecity.org
https://www.facebook.com/events/284386238985308/

2018年9月17日（月・祝）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：大阪茶屋町URBAN RESEARCH DOORS（エコ・ファッション・ストア＆カフェ）。カフェでのライブ：19:30～20:15。住所：〒530-0013大阪府大阪市北区茶屋町15-31。電話：06-6485-0178（コーディネーター：Ryoko）

http://www.urdoors.com/

2018年9月22日（土）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・イベント。場所：西光禅寺（広島西部の山間、三次市街地の近く）オーガナイザー：西光禅寺住職、檀上宗謙。14:00スタート。ベジタリアン・カレー・ディナー付き。住所：〒729-4207広島県三次市吉舎町敷地610西光寺。お問合せ：080-5338-6274。

https://www.facebook.com/SAIKOUJI

2018年9月23日（日）秋分の日パーティー＆コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ＆カントリー・マーケット。場所：イタリア会館・福岡。16:00スタート。住所：〒810-0021福岡市中央区今泉1-18-25季離宮-tokirikyu-中離宮２階。電話：092-761-8570。お問合せ：ayamomo821@gmail.com（Ayako）

2018年9月28日（金）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：照明寺。18:00スタート。出店 ワークショップあり。住所：〒899-6404鹿児島県霧島市溝辺町麓溝辺町2563。

2018年9月29日（土）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：宮崎県（時間と場所の詳細は追ってお知らせします。）

2018年9月30日（日）コンサート＆新作CDリリース・パーティ。場所：喫茶 風の丘。

13:00スタート。住所：〒899-2431 鹿児島県日置市東市来町美山 東市来町美山2591

Here is the English language version of tour schedule:

08/11/2018 New Moon concert and CD release party and vegetarian dinner. 18:00 start. SHIRAHAMA TOFU FACTORY. 1500 yen. Address: 1477 Shirahacho Takiguchi, Minami Boso-shi, Chiba
https://www.facebook.com/events/242954323164704/

08/18/2018 Concert and CD release party and macrobiotic dinner at Lungta Yokone. 18:00 start. 1500 yen. Address: 217 Kyonan-machi, Awa-gun, Chiba-ken
https://www.facebook.com/events/257584581504181/

http://lungta.petit.cc

https://muraken5.com/piece/kyonan#top

09/01/2018 Art Gallery Opening Party for Alicia Bay Laurel’s solo exhibition, “Dancing with Nature,” and her concert, at Sison Gallery, Daikanyama, Shibuya, Tokyo. 15:00 to 20:00.  Live at 19:00, with hula by Miho Ogura.  Address: 150-0033, 3-18 Sarugakucho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-6886-8048

09/02 to 20/2018 Sison Gallery “Dancing with Nature” exhibition open from 12:00 to 19:00, daily except Mondays. http://sison.tokyo/info/2175262
https://www.facebook.com/events/274301256687815/

09/06/2018 Concert and CD release party at Thumbs Up Live House, Yokohama.  Open 18:30, start 19:30. With the Inoue Ohana Band, hula by Miho Ogura, and translation by Kimberly Hughes. For more information, call 045-314-8705. Advance 2800 yen, Door 3300 yen. 3F Movil, 2-1-22, Minamisaiwai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-0005. http://www.stovesyokohama.com/

09/07/2018 Concert and CD release party at People Tree Jiyugaoka [fair trade fashion shop] (flagship store in Tokyo) 3-7-2 Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo.  18:00 open, 18:30 start. With interpretive dance by Rie Nobuso.
http://www.peopletree.co.jp/shop_jiyugaoka/index.html#shop_map

https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/shopping/people-tree-jiyugaoka

09/09/2018 Concert and CD release party at Cafe Yukkurido, 125, Yabe-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 244-0002. Open 17:45, peace prayer 18:25, start 18:30. Hosted by Naoko Baba. With interpretive dance by Rie Nobuso.

Access from JR Totsuka station, east exit, 7minute walk. https://www.yukkurido.com/access Charge: 1500 yen +1 order. Booking information: info@sloth.gr.jp. Café Tel: 090ｰ1795ｰ0341
https://www.facebook.com/events/1115536298622481/

09/15/2018 Concert and CD release party at Modern Ark Pharm Café in Kobe. 19:30 to 21:30
中央区北長狭通3-11-15 Kobe-shi, Hyogo, Japan 650-0012.
For more information, please call 078-391-3060.
https://www.facebook.com/ModernarkPharmCafe/

09/16/2018 Intimate Concert to benefit The Branch Arts and Ecology Center in Osaka. Open 15:30. Start 16:00. 2-8-20 Kitakagaya, Osaka 559-0011 http://branch.sociecity.org

https://www.facebook.com/events/284386238985308/

09/17/2018 Concert and CD release party at Urban Research Doors Chaya-machi (Eco fashion store and café.)  Live in the café 19:30 to 20:15. 15-31, Chaya-machi, Kita-ku, Osaka 530-0013. Tel: 06-6485-0178 (Ryoko is the coordinator)

09/22/2018 Concert and CD release event Saikouji Zen Buddhist Temple, in the mountains west of Hiroshima, near the town of Miyoshi.  Event organized by Souken Danjo, the head monk. Start time 14:00.  Includes a vegetarian curry dinner. 729-4207 Hiroshima-ken, Miyoshi-shi, Kisa-cho, 610 Saikouji. For more information, please call: 080 5338 6274. https://www.facebook.com/SAIKOUJI

09/23/2018 Autumn Equinox Party, Concert, CD release party, and country market, at Italia Kaikan Fukuoka / Centro Italiano di Fukuoka. Address: Tokirikyu – Nakarikyu 2F, 1-18-25 Imaizumi, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-0021, tel: 092 761 8570.  Start time: 16:00. Please contact Ayako at ayamomo821@gmail.com for more information.

09/28/2018 Concert and CD release party at Shoumyouji Buddhist temple. Start time: 18:00. Address: 〒899-6404 鹿児島県霧島市溝辺町麓 溝辺町2563 Kagoshima-ken Kirishima-shi Mizobechofumoto Mizobecho 2563
出演者 アリシア ベイローレル 他 出店 ワークショップあり

09/29/2018 Concert and CD release party with shrine-building workshop in Nichinan, Kagoshima.

09/30/2018 Concert and CD release party at Kaze No Oka, outdoor restaurant and music venue. 〒899-2431 鹿児島県日置市東市来町美山 東市来町美山2591 風の丘 Kagoshima-ken Hioki-shi Higashiichiki-cho Miyama 2591 Kazenooka 出演者 アリシア ベイローレル Start time is 13:00.

 

Kota drums and Alicia sings at Kaze No Oka in Miyama, Kagoshima. A typhoon had passed through the area during the early morning of the same day, but the café was full of happy people that evening.

My Eggshell Paintings

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog.

flat of painted blown eggs

My mother, Verna Lebow Norman, a sculptor and painter, taught me and my siblings to blow eggshells and paint them when we were in elementary school.

My method: I use a thick hand sewing needle to pierce one end of the shell and to chip off tiny pieces until there is a hole about 1/4 across. Using the same method, I make a bigger hole at the other end. Then I use the needle to break up the yolk. I blow through the small hole, so the raw egg goes into a bowl through the bigger hole. (If it’s very hard to blow out the egg, make bigger holes, and scramble the egg more thoroughly.) Then I let the egg shell dry for a day or two, so the remaining raw egg white seals and hardens the inside of the shell. I don’t cook with the raw eggs that are blown out of the shells, because they have shell fragments in them. Once the shells are completely dry inside and out, I like to seal up the holes by gluing circles of colored tissue paper over them.  By gluing on a loop of ribbon or cord at the narrower top of the shell, the decorated eggs can be displayed by hanging them from a horizontally suspended, slender tree branch.  This allows each eggshell to be viewed on all of its curving surfaces.

Most of these painted eggshells are from a decade of my life inwhich each spring I would prepare blown eggs for myself and some children I knew, and we would paint them together, using enamel paints and nail polish, and sometimes glue things onto them. Mine were mostly “wish eggs” – visualizations of experiences I wanted to materialize.

I will also share here a couple of eggshells that I prepared and decorated around the age of 10.

I painted this eggshell (with nail polish) shortly before I turned 40. It says: “I am a precious being at every stage of my life.”  Yes, we all are.

I am a Precious Being egg

Here are three views of an egg I painted a few years later, in celebration of vegetable gardening.  I painted asparagus, rutabaga, radishes, crookneck squash, scallions and tat soi.

Here’s an eggshell with the opening line of Paul Desmond’s jazz classic, “Take Five,” a song I learned to sing and to play on guitar.

This egg is a wish from my 25 years based on Maui, to make friends with a whale in the ocean.

This one depicts a lop-eared rabbit of my acquaintance, contemplating a carrot patch after a long night of hiding Easter eggs.

Here’s the “vegetable that will bleed for you,” as Tom Robbins described beets in his timeless novel “Jitterbug Perfume.” I call this “Heart Beets.”

Heart Beets Egg

This one reminds me of the last line of Amanda McBroom’s song, “The Rose.”
“Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that, with the sun’s love, in the spring, becomes the rose.”

Far beneath the bitter snows Egg

A (purple!) guitar and a colorful stream of musical notes: a wish egg for joyful song.

Here is a wish egg for romance!  It came true, too.

Here are a couple of the eggs I decorated when I was about ten years old:
“The Girl in the Pink Turban,” and “The Lady in the Lace Mantilla.”

Sophia Rose’s video collage of Alicia’s books and art, with Alicia’s song 1966

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Audio/Video, Blog, Interviews with Alicia, Music and tagged , , , , , .

Sophia Rose, very creative herbalist, writer, photographer, designer, life artist, and my good friend, assembled this video collage of art from my books and photographs of me and my communal friends in the early 1970s in Northern California, to a fragment of my autobiographical jazz waltz, “1966.”  You can savor Sophia Rose’s divine herbal and artistic offerings at La Abeja Herbs.

How to Make a Lace Snowflake

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog and tagged .

12-07-11-AZ-home-decorated tree-details

Here’s how an antimacassar (a lace doily, often affixed to the arms and backs of overstuffed chairs, in bygone eras) can be made into a lace ornament for a Christmas tree. At a crafts store, buy a bottle of stiffening agent. Lay some waxed paper on a table, put the antimacassar on top, and paint the stiffening agent on both sides of it. Let it dry on the waxed paper (and wash the stiffening agent out of your brush!) When it’s dry, it will hang perfectly flat. A small paperclip, unbended into an S shape, makes a good hanger for it.

My friend Randy Carnefix explained how these doilies got their peculiar name. A century ago, many men used an oily hair dressing made in Makassar, Indonesia, from coconut or palm fruit oil, perfumed with essential oil of frangipani (plumeria) blossoms. In an effort to protect their appolstered chairs from the greasy heads and fingers of men thus groomed, housekeepers began placing lace or embroidered pieces of cloth on the backs and arms of their chairs. When styles changed, the antimacassars began to show up in thrift shops.  That’s where I found the ones hanging on my tree.

Artist Power Bank Festival 2011 T-shirt and Towel Gather Funds for Japan Earthquake Survivors

Posted on by in Activism, Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog.

ap bank fes 11 towel-done.jpg

May 13, 2011. Today the t-shirt and towel that I illustrated (both designed by Aiko Shiratori of environmentalist non-for-profit arts organization Artist Power Bank in Shibuya, Tokyo) were posted for sale on their Kurkku shop website. Both items are fundraisers for the survivors of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters, and will be sold at the annual music festival Artist Power Bank produces each summer to raise money for its projects.

ap bank fes 11-tshirt-done-front, back, details.jpg

 

2010 Art Collaborations in Japan

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog, Friends and Mentors, Illustration commissions and licenses and tagged .

Lakshmi for Pre Organic Cotton-cleaned
I did a lot of art collaborating in Japan via internet in 2010, thanks in great part to my art agent, Keisuke Era, who is also the director of Kurkku, an arts and environmental action center in the Harajuku district of Tokyo. Kurkku is funded by Artist Power Bank, a not-for-profit with impressive environmental protection projects like Pre Organic Cotton.

Pre Organic Cotton is an non-governmental organization that approaches cotton farmers in India and offers to support them for the three years it takes to transition from petro-chemical agriculture to organic agriculture, inspect their farms to be sure the soil and plants are chemical-free and healthy, and then buy all the cotton they grow from that time onward. (Major advantage: some villages in India no longer have carcinogens in their water supply and in the air surrounding their cotton fields.)  I was inspired when I first read about this much needed work to draw the Hindu goddess Lakshmi blessing the farmers, the organic cotton, and the people working for Pre Organic Cotton.

Pre Organic Cotton also approaches major clothing manufacturers and sells them organic cotton. Lee Jeans Japan made a line of women’s jeans from Pre Organic Cotton’s cotton this past year, and when they did, I was hired to illustrate a booklet that was attached to each pair of jeans, which explained the work of Pre Organic Cotton, and its value to the planet and the people. Here’s the cover of the booklet:

02-23-10-CA-LA-Lee Jeans Pamphlet cover art.jpg

When Artist Power Bank (aka ap bank) held their annual summer rock festival in 2010, I was hired to design a jacquard towel and a t-shirt drawing as festival merchandise, and, of course, both were made of organic cotton.

Here is the illustration I made for the front of the ap bank 2010 music festival t-shirt.
ap bank fes 10 t-shirt front-both sides-web-sized

Here is the “label” I made for the t-shirt, which was printed on the outside of the back of the shirt, close to the neck:

ap bank fes 10 t-shirt front-back

Here is the 2010 festival towel, designed by Aiko Shiratori of Artist Power Bank, using a drawing she requested from me of a large flower (I made an echinacea blossom).  Keisuke said the festival looked like a field of yellow and blue flowers, so many of the attendees had them wrapped around their shoulders.

10-25-10-Japan-Harajuku-Kurkku-ap bank fes 10 towel.jpg

Kurkku’s merchandise designers, Miyumi Ichikawa and Yoshiko Takeuchi decided to have a traditional tenugui maker in Kyoto print some tenugui for them on Pre Organic Cotton’s fabric, and commissioned a design from me for it. They requested an image of a little girl playing in the woods. Here it is:

10-25-10-Japan-Harajuku-Kurkku-tenugui.jpg

10-25-10-Japan-Harajuku-Kurkku-staff.jpg

Here are my collaborators. The gentleman on the right is Keisuke Era. On the left side, in the red shawl is Kurkku’s Miyumi Ichikawa and, to her right, Yoshiko Takeuchi. Next to them, in very dark blue, is Aiko Shiratori, who designed the merchandise for Artist Power Bank’s festival this year.

This is an information sheet on the tenugui. It explains that the image was printed in four different traditional colors: pine green, the brown of bamboo shoot, the yellow of “silver grass” and pink of a flower called “Sakichiku.”

10-25-10-Japan-Harajuku-Kurkku-tenugui information sheet.jpg

In Which I Illustrate a Pouch and a Shawl for a Major Japanese Pop Star

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog, Illustration commissions and licenses.

A few blog posts ago, I promised that when the shawl and pouch I illustrated for Sony artist Yuki’s 2010 tour were available for viewing on line, I would share them with you. So I am happy to say, here they are!

YUKI and pouch photo from website.jpg

This is the artist herself holding on her head a pouch shaped like one of my birds, printed with part of the illustration I made for the shawl that she described and I drew. It’s lined with lavender satin, and embroidered with metallic gold thread.

YUKI STOLE photo from website.jpg

Here she is, wrapped in her own poetry and the images she suggested to me, in a long and lovely natural gauze shawl. The images on the shawl are from the poem (actually a song lyric) which she wrote in English, and which I wrote in my handwriting into the images on the shawl.  As of today, October 26, 2010, the shawl has completely sold out.

I took these snapshots of the upper and lower halves of the paper layout of the fabric print that would appear on the shawl, before numbering and then separating all of the sheets, scanning each one, and sending the scans, along with a numbered chart, to the manufacturer in Japan to be reassembled and then printed on huge pieces of white gauzy cotton:

YUKI SHAWL-upper half photoYUKI SHAWL-lower half photo

I realized tonight that this is the second time I’ve seen my drawings adorn a Japanese pop star.  The first time was in 2007, when the duo Puffy Amiyumi was photographed for the teen fashion magazine Cutie, one of them wearing a Living on the Earth print dress by designed by Aya Noguchi for her Tokyo fashion company, Balcony & Bed.

puffy in ABL dress-web

Here’s a close-up of the Living on the Earth wool jersey fabric print.  There were three color variations, one with a black background (below), one with a brown background (above), and one with a yellow background.

Aya's wool LOTE print

Here I am, modeling the black background print dress with a matching scarf at Aya Noguchi’s house near Hayama, Kanagawa, on May 24, 2007, as part of a fashion shoot by Switch Magazine.  I am holding my Traveler Pro Series Guitar.

05-24-07-Japan-Hayama-Switch mag shoot-ABL at Aya Noguchi's

Alicia Bay Laurel Patchwork on Display in San Francisco

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Art Exhibition, Blog and tagged , .

art show app-quilt.jpg

The autobiographical patchwork crazy quilt that I made between 1967 and 1974 was on display in the lobby of the historic Mills Building in downtown San Francisco from October 18, 2010 to January 15, 2011 as part of a show called “Still Crazy,” which included Victorian and 20th century crazy quilts, loaned by the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. Deborah Corsini, curator at SJMQT, created the show.

The piece is 8 feet high and 5 feet wide, and contains “guest embroideries” by my dear friends, author Ray Mungo and composer/author Ramón Sender Barayón, as well as a small piece by quilter Charlotte Lyons, who befriended me at Wheeler Ranch commune while I was writing and illustrating Living on the Earth.

Curator Deborah Corsini wrote:

“Alicia Bay Laurel’s crazy quilt is an excellent example of a 20th century crazy quilt from the decades of the 1960s – 1970s.  It is composed of a multitude of irregularly shaped fabrics, many typical of the time period.  There are large scale printed florals and smaller ditsy prints as well as embroidered and woven lace.  Many of the blocks contain unique and personal appliqued and embroidered scenes.  Some examples that clearly reflect on the universal (and astrological) themes that were of interest at the time are a God’s eye and embroidered solar system, a bull (her sun sign), and a flying lion (for Leo rising in her natal chart.)  Other blocks charmingly depict the Sausalito houseboat where she lived in 1967 and her guitar with “real” strings.  Like the crazy quilts of the 19th century, the one is filled with symbolic and personal references, and clearly references the cultural influences that were surrounding her.  Most importantly, this quilt has an embroidered date, 1967 – 1974, and an embroidered signature, Alicia bay laurel, which gives it true authenticity.

“…it is especially compelling because it is the authentic handiwork of a well-known woman, artist, author and creative spirit from that extraordinary ‘hippie’ time.  Alicia Bay Laurel’s crazy quilt is an excellent example of the continuum of the crazy quilt’s evolution and is a singular artifact by a multi-talented artist as a part of her early creative output and rich legacy.”

Alicia with her patchwork crazy quilt.jpg

Here I am on the last day of the show, January 14, 2011 with my quilt.  You might notice a few minor differences between this one and the one at the photo at the top, which was taken in 2002.  That’s because the quilt suffered some damage in 2008 and was expertly restored by Karen Stern at her quilt and textile restoration studio in Berkeley.

Signature on lower right hand corner: “1967 – 1974 Alicia bay laurel”

Another World, a novel by Yoshimoto Banana, with drawings by Alicia Bay Laurel

Posted on by in Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog, Friends and Mentors, Illustration commissions and licenses.

When I met Yoshimoto Banana in September 2009, I asked her if she’d like my illustrations for her next book. It turned out, she did. Here it is, published on May 30th, 2010, with one of my drawings on the cover and one opposite the title page (the drawing below).

The assignment was this: an ink line drawing of a woman, a cat and a plant. I made nine of them and send them all for consideration. Banana-san and her publisher chose two. Here are some of the out-takes.

The novel is not translated into English yet, but gist of the story, as I understand it, is this:

A young woman falls in love with an artist who is grieving his departed wife. The artist keeps drawing pictures of the wife, who was not really a human, but a cat in human form. His wife cared only about other cats, and thought the kind of things cats think. Eventually, though, he does come to appreciate the young woman and return her love. Along the way we also get an environmental message about making a better world. The title of the work is “Another World.”

Banana-san wrote in the afterword of her book:

It is my feeling that the difficult times we are facing now will continue for a while.

We should trust in our intuitions and instincts and not lose sight of ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll find it too hard to keep living in this world. In such times, I hope this novel of mine will stay close to the reader as a useful tool to overcome such difficulties, even if for a little while. You don’t have to follow the same lifestyle as the characters in the novel. It’s just my wish that you will at least read and feel their emotions that constantly vibrate in sympathy with Nature.

This series of novels titled “Kingdom” has been written during a peculiar period of my life. It has been hard work, but I do adore my characters.

Also, this is going to be the last novel that my father had read with his own declining eyes, because he has lost his eyesight now. He has seen the sceneries of this novel with his heart; I will hold this fact in my arms for the rest of my life.

Since my childhood, I have admired Alicia Bay Laurel, the author of “Living on the Earth”. I always wished that someday I would also be living in a forest like she does. The reality is that I am still living in Tokyo as an author. Even so, that wish is still there, just like in those long ago days.

When I met Alicia, she told me once that she could draw a picture for the cover of my book. I was so overwhelmed with joy, I didn’t know what to say. In my mind I was pinching my cheek to make sure that I was not dreaming.

She has no equal when it comes to drawing the most appropriate picture for this novel. She is the person who has cast a most beautiful spell on this novel. And I thank her for that.

Instant Books at Fujino Steiner School

Posted on by in Activism, Art by Alicia Bay Laurel, Blog.

September 24, 2009


Today I meet Liane Wakabayashi, the artist who will host my bookmaking workshop on October 18th. She wanted to meet me and see what I do, and rode up to Fujino on a train from Tokyo. We instantly become good friends. She’s from New York, and tells me she’s one of a half-dozen Jewish women married to Japanese men living in Japan. Maybe we are cousins. Behind us is the entrance to Steiner School’s brand new auditorium.


We head over to Fujino’s Steiner (Waldorf) High School, which meets in a geodesic dome built by the staff and students a few years ago. The high school students commute an hour by train from Tokyo, where the former Steiner High School has closed. I am about to meet the 12th grade English class (7 students) that day. The elementary school students use the building in the background, which is a former public school that closed due to shrinking population in the mountain town. The Steiner staff refurbished it, and the number of students is steadily growing.


One gets the feeling this is no ordinary high school.


Today I am teaching lesson #1, “Instant Books,” from my friend Esther K. Smith’s fabulous book, How To Make Books. An instant book can be folded from almost any size oblong piece of paper, with a slit cut in the middle so it can be refolded to be an eight page book, or a six page book with front and page covers. This is the cover of the instant book I made during the class.


I am not allowed to photograph the students, so I sketch them in my instant book. These seventeen-year-olds were raised on origami (Japanese paper folding) and instantly grasp and master the simple but ingenious design of the book.


The kids brought stacks of magazines, mostly fashion magazines, to cut out and write about the photos, hopefully in English. They relish the task of cutting out photos that appeal to them, and chat happily in Japanese while they are doing this. So, I use a few of the magazine images, to represent the presence of this alternate reality in our classroom. Yay recycling!


I daub on a little watercolor paint to add texture and color to my ink drawings. After we are done with our books, we will unfold them, scan them, and make color copies for each of the students and the staff in our class. Hooray for self-publishing via computer. The power of the press is in the hands of the artists! Later that day, Esther emails me from New York City, to suggest that the scans be posted on the web, as a sort of international publication that people can download, print and fold. She collects instant books.


I copy an idea from one of the projects in Esther’s book, of using photographs of eyes to add emphasis to the idea of reading and observing to the back cover of my book.


Here’s one of the student books I love, a new twist on the fairy tale of the princess and the frog. I get a kick out of the way she used magazine fashion models to depict the characters in her story.


She’s pretty clear about why she wants a man in her life, and who he should be.


But when the proposal arrives (almost immediately!), who brings it? A little bug-eyed green guy from another planet! But our heroine is not daunted.


For her positivity and willingness to look past mere appearances, she is rewarded with a commitment from the man of her dreams.


So, they live happily ever after.


Here is Liane’s book. She is welcoming me to Japan and suggesting I wear comfy shoes. I agree; one does walk a lot here, taking trains instead of driving.


Here is a book of legs and shoes, with lots of excellent English words in it. The students were still working on their books at the end of our allotted two-hour period, exclaiming loudly that they did not want to stop creating their books to do other schoolwork. I therefore consider the workshop a success. Happily, their regular teachers agreed.


After the class, Liane and I enjoy a beautiful lunch prepared by Jun on the verandah of Setsuko and Jun’s house with Setsuko and Yuko Urakami, the teacher of the 12th grade English class who kindly organized my visit to the school. I want to connect Yuko with the staff of the Haleakala Waldorf School on Maui, where I taught music and creative writing, part time, for a school year in the 1980s. The students in the two schools could become pen pals on the web, and maybe even visit one another. Those purple fruits are giant figs from a tree next to Setsuko and Jun’s house.


Yuko made a book, too, called “I believe in…” She believes in the power of flowers, in hand crafts, in “a bit of luxury” and good food. Amen.