International Exhibition 2010 Surrealism Now

(SURREALISM NOW)

I am very happy and honored to be included in this wonderful exhibition. My deep appreciation and congratulations to Santiago Ribeiro-san, Bissaya Barreto Foundation, and the fellow artists who are participating in this exhibition!   (Hikaru)

BISSAYA BARRETO FOUNDATION
 Surrealism Now, INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION
BISSAYA BARRETO MUSEUM HOUSE
SANT´ANNA CONVENT, COIMBRA, PORTUGAL, EUROPEAN UNION

Open 20th of May, 18:30,  until 30th of June 2010
Idealization and coordination: Santiago Ribeiro

Institutional support: Intervention Brigade

SURREALISM NOW
Bissaya Barreto Foundation
Idealization and coordination: Santiago Ribeiro
Institutional support: Intervention Brigade

Exhibitions, Portugal, 20 May 2010
International Exhibition 2010 Surrealism NOW
The Bissaya Barreto Foundation will open to the public, on 20th May, at 18:30, an International surrealism NOW exhibition
The exhibition will take place in Bissaya Barreto Museum House and Sant´Anna Convent in Coimbra, Portugal, European Union.
Also online exhibition connected.


Participant artists:

Otto Rapp, Oleg Korolev, Daniel Hanequand, Ton Haring, Viktor Safonkin, Peter van Oostzanen, Hikaru Hirata, Patricia van Lubeck, Dean Fleming, Christhopher Klein, Sergey Barkosky, Larkin, Carlos Aguado, Sonja Tines, Gerardo Gomez, Lv Shang, Alessandro Bulgarini, Pedro Diaz Cartes, Elizabeth Pantano, Egill Ebsen,Octavian Florescu, Dan Lydersen, Pavel Surma, Krzysztof Wlodarski (Kali), Shahla Rosa, Sampo Kaikkonen, Miguel Ruibal, Jo Rizo, Ludmila, Lourenço Gonçalves, Sergey Tyukanov, Mehriban Efendi, Carlos Godinho, Victor Lages, Meme, Hector Pineda, Gromyko Semper, Slavko Krunic, Adam Scott Miller, Roland Heyder, Vu Huyen Thuong, Santiago Ribeiro, Keith Wigdor.
more:
Fernando Araujo, Carel Verelgh, Maciej Hoffman, Nadide Gürcüoğlu, Rui Cunha, Francisco Urbano, Mirek Antoniewicz, João Duarte, Nazareno Stanislau, Rudolf Boelee, Madrigal Arcia, Ignacio Casanovas, Dijana Iva Sesartic.

link: http://internationalexhibition2010.weebly.com/int-exh-2010-artists.html



During the Exhibition, slides of paintings will be viewed on LCD screens from artists taking part in online exhibition present in this site:
http://internationalexhibition2010.weebly.com/index.html


Also, during the Exhibition, a list of online participant artists will be shown.

"Checking In"

(Checking In)
 

The Thursday faculty meetings at the school (Shining Mountain Waldorf) I used to work, after I have joined the College of Teachers (the core faculty members), lasted about 6 to 7 hours. First, I would attend the High school meeting, and then I would go off to the all school meeting, and finally, I would attend the College of Teacher meeting. This last meeting may become longer if we had to meet with the Board of Trustees. We adopted the "Consensus decision -making" system, so that each one of us was responsible for our decision.

I've loved the High school meetings and the College of Teacher meetings. I cannot go into the details, but what I liked about these meetings is that we did the exercise called, "Checking In," in the beginning of each meeting.  

The faculty members were asked to share the mental/emotional state we were in that day (or that given moment) in the unique way, and we would go around answering.  The facilitator(s) would choose the metaphorical theme for that day and ask, for example, "What would your feeling(your mental state) be if your were to describe (express) it as the type of a flower?"  

I remember once, we've had to describe our feelings by referring to the lyrics from the classical rock music... and we had to sing the appropriate lines!
I like the fact that the creativity was actively incorporated into the otherwise "could be dry/cold" meetings. 

This may sound strange, but I miss those meetings from time to time even though some of the meetings were very intense!

So, how was your day like if you were to describe it as the shape of the cloud? ...mine?  It would be "Cirrocumulus cloud," high up in the atmosphere.

Leonardo da Vinci and his Notebooks

[Leonardo's notebooks]

I have already mentioned in the earlier blog post that one of the reasons why Leonardo wrote in the mirror imaged manner was due to the fact that it was kinetically natural and convenient for a left handed person as he was.

The notebooks may have been used to sketch out his thoughts with the words and the images, so he can re-read them, in case he has forgotten, so it was not in the finalized form.
Leonardo entrusted the notebooks to Melzi to be possibly edited and published as a sort of an encyclopedia.
The content has not always to do with the "secret" discovery nor the important ideas  for the inventions. It was used as the simple and elaborated memos. It contained the personal accounting information and the complaint about his adopted son, Salai, as well.

I feel that he was not worried about the contents being read, understood, or stolen, for not many had the genius/intelligence/imagination to keep up with his ideas. It was rather that the "misunderstanding" and the "misconception" of the content may have made him weary.

It is true that Leonardo's notebooks contained the images of the new weapons, the architectural renderings, and the engineering ideas. Those were not in the final form. In order for many of these larger projects to be carried out and manifested, he needed the backing from the people like the Duke who can supply the man power and provide the financial support, etc. To ask the Duke for such help, Leonardo needed to convince or persuade the Duke, and it had to be in the Duke's advantage; therefore, the presentation was crucial. The reason why Leonardo kept these notebooks-journals-memos to himself is very simple: the content is not in the final, complete, articulated form.
For someone to have the access to his unpolished, 'premature' writings would possibly be lead to the misunderstanding... especially if the one who is reading lacks the imagination and the intelligence.
Any smart writers would not share the plot of the thriller prematurely.
Not many comedians would tell a unpolished joke. It is normal to keep the ideas from the general public until it can be organized and made presentable. Even with such careful presentation, there are no guarantee that people would not misunderstand it.

{I usually do not show my sketches or my notebooks (There are many!) to the people. It is not because I am secretive or being afraid that some might be inclined to steal my ideas, etc. I just don't want my ideas to be prematurely disclosed and misunderstood.}

He may have hid his notes because it was not written well. Some scholars feel that Leonardo was not necessary gifted with the words. And they feel that ... (to be continued...)

Mona Lisa Smile and sfumato

"Mona Lisa Smile and sfumato"

Most of us have seen Leonardo's masterpiece, a painting known as "Monalisa/Mona-Lisa."
I am sure that some of you may even have heard of the term, "sfumato."   Leonardo has used this technique, and as you can see in his paintings, the effect of sfumato is wonderlous, for this technique allows the painter to blend the paints smoothly to create rather soft surfaces/forms rich in subtle gradation.
"Mona Lisa" is one of the best examples of  a painting where the sfumato technique is applied.

According to one definition, the word, sfumato, is derived from "fumare(to smoke)."
( http://arthistory.about.com/cs/glossaries/g/s_sfumato.htm )

However, do we know for sure what this technique is all about?

Although I have used ( what I have understood as ) the sfumato technique to paint my artworks, I still do not know exactly how Leonardo had used it in his paintings.

What type of brushes did he use? : sable?
What shape was the brushes? : flat? round? filbert?
What were the sizes of the brushes?

How hard/soft did he brushed against the painted surface?  (Had he brushed against the surface too hard, then the tiny fragments of the 'shaved' brushes should be mixed into the paints. Has any researchers found such fragments?)
What was the angle of the brush to the surface? :  30 degrees? 60 degrees?
What was the direction/movement of the brush stroke? :   zigzag? crossed? slanted (as in his sketches)? circular?
What was the speed of the brush stroke? rapid? slow?
Did he only use his left hand to apply sfumato?

etc, etc, etc...

I hope we can obtain the answer in the future.

The drawing of a left hand by Leonardo da Vinci (or his follower)

The drawing of a left hand of Thomas

The two hands in the Last Supper by HIkaru

 

 

I've recently come across the image of what appears to be the drawing of a left hand done by Leonardo da Vinci or by his follower. I did not need to ask myself the questions such as : "Who's hand is this?" or "For what purpose did Leonardo (or his follower) draw this hand?"  It was obvious to me that this hand 'belonged' to Thomas in "The Last Supper" by Leonardo. 
Although the restoration work of "The Last Supper" was criticized by some of the art critics and the art historians, I applaud the painstaking 22 year effort of Dr. Pinin Brambilla Barcilon.  One of the mysteries or questions I have had had been cleared. It has to do with the left hand of Thomas. When I was preparing for the mural of quasi-copy of Leonardo's "The Last Supper," I have come across with some literature mentioning of the presence of the left hand of Thomas. Certainly, I have seen the left hand of Thomas painted by the early copyists of the mural, but I was not able to make out the shape of the hand by examining the pre-restoration photos of the original mural. Some restorers in the past seem to have painted the bread in the place of Thomas' left hand. In 1995-1996, when I was painting the copy, I've had to use the copies of the mural done by the followers to figure out where to place the left hand, for the restoration of the original mural was still not complete, and the photos were not yet available. (The image is from my mural. You can see the left hands of James the Greater and Thomas.)
Thanks to the restoration by Dr. Brambilla, I can see the left hand of Thomas with its fingers somewhat bent.

If you go to the following site, you can see the drawing in question. If you pay attention to the thumb, you can see that it appears to be "cut off". It is because the person is holding or holding onto the table. If you remember the gesture of Thomas, while he is pointing upwards with his right hand, the torso is leaning towards Jesus; therefore, he needs to hold onto the table in order not to fall forward. Also, from the evidence that the horizontal table line where the thumb is cut off is slightly raised towards the hand, and the fingers appears to be bent, one can imagine that it is due to the force of the left hand grabbing onto the table and pulling the table cross. The thumb is grabbing the side of the table, so it is hidden from the viewer.

http://www.art.com/products/p13304152-sa-i2453024/leonardo-da-vinci-study-of-a-left-hand.htm?ui=5CE751E79C224472B883B0C14D5355F5

http://www.art.com/asp/View_HighZoomResPop.asp?apn=13304152&imgloc=23-2362-Z00DJG2Y.jpg&imgwidth=776&imgheight=773

Children's Day (Tango no Sekku)

Children's Day (Tango no Sekku)

As the 5th day of the 5th month (May), this day is celebrated in Japan as the Children's Day (Kodomo no hi). It is also known as "Tango no Sekku(端午の節句). The day was set on May 5th when Japan adopted the Gregorian calender.
This celebration is said to be originated in China during the 3rd century AD. In Japan, this celebration may have begun during the 6th century or so.
This day is usually celebrated as the Boys' Day as opposed the Girls' Day on March 3rd; however, it is generally known to celebrate the children in general and also as the day to show the appreciation towards the mothers.

Koi(carp) banners/flags (koi nobori) are raised. In China, it is believed that the carps do become the dragons after they reach the upstream. I feel that it is the perfect symbol of the strength and tenacity of the carps (female) to overcome the odds by going against the stream to reach the goal to lay the eggs.

Kintaro doll and/or the samurai kabuto (helmet), etc., are displayed as the reminder of strength, health, and the honor.
Kintaro is also known as Sakata Kintoki, and he was the famous hero with the unusual strength. He was born during the 10th century (956?) between Yaegiri (八重桐)and Sakata Kurando (坂田蔵人),who was serving the Imperial court in Kyoto. After the death of the father, the mother raised Kintaro in the Ashigara mountain. 
Other legend has Kintaro's mother as the Yamauba/Yamanba(a monstrous female who feasted on the childen's flesh) and his father as the god of the thunder and the lightening. Also, there is another legend where the red dragon mated with Yaegiri and produced Kintaro. This legend is very interesting, for Herzeloyde, the mother of Parzival (of  Wolfram von Eschenbach) had the dream where the red dragon appeared when she had conceived Parzival.

Hakone, where my 'home' is located, is the part f the Ashigara mountains!
There is a mountain named, Kintoki-Yama, located near where I grew up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children's_Day_(Japan)

Was Leonardo religious or not?

Was Leonardo religious or not?

I think he was not religious from the conventional point of view. Nor can I conclude that he was not religious at all.






Some claim that he was not religious based on that fact that he did not use the halo nor place a traditionally accepted sacred object on the Last Supper table, such as a Holy Chalice.


But, to me, Leonardo was more spiritual and perhaps religious than some of the painters of his time. Just because he did not use the halo does not automatically become equal to being non-religious.


He may well have thought and imagined, "What makes a person 'appear' more spiritual? Does putting a halo on the being portrayed makes him/her more spiritual? How can I convey the spirituality of a sacred beings without introducing the rather superficial, blindly traditional elements?


Yes, there are no Chalice on the Last Supper table in his painting. But is it not so that if such sacred being as Christ touches, anything can become sac red as the Holy Chalice? If he touched, the object can become sacred. Leonardo did not like the relic.


Instead, he wanted to show the holiness of the being through the gesture, posture, scenes, and facial expression... how to create the sacred atmosphere...


Can human nature express the divine? After all, these sacred beings in the paintings took the human forms to approach us. ...and God created human forms...!