January is happiness month

Happy New Year!


At a time when I am wishing all my friends happiness, I thought that I would like to spread a little happiness on the blog as well. So all my January posts are going to be about happiness.

In late December I went to see an exhibition of Takashi Iwasaki paintings at the Elliot Louis Gallery. The paintings were actually embroideries on linens, so they are more than just paintings. Several years ago, I met Takashi at his studio when I was in Winnipeg. I bought a drawing from him.

My Takashi Iwasaki drawing!

At the time he had some embroideries as well, but the new work looks much more complex and elaborate. In fact, the needlework is so good that we spent time staring at the works and wondering how they were done, especially the plaid sections!


In his artist statement for the show, Takashi wrote:
Life is too short to take gravely all the time. I want to delight in what I can when I can. Having this as my essential philosophy, my goal of art making is to create a positive and playful atmosphere, and generate warm feelings of intimacy and substance through my work.


The art is full of vibrant energy and oddly engaging titles. I would defy anyone to see these works and not come away smiling. 


P.S.
I do intend to update the blog more frequently, but then I get busy in the studio and poof…two months have gone by without a new post. So my resolution for 2011 will be write shorter posts more often and to write about different aspects of art and what is inspiring my art. And with my new camera, I’ll take more photos as well so that I can occasionally let a picture take the place of a thousand words.