Highlights of this trip aside from meeting excellent students and artists working with glass was to see Seoul. Changdeokgung Palace built in 1405 was beautiful. The Lock Museum has a fascinating collection. Musee Shuim has a collection of funerary art and to my surprise a recent temporary site specific James Turrell work titled “Skyspace” (www.shuim.org). I had a great time!

Sunny and her colleague Ms. Cho (HKBU’s painting instructor) were excellent hosts and it was a pleasure to be able to spend time with such talented artists. Sunny is from Taiwan where she worked for Tittot Museum’s glass studio, she then went on for a MFA Degree from Australia’s National University in Canberra where she studied with Stephen Procter. Sunny is currently working on a beautiful series of installations in glass and paper inspired by her research in Zen Buddhism and calligraphy. Sunny’s friend and colleague Y. J.Cho is a fantastic painter who after living in New York city for many years has only recently moved to Hong Kong to teach and make her work. I was fortunate to have met several other Hong Kong artists as well. The Chair Professor and Director of the Academy of Visual Arts, Wan Qingli is a distinguished and talented painter as well as adiministrator and was a pleasure to meet. Professor Wan gave me the book OASIS that I listed below, an excellent book on contemporary art in Hong Kong. He also told me a great story from when he spent a week with the contemporary composer and artist John Cage. It was also very interesting to meet a young talented artist Ruby Woo who’s work in glass I had recently noticed in Corning Museum’s New Glass Review. Check out her website < www.rubywooglass.com>

In Hong Kong one can really feel the emergence of contemporary glass from China. See the new book Glass.China ISBN 978-3-937220-02-4 by Dr. Eva-Maria Fahrner-Tutsek with articles by Susanne K. Frantz, Katharina Sykora, and Xue Lu. www.atutsek-stiftung.de Another excellent book is OASIS Artist’s Studios in Hong Kong Vol. 2 edited by Victor Lai Ming-hoi, ISBN 978-988-17041-6-0 www.asiaonebooks.com

During this trip I could finish a couple works in the short period of time thanks to Sunny and the glass studio’s technical genius Johnson. Below find documentation of the trip. You’ll find in order images of my demonstration, the city, Ms. Cho’s studio and paintings, Sunny Wang’s installations in glass and paper as well as a couple of her glass cast sculptures and a blown glass calligraphic work. I end with an image of Professor Wan.

The Demonstration

Masahiro Sasaki my first assistant and among my first students in Japan is now Head of the AUE Glass Program. He brings great experience in the glass arts to the position and will provide exceptional leadership to the AUE Program. I lectured at AUE before visiting and lecturing at Nagoya Arts University where Michael Scheiner heads the Glass Program. Michael has hosted an important event at NAU with Lino Tagliapietra and has built an impressive glass program worthy of international recognition. Past students of mine Koichi Matsufuj, and Hiroki Niimi both excellent artists are also teaching with Michael at NAU.

The highlights of my Nagoya trip was meeting Masahiro Sasaki’s family, his wife Shiho, and his daughters Shi and Yuu! I could also see Koichi Matsufugi’s exhibition at Aichi Prefectural Art’s Museum which was a phenomenal achievement. Meeting my past students and colleagues was as good as it gets. Otherwise, I enjoyed visiting the Osu Kannon Antique Market an old haunt. I did manage to find a fantastic old cast iron tea kettle!

It’s hard to believe that just yesterday morning I was taking a 4 hour long meandering walk in the mountains of Arashiyama, north of Kyoto. There was Tenru-ji a beautiful zen temple and garden, a stunning bamboo forest, the Okochi-Sanso Villa that overlooks the river and Kyoto, Jojakko-ji, Rakushisha a thatched roofed hut the haiku poet Basho stayed for a while. Then further along is Takiguchi-dera and Gio-ji with it’s fine moss garden, Adashino Nembutsu-ji with it’s thousands of stone statues and finally the way to Atago Torii lined with thatched roofed houses all evocative of another era and designating the end of the walk. All in all a beautiful Fall day with the leaves well on their way to turning every color of the rainbow.

Later on and a world apart…… it’s back to Osaka by Shinkansen!

I arrived in Japan four weeks ago and have moved into my small apartment near the Osaka University of Art not far from Kishi, a small town about 45 minutes by train from Shin Osaka where the Shinkansen bullet train can be taken to other large cities. Kyoto is just a 15- minute train ride from Shin Osaka. I was traveling here with my friend Rich Tannen and we decided to head straight away to Kyoto. We went to many temples, Sanjusangendo, Kiyomizudera, Ginkaku-ji, Nanzen-ji, Kodai-ji, Kinkaku-ji, and Ryoan-ji. We also walked around Nishiki Market and Pontocho along the Kamo river. What really stuck out for me this trip was the gardens at Ginkaku-ji and Ryoan-ji. I’m also not far from Nara the ancient capital of Japan where I visited Todai-ji (the largest wooden structure in the world with it’s giant bronze Buddha), Kasuga jinja with it’s many lanterns, and Horyu-ji (the oldest wooden structure in the world) among other temples and shrines.

This past week I’ve been settling in to my apartment and setting out to discover the area where I live outside Kishi called Kannon-cho. This area is mountainous countryside with a river running through it. There are many old farmhouses and light industry. Heading up the hill about a 45 minute walk is the entryway to Chikatsuasuka Museum and it’s trails into the mountains that are the site of many Kofun or ancient stone burial sites. The museum architecture is designed by Tadao Ando. Check out the following two websites, http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/chikatsuasuka/index.htm

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/3419153

Currently I’m working on a piece for the Tacoma Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington where I was fortunate enough to have an artist in residency last summer. This work is part of a new series of blown glass dome like containers that hold water and create an atmosphere of condensation that surrounds cast glass interior objects, in this case a bird. The exterior of the dome is engraved with images of birds in flight and text that relates to my reading of a dictionary of imaginary places. The idea of utopia is an inspiration. I’m attempting to create a poetic narrative that is not linear, that triggers multiple associations in the mind of the viewer. Found objects, the visual experience of my surroundings, traveling, and reading are often sources for my work.