Mandala (2023 / ongoing, public practice, installation, origami)
This year’s project is a large outdoor origami installation featuring a special biodegradable, water-soluble paper. Students worked together to fold and arrange 1,000 origami “seed packets” in a large 25-foot- wide mandala of concentric circles – an arrangement with many axes of radial symmetry. The packets contain soil, rocks for weight, and California poppy seeds. The project is designed to break down and evolve over time – after it rains and the paper dissolves, the wildflowers will begin to appear.
In the center of the mandala is a bouquet of bright ceramic poppies that hint at the flowers that are to come. The project is installed at high school on the hillside outside of the R-buildings where it won’t interfere with traffic flow, yet will be visible to anyone walking by between classes. During the project, we discussed how to grow California poppies (lots of sun, little water, sandy soil, temps in the 50-70s) and had some hands-on geometry experience mapping out the concentric circles of the mandala.
Weekly presentations also included bonus folding demos of models that students took interested in, information about the history of origami, mandalas, various origami artists, and my own background and experience with origami including my connection to the art through my original teacher: my maternal Japanese grandmother.
////
seascapes (2017 / ongoing, photo & poetry)
.jpg?table=block&id=3435141f-1088-43d6-a723-781774396ad5&cache=v2)
Take me back to the ocean
Where the water glints mercurial
Like your neatly-pressed-back hair
Take me back to the ocean
Where the sky is the soft pastel
Of your favorite manju
Take me back to the ocean
Far away from the desert camps where you once lived
For being born Japanese American
Take me back to the ocean
Where we scattered gardenia petals with your ashes
And as the ashes dispersed across the globe
The petals floated on the waves
Soft and white and fragrant
Like your fleece jacket
Pulled freshly from the dryer
Take me back to the ocean
Where I wrap myself in that jacket and look at the waves
And you greet me as the sun meets the sea
A cool breeze with the faintest whisper of gardenia
And I ask you once again, Grandma
How did you forgive?
Take me back to the ocean
Take me home to you
This is an ongoing series inspired the motion and serenity of the ocean.
When in a period when I was dealing with a lot of panic attacks, I always felt like, standing at the edge of the water, I was in the one place where I could breathe.
Then in 2015 my parents, sister and I scattered my grandmother’s ashes in ocean with gardenia petals. Ever since then, visiting the ocean means visiting my grandmother. This series is morphing in to a portraiture of and ongoing conversation with her.
I have plans for a series of large-scale, limited edition prints and musical compositions in this series.
/////
Unique Monotony (Covid in the Springtime)(2020, photo essay)
Low Gap – an origami landscape (2022, public practice, installation, origami)
5 months
76 students
2 mountains
10 clouds
4,000 pieces of paper
This math/art project was designed by myself and folded in collaboration with 76 high school students. Inspired by the landscape around the school (including nearby Low Gap park where these photos were taken), we worked together to create a beautiful world. And with so much unrest and pain in the world, it felt good to take a moment to collectively pause, breathe, and celebrate the natural beauty around us.
From a math standpoint, origami is all about geometry, fractions, symmetry, and algorithms. It’s a very hands-on way to visualize shapes and concepts that might otherwise feel out-of-reach. From an art standpoint, there’s so much to explore with form and meaning, type of paper, folding techniques, and more.
This project would not have been possible without the support of Cameron, Maestra Ramirez, and Maestra Torres. Their amazing relationships with the students helped me feel welcomed and more confident. And of course, many thanks to the amazing students for their curiosity, kindness, jokes, and hard work despite being so busy with school and other projects. Project assembly was a multi-week process that would not have happened without the help of my parents and Maestra Ramirez. After a LOT of self-doubt and revisions along the way, I am so happy to see this project finally realized and I hope you enjoy what we created together.
////
Additional Projects
Nature Nips (in progress)
Diary + Photographs (2023, installation)
The framed text reads:
Look, touch, read.
I am offering up my latest completed diary. Accompanying is a stack of recent photographs from my point-and-shoot cameras.
A piecemeal, unpolished/uncut/unedited, word-vomit story of internal and external daily life intended only for myself.
Here you go.
Annotate.
Fellow weirdos like me who would read someone else’s diary are welcome to write responses on sticky notes to anything they find interesting in here.
////
Vessels (Toilet Triptych) (2023, photo)
2022 travel triptych
food poisoning / Coacoyul, GRO, Mexico
cross-faded piss / Berkeley, CA
on my period / Zihuatanejo, GRO, Mexico
This work makes me actively happy. There will be more toilet content, I think.
////
origami mosaic (2022, origami, public practice)
////
Pitney (2021, photo essay)
Without You (2021, photo, poetry)
////
Glitches (2021, photo, poetry)
g l i t c h e s
“it’s good to see you”
your face
a 2x2 pixelated square
am i dreaming?
“you’re muted”
i’ve never craved the analog like this before
“how are you? i miss you”
“i’m good”
the half-lie i always tell
i am good
in this moment of
mediated connection
color in the gray
monotony of my days
“a-and i mi-iss y-ou t-”
audio splinters into harsh, digital twangs
voice disconnects
from pixelated movements of mouth
connection breaks as
screen glitches into
galaxy of scrambled pixels
unexpected beauty
as the virtual world breaks down
i am alone again
sitting in gray silence
unwashed pjs
calling back
////
Nature Art (2020, public practice)
////
Sky Quilt (2020, public practice, photo)
Places (2020, zine)
Temple (origami, photo, poetry)
Hana: an apology (2020, performance)
////
Apple (COVID-19 Halftone Series) (2020, photo)
////
In Process (2018, coding)
Ode to my Grandmother (2018, coding, poetry)
Cello Journal: A Collection of Cello Things (2018, photo book)
////