Artist In Residence Kameoka (かめおか) Japan

“Kameoka City is surrounded by mountains and has a rich natural environment with rural scenery despite good access from Kyoto and Osaka. Beautiful green in the spring, autumn leaves in the fall, and the winter is surrounded by fog in Tamba. The Kameoka Fog Art Festival is fascinated by Kameoka as “Tokanaka” where you can meet such beautiful scenery of the four seasons, and together with many active artists, fosters the appeal of people and the local community.” Kameoka Kiri Art Cultivation

no-mu ’Micro Happening’ 2020

I was invited by artist Eikoh Tanaka to be part of the Artists in Residence Project “Micro Happening” at Artists’ Retreat no-mu, Kameoka, Japan.  

I spent 6 weeks from January 17th to February 27th experiencing the rich landscape of Kameoka. Falling in love with the mountains and fog, the rivers and pine trees, the rice and vegetable fields, the sound of the Sagano train line, the pickled daikon and turnips, soba noodles, tempura and onigiri, temples and shrines, shoji sliding doors, Japanese green tea, slippers and tatami, the peace and quiet and the wonderful community of Kameoka.

My senses continued to be awakened as I immersed myself in this new and fascinating culture documenting my explorations through field recordings, photography, film and print. Overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Kameoka I gained a rich insight to this remarkable place, making connections with so many welcoming, open hearted people which inspired this new piece of work ‘22 Views of Kameoka’. A reflection and celebration of place and people of Kameoka. 

22 Views of Kameoka

Materials: Mini-prints made from rubber stamps printed on recycled card from consumables during my stay in Kameoka, washi from Arashiyama, and kraft card from Kyoto city.  Exhibited at Yugùe, Kyoto. 

22 Views of Kameoka - cafe Yùgue

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Thank you

Eikoh Tanaka, Kana Okanoya, Kouta Kameoka, Anna Namikawa, Elena Aframova, Julie Chovin, Alexandre Gailla, Akemi Shijyuku, Tomoko Tsukamoto, Yukari Yoshikawa, Yui Shimizu, Kotoe Shindo, Moegi Deguchi, Aki Makita, Sachiko Mochizuki, Cårrïe Ng, the chefs Hirotake Nagano and Yusaku Nishikawa, Hikaru Toyoda, Sachiko Toyoda, Julius Loewe, Kaori Yamane, Samuel Zeid, Felix Krienke, Alex Kerr, Hiroya Kawakami, Equili Brista musicians: Mitsugi Deguchi, Yasawa san, Yano san, Ohba Mitsuru, Azusa Okamoto, Keiichi Yoshikawa and Watanabe san.

Omoya house, Social Cuisine Sunday Gatherings at Omoya, Kiri (Fog) Festival, Kameoka Galleria events, festivals and Japanese lessons, Cafe Mimi, Coffee stand blackie, H District, Kamejin film, Saigen Temple, Kinku Temple, Kameoka Temples and Shrines, Hozugawa River, Kameoka Mountains, Sea of Clouds Terrace, Mayawaki bookshop, Rice and Vegetable fields, Oi River, Sagano train line, Namikawa station, White Base Laundromat, Omoya bicycles, Keizankaku Onsen...

Special thanks to Eiichi Shimasaki for putting me in touch with no-mu residency and also for organising the exhibition and gig at cafe Yùgue. Thank you to Dai Chan, at Cafe Yùgue, Kyoto for creating such a heart warming space and looking after everyone on the night. And Horoshiko for putting me up for the night and introducing me to the beautiful misty mountains of Ohara!

Cafe Yùgue

Printing Winter

My old adana has been struggling to get a good print for quite a while now so it was time to take it to Caslon for a service. After a good look it was clear that this little press had been working very hard since the 1950’s and it was time for a rest. So many of the parts were worn and it was going to cost as much, if not more, to fix as getting a refurbished press. So thank you so much to Roy Caslon for my new refurbished adana 8 x 5 press. Its first job with eightfivepress was printing 100 sleeves for WINTER EP, music from my other project Red Deer Sleeping. The music is set to poems by Amy Lowell, Alfred Lord Tennyson, A. E Housman and John Clare.

Printed with polymer plates from Lymebay Press on 100% recycled card by Ecocraft.

Printed with polymer plates from Lymebay Press on 100% recycled card by Ecocraft.

WINTER by Red Deer Sleeping is now available to pre-order on Bandcamp. The EP will be released on the 15th January 2020.

Cosy up wth a copy of Winter in snow white or woodburner black!

Cosy up wth a copy of Winter in snow white or woodburner black!

Three Brecon Peaks - Short Film + Launch Date

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Here’s a very short glimpse of ‘Three Brecon Peaks’ in the making.

Neil Confrey will be unveiling Three Brecon Peaks print at St. Canna's Alehouse on Tuesday 26 November 2019.

There will be prints on show, poetry by Paul Deaton, Amy Wack and Katrina Naomi. Red Deer Sleeping will be performing songs from the new EP, Winter.

Pints, prints & poetry: for sale
from 7.30 for an 8.00pm start

St. Canna's Alehouse, 42 Llandaff Road, Canton, Cardiff, CF11 9NJ (across the road from Chapter Arts),

Thanks to:

Nick and Ellen - The Letterpress Collective

Neil Confrey - Confreys Solicitors

Paul Deaton - Seren Books

Three Brecon Peaks

The poem ‘Christmas’ by Paul Deaton sparked excitement in a recent conversation with Mental Health Law Specialist, Neil Confrey. Neil commissioned me to make a piece of work for a Christmas card which Confreys Solicitors send to their clients every year. We discussed the idea of letterpress printed cards using my Adana 8 x 5. Neil wanted to introduce a poem to be printed on the inside of this year’s card.

A Watchful Astronomy

Poet, Paul Deaton, of The Spoke poetry collective in Bristol came to mind while independent literary publisher, Seren Books had also recommended The Spoke poets to Neil. The planets were lining up. Paul was on board and together we decided that the poem ‘Christmas’ from Pauls’ poetry collection ‘A Watchful Astronomy’ would be perfect for the project.

Typesetting the chill hills

I was excited about incorporating Paul’s poem into the main image for the card rather than separating the image from the poem. Neil came up with the idea of an edition of letterpress prints so now I could imagine the poem in all kinds of ways. It was obvious after our conversation that my Adana 8 x 5 wasn’t going to be the right press for the job. I got in touch with Nick Hand from The Letterpress Collective and booked some dates to typeset and print the edition using their Vandercook press.

Concrete Poetry

Paul was happy for me to fracture his poem for the print. I focused on the three Welsh peaks Cribyn, Pen Y Fan and Corn Du - placing words from the poem to reflect the different heights of the hills and his deep connection with the ever expansive planet. Neil likened the result to Concrete poetry.

Inking Up Welsh Mountains

Visualising Welsh mountains in winter drew me to shades of misty hues of blue green grey. I questioned how well each peak would line up after being through the press three times. Ellen suggested rollering the ink by hand onto the type and then running the un-inked rollers of the Vandercook press over the type. I made a test print in one colour which printed well. I then mixed three colours and hand rollered a different colour for each ‘peak’. The results were good and I was ready to print the edition.

Printing The Chill Hills

Thanks to Nick Hand and Ellen Bills from The Letterpress Collective for the time and space to create this print in their amazing studio and for their helpful suggestions along the way.

An edition of 40 letterpress prints of Three Brecon Peaks will be available early December. I will keep you posted of the launch date which we expect will be taking place in Cardiff.

Three Brecon Peaks

A Letterpress Edition of Prints

Three Brecon Peaks is printed on 300gms white Somerset Satin paper using letterpress and linseed oil based ink. Dimensions W 57cm x H 38cm.

Seasons of Nature

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A friend recently gave me this Yixing-style teapot with tea bowls, glass water pot and bamboo tray. What a thing of beauty it is. So tiny you can hold the teapot in the palm of your hand.It reminds me of a print I loved from Bristol Museum’s Master of Japanese Prints ‘Life in The City’ (Okita of the Naniwaya teahouse, by Kitagawa Utamaro I) and a reminder that the third exhibition in the series ‘Masters of Japanese Prints: Nature & Seasons’ is only on for a few more weeks. I pack my notepad and camera and set off for the museum.

Spring

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The gallery welcomes me with Spring in full bloom. The walls are abundant with blossoming cherry trees and a fine sprinkle of yellow mountain roses and wisteria. Under the cherry trees people in boats are gazing up at the blossom as petals float down the river. There’s an exchange of poetry and a game of hide and seek. A courtesan is reading a letter. In the grounds of a temple, people are gathered for the annual Cherry Blossom Viewing. 

Summer

In Summer people are celebrating the festivals. Kites and lanterns. Carp streamers for Children’s Day. The meeting of a heavenly weaver and a herdsman. Peonies, Irises and Morning Glory. Summer rain, boats and fishermen on the choppy deep sea.

Autumn

Autumn brings full moons and red maple leaves. Orange persimmons and chrysanthemums. Wild geese, sweetfish and bush clover.

Winter

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As I arrive at winter, one of the prints (Parody of the Ukifune Chapter: Ferry on the Sumida River by Utagawa Hiroshige) reminds me of a song I am working on for my Winter EP. The original poem Falling Snow is by the imagist poet Amy Lowell who was inspired by Japanese prints.  

Falling Snow

The snow whispers around me 

And my wooden clogs 

Leave holes behind me in the snow. 

But no one will pass this way 

Seeking my footsteps, 

And when the temple bell rings again 

They will be covered

By Amy Lowell

A couple of years ago I produced a limited edition of letter-pressed EP covers for my other creative project Red Deer Sleeping. The music from ‘Autumn’ was set to old poems by imagist, victorian and romantic poets. The Winter songs are finally coming together so I will soon be working on another limited edition of letterpress covers for the Winter EP. In the meantime there are plenty of summer festivities to enjoy and as we move closer to September and the nights begin draw in you can listen to ‘Autumn’ songs inspired from poems of Amy Lowell, Adelaide Crapsey, Christina Rossetti and R.L Stevenson.

 

If any of these self initiated creative explorations have made your heart sing please consider making a contribution. Your support will help me continue creating art and music to nourish the soul. 

 
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