When my sister read my previous post, she wrote some encouragement to me. Not a classic “you can do it” message, instead it reframed my perception of my role at Kozuka Art Festival.
You are the spider of the festival. You have put yourself in a shady spot where there are trees and tenderness to catch, and it is quiet and you must be present always for when something it arrives. What comes to you — people — breezes — epiphanies — must be welcomed. You don’t always feel welcoming because of your solitary nature.
Yes! The new weaving in the tent was my web. Waiting is my nature. And in the embankment of my booth, I met a tunnel spider whose nest glistened with dew every morning. Beautiful. And so I hung out in my tent more happily. Waiting for people, breezes and epiphanies. All arrived, eventually.
Rearranging the booth and restructuring the offerings was a good call. I painted colorful signs that helped explain the booth at a glance, because a few seconds in passing is all that most visitors give to anything with so much art around.
The Aura Portraits
Over the course of the week, mostly in the final three days, I led thirteen mini-workshops and created eleven aura portraits. In between I drew, painted, and made weavings.
Aura portraits are interesting. They are a two-part combination of sensing and painting the sitter’s aura and then drawing an intuitive, stylised portrait on top. I don’t plan an outcome; what goes on the paper is whatever flows through me. Sometimes it is a flash of insight, other times just a slow build of elements. Everyone seems to find something meaningful in them. Some of the results were surprising.
On Saturday morning, I arrived to find a neighbor had set up shop next to my tent. Sachi Saito was braiding raffia and making hats.
She turned out to be the best neighbor I could possibly have. Her enthusiasm encouraged me to step away from my web. We ate meals together, drank coffee, and enjoyed rambling conversations. She taught me a useful five-strand flat braid. Also, she takes great photos. I especially love this one:
But hands-down, the most diligent photographer of the festival was I-chan, who photographed everything daily and posted on her Instagram, Midori no Ie. Her photos capture the joy of the festival and I saw that I missed out on some cool stuff by not leaving my booth. Maybe next year!
To round out the post, I grabbed screenshots of pictures I-chan took of me.
