You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘enikki project’ tag.
Here’s another instalment in the long-distance notebook collaboration I’ve been working on with my friend Yoko for the past few years. I sent my most recent notebook entry off to Japan in late February, and as it has (long since) safely arrived at its destination it is (long overdue) time to document it here!
In her previous entry Yoko had ingeniously flipped the notebook (a simple 21 x 21 cm square, ringbound, kraft paper notebook from Muji) 90° to create an expansive portrait, rather than landscape, orientation image.
notebook [tokyo] – yoko’s previous entry, double-page spread
(artwork © yoko hayashi)
(You can check out more pictures of Yoko’s previous entry here)
I was really taken with this orientation and somewhat abashed not to have considered it before. I was also very enamoured with the magical universe Yoko had created and wanted to ‘dig deeper’, so to speak… What better way to do this than to travel straight down into the earth below Yoko’s enchanted, snow-laden village.
notebook [tokyo] – seedlings
One of the (many) great joys of this collaboration is the unfettered ‘playground’ the notebook provides: when we began the collab we had two simple tenets: “No Pressure. No Rules.” – so anything goes, and working in it is a welcome opportunity to step away from other projects, to explore ideas for possible future projects, to experiment in a new or different medium etc. I hadn’t done any papercutting for a very long time and was hankering after a bit of scalpel action…
papercutting work-in-progress
multi-layered papercuts in fiery-coloured mulberry/kozo paper
[sunrise and a (grubby!) window make a good lightbox in a pinch]
I also used it as an opportunity to pay homage to our beloved (and very deeply missed) Gira, who we lost to cancer – at the very young age of five-and-a-half – in November last year. Figuring out how to draw a curled-up feline skeleton was both tribute (Gira knew a thing or two about the contented curl-up!) and catharsis…
And applying hundreds of copper and bronze gouache dots to the loamy earth was comfortingly cathartic too…
notebook [tokyo] – gouache stippling as moving meditation
Here are Yoko’s pages and mine combined into a single image, so you too can journey down through this world’s cool, crystalline firmament to its fiery, molten core…
notebook [tokyo] – four page, vertical spread
(artwork top © yoko hayashi)
notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo, and notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6 – part I) | (6 – part II) |
(7 – part I) | (7 – part II)
This is Part II of the most recent instalment from the long-distance sketchbook/notebook collaboration I’ve been working on with my friend Yoko. For Part I click here.
If you’ve been following the progress of this collaboration you may remember the mysterious, magical forest scene from Yoko’s previous entry (partly pictured below, or you can click here to see it in more detail).
notebook (amsterdam) – detail (artwork by yoko hayashi)
I was so enchanted by this mystical forest I wanted to create a protector for it, a guardian spirit if you will. She appeared in the guise of a tenacious, green-eyed owl.
late night prototyping
ear tuft/eyebrow, work-in-progress
notebook (amsterdam) – completed double page spread
She looks rather flinty, but she’s really quite friendly. That’s just the outward manifestation of her resolute determination to protect all those that call the forest home from all those that would cut down, kill, consume & catalogue.
Of course no guardian spirit would be complete without glow-in-the-dark eyes! (My penchant for GID paint, and in fact anything that glows in the dark, does not seem to be abating.)
ear tufts folded for transit to tokyo
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6 – part I) | (6 – part II) | (7 – part I)
At last, I’m back with new instalments from the long-distance sketchbook/notebook collaboration I’ve been working on with my friend Yoko Hayashi.
It’s always a thrilling day here when a MUJI notebook sized package, postmarked Tokyo, lands in my letterbox!
In my previous entry (which you can see here) I’d left Yoko with a rather awkward, untidy-back-of-embroidery page to work with…
I was intrigued to see what she’d done with this page. I knew it would be beautiful and inventive, but I wasn’t prepared for just how beautiful – there was actual gasping when I turned the page to reveal Yoko’s most recent entry…
notebook [tokyo] – detail (artwork by yoko hayashi)
This fine lace-like filigree evokes a constellation of delicate celestial bodies or magical snow crystals.
Although they are painted they have an enticing three-dimensional quality – like real openwork – that makes one want to reach out and touch them.
notebook [tokyo] – double page spread (artwork by yoko hayashi)
The village beneath this constellation (itself, it would seem, born of fallen stars/snow crystals) exudes a peaceful otherworldly calm, and that deep stillness that almost always accompanies abundant snowfall.
notebook [tokyo] – detail (artwork by yoko hayashi)
Soft, substantial snow came to Haarlem a few days after the notebook arrived. Coincidence or enchantment? I favour the latter…
notebook [tokyo] – all artwork by yoko hayashi
notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo, and notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) | (2) | (3) | (4) | (5) | (6 – part I) | (6 – part II)All artwork in this post is copyright yoko hayashi
While Yoko was producing the beautiful pages in the ‘[amsterdam]’ notebook of our long-distance MUJI notebook collab (featured in this post a couple of weeks ago) I was enjoying working in the other / ‘[tokyo]’ notebook. Yoko had previously provided this trigger for my next entry…
… and I leapt at the opportunity to raid my stash of postage stamps amassed over the decades – soaked off correspondence received from distant friends and family, flea-market finds etc. While sifting through this trove I restricted my selection to stamps with animal or vegetable themes and collaged them onto the notebook’s left page.
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
Then I chose eight of my favourites (chosen for their excellent animal subjects and not, in the case of some, for the pernicious colonial legacies they represent) to use as the basis for a series of black and white ink drawing exercises exploring pattern, texture, positive/negative space… and fun!
bull-headed shrike (japan, 1998)
7th century celtic dog (ireland, 1971)
sloane’s viper fish (congo, 1961)
chameleon (ghana, 1967)
gologolo / sun squirrel (malawi, 1984)
To give my failing eyesight a fighting chance I made the drawings at a larger scale than they would finally (re)appear in the notebook… then scanned, scaled down, printed and ‘stitched’ them back into the notebook using bright embroidery thread.
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
notebook [tokyo] – work in progress
notebook [tokyo] – double page spread | back side of stitching
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo.
The preceding Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6 – part I)
Hello! Way back, through the mists of time, at the beginning of March 2016 I received an exciting package from my friend Yoko.
i’ve got mail – yay!
It was the next instalment in our MUJI notebook exchange. Opening a newly received notebook is always like opening a mystery door, or dimension hopping. Turning the pages of this notebook with excitement, I discovered a snowy white owl passing over the psychedelic mushroom territories of the mourillos…
… and into the cool, mossy half-light of an enchanted forest.
notebook [amsterdam] – double page spread
As always Yoko has woven a tale, cast a spell. The forest is an enigma, full of signs… and portals to other worlds.
I’ve been getting lost in the woods… and I love it!
notebook [amsterdam] – artwork by yoko hayashi
notebook [amsterdam] denotes the notebook that started its life in Amsterdam, and notebook [tokyo] denotes the notebook that started its life in Tokyo.
The preceding five Amsterdam/Tokyo project posts can be found here:
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)all artwork (c) yoko hayashi
