Posts tagged with ‘Berkshire Community College’

  • Talk at Berkshire Community College

    In News on

    Working with the community college was a special event for me since I myself got
    into art when I was in a community college in a small town, Wheeling, West
    Virginia.  Three years after my father, who worked in the steel industry in Japan,
    took his family to the small town in the US, I met a community college teacher,
    Karl Jacobson.  As a foreign student struggling to get by the school assignments
    by basically looking up all the words, Mr. Jacobson’s skill in speaking through
    his drawings was just beyond magical.  Until then, I had no idea that some
    shapes and lines on a piece of paper could move people like music or books could.
    I was like a grown man with measles:  shaken up and helplessly driven away to
    pursue what I saw.  So having an exhibition and a talk at BCC was my way of
    giving back to where I got it.

     

    Guerrilla style posters reminded me that I was in for the job!

    Guerrilla style posters reminded me that I was in for the job!

    "TODAY!  FORUM: 1PM <- K116"  Yes, of course!

    "TODAY! FORUM: 1PM <- K116" Yes, I'm ready!

    On October 2nd, my wife and I drove up to Berkshires to meet the typical
    community college crowd at one of their art class rooms.  They were just as they
    were at my community college 20 years ago in another state 500 miles away;
    they were from all kinds of backgrounds, young and old.  I knew that some of them
    were there against their own will (sort of), just to get the school credit.  So I
    wanted to make it as painless and hopefully as fun and interesting as possible.
    Two most asked questions in the past talks had been “what are they made of?” and
    “how did you do that?”.  So I simply decided to tell them how I made the pieces:
    hands on, practical sorts of information.  I got 64 images of sculptures in progress
    that included the very first idea sketches and finished pieces with some detail shots;
    and I tried to follow the steps as I encouraged them to ask questions.

    The talk went really smooth.  People asked questions that totally complemented the
    content of the talk.  And nothing beats seeing people coming up to me totally excited
    about the work as I am:  letting me know that I did share something good with them.
    I am pretty sure Mr. Jacobson would have approved of the talk.

    Here is a picture of Karl Jacobson with one of his amazing paintings, “Musicians”.
    I still feel weird to think that he is not with us anymore.  He passed away early this
    year.  It was so sudden and totally unexpected to all.

    Karl Jacobson447

    He painted amazing pictures that changed my life completely.

  • BCC show is up

    In News on

    01 copy

    The exhibition at Berkshire Community College is up.  I selected five pieces for
    the Koussevitzky Art Gallery which is a narrow, sort of a cave like space
    located next to the theater in the arts building.  The plan below shows the
    unusual space (sorry for the small fonts.  The whole space is about 10 x 33 feet
    or so).

    newgallery floor plan

    Before I actually getting to the gallery, I tried laying out the pieces in my head
    aided by the pictures and the plan supplied by the gallery.  When I got there, I
    was quite confident in hanging and I actually put the pieces right up where I
    planed in my head.  After the long day of driving and hanging the show, the
    gallery director, Benigna Chilla, generously treated me with her cooking (sauted
    shrimps and clams in creamy sauce with little accents with lemon and rosemary
    served over rice.  Yes, it was good.).  I got to hear her talk about organizing
    a show of Cuban artists among other intriguing stories.  It was very cool evening.

    Next day I went back to document the show and it was all too clear that the
    installation was not working too well.  I spent extra a few hours making sure that
    the flow among the pieces are well coordinated.  I wanted to have a solid feeling
    of the show defined by the characters of the pieces speaking in harmony.  After
    spending all morning struggling, I finally got it right.  It was one of the toughest
    show to hang, but at the end, it turned out as one of my favorites.

    Here are some of the images in smaller versions.  The complete photo set with larger
    photos will be added at the “PHOTOS” section of the main part of the site later.
    I hope you enjoy.

    #50 and #45

    #50 and #45

    #50

    #50

    #50

    #50

    #45

    #45

    #45 (front), #61, #51, #64 and #50

    #45 (front), #61, #51, #64 and #50

    #45 and #61

    #45 and #61

    #61, #51 and #64

    #61, #51 and #64

    #51 and #64

    #51 and #64

    #51

    #51

    #51(detail)

    #51(detail)

    #64

    #64

    #64 (detail)

    #64 (detail)

    (more…)