The Japanese Aesthetics
of
wabi sabi
The perfection in the imperfection of things.
Within the incomplete and impermanence, there is beauty.
Nature, art, life.
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I am drawn to and inspired by the unpretentious simplicity of nature in my art. There seems to be an innate perfection in materials from the earth -- a stone rounded by river water, pine needles scattered across the forest floor after a storm, a wayward seagull feather. Things we may overlook in our busy days, considered mundane, often invisible.
Wabi sabi is linked to seasons and nature. It is elegant and refined in its simplicity, much like Japanese haiku. It honors not the perfect, static or ideal art forms and materials, but instead the organic, earthy objects in their natural evolving process. There is no austere material hierarchy in wabi sabi, rather objects can be weathered and tarnished -- revealing their inherent nature in the passing of time and the life process. Metals corrode and turn rusty from the elements; other surfaces are weathered, peel, warp and stain from the changing seasons. Objects crack and become worn by dents and scratches from daily wear. There is an intrinsic value of wabi sabi materials and art -- in a way honoring every drop of rain, ray of sunlight, gust of wind and every hand that touched it. Materials inherit their own historical memory. Wabi sabi has a sense of ambiguity, incompleteness and impermanence. Within this perspective, there is perhaps a pathway of viewing life itself -- the inspiration to pause and reflect on nature, the natural process; what nature is trying to tell us. There is a preciousness of being aware of simple things, fleeting moments; like wind blowing around us is forever changing, never repeated. This is the way of the Japanese aesthetics of wabi sabi. |
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Juror for the 18th OHCA Wabi Sabi Exhibit
O'Hanlon Center for the Arts
Wabi-Sabi Exhibit: Sept - Nov 2022 - in person gallery show
Teaching wabi sabi workshops at the Center
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Smoke paintings
In 2019 I took an exploratory Smoke & Fire Art class taught by Patrick Hayashi. What a mysterious medium working with smoke and fire. It reaches back to our primal sapien beginnings. Sensei Hayashi is a true master; a thoughtful and patient teacher for something so elusive.
In 2019 I took an exploratory Smoke & Fire Art class taught by Patrick Hayashi. What a mysterious medium working with smoke and fire. It reaches back to our primal sapien beginnings. Sensei Hayashi is a true master; a thoughtful and patient teacher for something so elusive.
From a dear friend, wonderful writer and artist...
Baozhen Luo [Professor of Sociology, Western Washington University] and I [Patrick Hayashi, PhD] had arranged to take a sculpture workshop with Naomi Kubota Lee. Last year, we went to Naomi´s home studio and spent a pleasant day creating sculptures out of twigs, stones, paper and twine. Naomi makes the process look effortless, but Baozhen and I knew better. “Effortless” is a quality that takes tremendous skill and years of experience to achieve. Nevertheless, we spent a wonderful day making, talking, laughing. We had another workshop scheduled for last weekend but I had to bow out because I still have to take it easy and pace myself. Naomi and Baozhen told me that they had a wonderful day together but wished I had been there. Me too.
Naomi gave me this beautiful sculpture at my art reception at the San Pablo Gallery. She said that how I interpret the sculpture would change with each viewing depending on how I was feeling. When she created it, she saw the feathers as creating lightness and a soaring feeling. The olive twigs contain a sense of piece. The paper may contain a hidden message, hidden hope. I especially love the rhythms of the branches and the twines that bind the branches together. The knots that secure everything it their proper place enchant me; each is different and lovingly wrapped and tied. As with all her sculptures, the negative spaces, the voids created by the branches and feathers are as important as the positive forms. They capture and release energy.
At home, I wondered how to best display Naomi’s gift. I decided that I wanted to the next year creating a family alter around it. I anchored it in a granite vase. The first piece I added to the alter is a small stone sculpture of Jizo - who in Japan is considered to be the protector of children.
One huge challenge of working with Naomi’s sculpture is the difficulty of photographing it. It should be seen in the round because each side reveals different surprises and evokes different thoughts and feeling. (I just noticed that the topmost feather, viewed from the side, turns into a thin black chopstick.) The changing shadows it casts are also part of its beauty. I look forward to spending the next several months attempting to create and photograph the alter I will build around Naomi’s sculpture. I think Naomi’s sculpture is like the Zen stone garden at Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto. There are 15 large stones of varying sizes and shaped arranged in five groups and placed on a bed carefully raked white pebbles. The stones are placed in such a way that no single view allows you to see them all at once. To understand Naomi’s sculpture, I must view it from different positions.
Naomi is a wonderfully-gifted, generous sculptor, fiber artist and painter. Here is an entrance into her website. I chose this entrance because she photographed a delicate work of art beautifully. While on her website, please check out her two large paintings that took two blue ribbons at this summer’s Art in the Redwoods show.
Baozhen Luo [Professor of Sociology, Western Washington University] and I [Patrick Hayashi, PhD] had arranged to take a sculpture workshop with Naomi Kubota Lee. Last year, we went to Naomi´s home studio and spent a pleasant day creating sculptures out of twigs, stones, paper and twine. Naomi makes the process look effortless, but Baozhen and I knew better. “Effortless” is a quality that takes tremendous skill and years of experience to achieve. Nevertheless, we spent a wonderful day making, talking, laughing. We had another workshop scheduled for last weekend but I had to bow out because I still have to take it easy and pace myself. Naomi and Baozhen told me that they had a wonderful day together but wished I had been there. Me too.
Naomi gave me this beautiful sculpture at my art reception at the San Pablo Gallery. She said that how I interpret the sculpture would change with each viewing depending on how I was feeling. When she created it, she saw the feathers as creating lightness and a soaring feeling. The olive twigs contain a sense of piece. The paper may contain a hidden message, hidden hope. I especially love the rhythms of the branches and the twines that bind the branches together. The knots that secure everything it their proper place enchant me; each is different and lovingly wrapped and tied. As with all her sculptures, the negative spaces, the voids created by the branches and feathers are as important as the positive forms. They capture and release energy.
At home, I wondered how to best display Naomi’s gift. I decided that I wanted to the next year creating a family alter around it. I anchored it in a granite vase. The first piece I added to the alter is a small stone sculpture of Jizo - who in Japan is considered to be the protector of children.
One huge challenge of working with Naomi’s sculpture is the difficulty of photographing it. It should be seen in the round because each side reveals different surprises and evokes different thoughts and feeling. (I just noticed that the topmost feather, viewed from the side, turns into a thin black chopstick.) The changing shadows it casts are also part of its beauty. I look forward to spending the next several months attempting to create and photograph the alter I will build around Naomi’s sculpture. I think Naomi’s sculpture is like the Zen stone garden at Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto. There are 15 large stones of varying sizes and shaped arranged in five groups and placed on a bed carefully raked white pebbles. The stones are placed in such a way that no single view allows you to see them all at once. To understand Naomi’s sculpture, I must view it from different positions.
Naomi is a wonderfully-gifted, generous sculptor, fiber artist and painter. Here is an entrance into her website. I chose this entrance because she photographed a delicate work of art beautifully. While on her website, please check out her two large paintings that took two blue ribbons at this summer’s Art in the Redwoods show.
Please visit Pat Hayashi's art website: www.patrickhayashi.com
Professor Baozhen Luo's TED Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ87J_ogodE
Professor Baozhen Luo's TED Talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ87J_ogodE
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meditation spaces Japan - photos by N.K.Lee
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