little linoleum postcard prints

made in my casita in Taos. Kitchen table press, indeed.

mushroomed, mossy typewriter

Say, a Remington built of balsa wood, its parts glued together like a boyhood model; delicate, graceful, submissive, as ready to soar as an ace. Better, a carved typewriter, hewn from single block of sacred cypress; decorated with mineral pigments, berry juice, and mud; its keys living mushrooms, its ribbon the long iridescent tongue of a lizard. An animal typewriter, silent until touched, then filling the page with growls and squeals and squawks, yowls and bleats and snorts, brayings and chatterings and dry rattlings from the underbrush.” — Tom Robbins

eye-popping goodness in Taos

Big Happy Guitar

Konnichi-huahua
Santa Fe RR
Snakes on a wall
The neighbors in the alfalfa fields
Hot rod
Mr. Fuzzy PantsSkeins

wood & voodoo

My great new friend, Joel, has invited me to use the C&P platen, his drawers of type and all the furniture, letting and slugs I need. Luckily, I'm more focused on carving these days and haven't actually jumped onto the big press just yet, but its so beautiful, and such great fun out at his shop that I wanted to share. These are my Taos friends.


Henrietta the chicken and Cole.


Lucky Seven the spotted pony and Georgie his girlfriend.



Lilith and Whiskey in the shop.

The letterpress shop is a magical place- even Lily agrees that she just loves it there. I'm gonna teach her how to set her name and print some posters up for her. Plus, they have grapes! And sunflowers! And broad skies facing the craggy, majestic Sangre de Cristo mountains, with soggy creeks to wade in and watch the Russian olives and cattails turn to fall.

Vintage videorecorders. That's all I heard.

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Since I've been so terrible at posting, I might as well throw in this series of drawing to finished printed poster, which was commissioned for the T-10 Video Festival in Oakland, before I left for New Mexico in late July. Two colors (plum and good-n-plenty pink) on salvaged cream colored papers from the Center for Creative ReUse. Many thanks to Sam for setting all of the wood and metal type and for help on the Vandercooks. Who knew he'd be a total natural at this?

the typewriter series

I started carving images of typewriters, a sort of autobiographical take on things if you look at it in the proper light, here at my summer residency in Taos, New Mexico. As I am working diligently on a first (shitty) draft of the Shigeyoshi Murao biography here, it seemed apt that the writing would somehow leach into the illustration work.



But then, my dear friend and writer, Susan Ito, wrote to tell me that she was interested in putting together chapbooks (one for fiction, one for essays) and that got me all hot and bothered too. Continuing on the theme of manual typewriters, I've come up with two more. The image of the paper cranes has a rather dull title right now "Fiction" (please help inspire me to the land of more appropriate names).



If all goes well, we can work on putting these chapbooks together for release by this winter, don'tcha think?

Arthur Okamura passes in Bolinas

Another remarkable Nisei has passed on. I conducted two interviews with Arthur last summer as part of my research on Shigeyoshi Murao. While Arthur did not know Shig beyond a nodding acquaintance, he was just bursting with a vitality and playfulness about the world, the risks we take in living, and in seeing beauty. One of my favorite memories of Arthur was encountering him a wild party in honor of the wandering poet, Nanao Sakaki (who also passed recently). Butoh dancers clanged pots, people chanted and waved basil, and Arthur showed us how to make ten people walk through a crisp dollar bill. I will always recall the gorgeous backdrop banner he painted for the annual "Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival" and his appearance in the film, "Farewell to Manzanar" as 'artist'.

A full oral history of Arthur Okamura resides with the City of Bolinas public library (I believe), and he was recently included in the retrospective exhibition on Asian/American/Modern Art at the DeYoung Museum. It grieves me to see him gone- his talent and his generosity were immense, making an indelible mark on both the art world and the book community.

postage stamp portrait of Arthur Okamura by Stu Art, photo by Bill Braasch

Arthur Okamura, Bolinas artist and teacher, dies at 77

Paul Liberatore

Posted: 07/11/2009 12:33:59 PM PDT

 

Arthur Okamura, a renowned painter and art teacher who enlivened the social and cultural life of Bolinas for 50 years, died unexpectedly on Friday of an apparent heart attack while walking his dog near his home. He was 77.

Mr. Okamura, a prolific painter who also worked in screen printing and drawing, rose to prominence with the San Francisco Renaissance movement in the 1950s.

An abstract expressionist, his work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Mr. Okamura taught at the California College of the Arts in Oakland for 31 years, retiring in 1997 as professor emeritus.

"He was a master teacher," said Ron Garrigues of Bolinas, a fellow artist and friend. "He knew more about painting than anyone I've ever met."

Three days before he died, Mr. Okamura taught his weekly art class at the New School at Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas.

Involved in Commonweal since its inception in 1976, he served on its board of directors for more than a decade, and had several exhibits of his work in the Commonweal gallery.

"Arthur was an absolute central figure in the Bolinas community for 50 years," said Michael Lerner, Commonweal's co-founder and president. "He was universally respected and admired. He was an extraordinary artist and a beloved man."

Born in Long Beach, Ca., in 1932, Mr. Okamura was 10 years old when he was interned with his Japanese American family during World War II in relocation camps in Southern California and Colorado.

After the war, the Okamura family settled in Chicago. After graduating from the Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. Okamura studied painting on a fellowship in Mallorca, where he became friends with writer Robert Creeley, one of the originators of the "Black Mountain School" of poetry in the '50s.

The Wheel of Analytic Meditation (Sems kyi dpyod pa rnams par sbyong ba so sor brtag pa' i dpyad sgom 'khor lo) and Instructions on Vision in the Middle Way(dBu ma'i lta khrid zab mo) by Lama Mipham. Published by Dharma Pubishing, 1973. Cover and frontispiece illustration by Arthur Okamura In his career, Mr. Okamura illustrated books of poetry by Creeley, Robert Bly and other writers. Known for his playful nature, he wrote and illustrated "The Paper Propeller, the Spinning Quarter, the Jumping Frog and 38 Other Amazing Tricks You Can Do with Stuff Lying Around the House."

In 1971, he created the pastel drawings for "The People," a television movie directed by West Marin's John Korty.

"Arthur was so multifaceted," Lerner said. "If he came to a party, he would spend his time making things and doing tricks of all kinds. He would create rings out of dollar bills or balance forks on toothpicks. He was constantly inventing and creating. It was at the heart of his being."

Mr. Okamura was represented by the Braunstein/Quay Gallery in San Francisco and had numerous solo and group exhibits since his first show in Chicago in 1953. Known for his tireless creativity, he had completed a series of 30 new paintings in the past six months, friends said.

"He was very well respected and totally dedicated to his art," said Ruth Braunstein, Mr. Okamura's dealer. "After he retired from teaching, he kept on working and was always looking for new ideas. He worked right up to the last moment."

Mr. Okamura is survived by his wife, Kitty Okamura, sons Jonathan Okamura of Petaluma and Ethan Okamura of Bolinas; daughters Beth Okamura of London, England, Jane Okamura of San Rafael and Stephanie Coupe of Oakland. He also leaves his former wife, Elizabeth Tuomi of Bolinas, and eight grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to Commonweal, 451 Mesa Rd., Bolinas, 94924. A celebration of Mr. Okamura's life is being planned for later in the summer.

tis wedding season

Thusly, the presses are humming again. 

Two-color print job for Mara and Doug (the delightful design was done by Sarah Pulver), printed first week of June at the San Francisco Center for the Book, on the beloved SP219 Vandercook press. Long job mixing inks and hand trimming the invites for the three bleeds, both worth it. They are really lovely.

Elopement announcements for the adorable Dave and Yasmine, printed way back in March at the Mills College print shop, again on the SP219 Vandercook. I favor these presses for their adjustable beds, even when I'm not printing linoleum.

Yasmine and Dave's announcements involved handset metal type. 

The return address on gold envelopes. Classy.

apple of my eye

Our view from the poet and cat's house.

Mr. Meow, himself, lending a claw.

Round the corner from the apartment, the street was blocked off, lit and ultra chink-i-fied for a Chinatown scene shoot. The inch thick glittering confetti did, in fact, take my breath away.

Ghost bikes near the Brooklyn Bridge entrance. I'm seeing these all over these days.

Sam and Brian Castro and I feasted on pastrami sandwiches and chocolate egg cremes here.

gerry shizuko kebo wakida birthday book

Mom is 70 years old this year (April 18th), and in celebration, I had my brother steal her baby book. Sam and I then scanned images and printed them out at Kinko's, and affixed them to rounded boards painted with black sumi ink, with a sand-colored cardstock accordion spine (this is technically called a Flag Book). Her very first birthday portrait got placement on the cover:

Here's the book scrunched up, featuring a pretty dorky family portrait on the back. No Douglas! This was the pre-Buglas era.
Mom in a gingham bikini with a chunk of lard named PW, followed by her own grub impression when she herself was a few months old.

The birthday culminated in a surprise brunch (I can't believe we actually pulled it off, but she was in fact, very surprised) at sister Debbi's house, with 12 or so of her closest friends. The brunch was catered by Doug with all the stops pulled out.

snapshots from whirlwind book tour

A few blurry moments on Los Angeles leg of the book tour. First event, at BookSoup on Sunset Boulevard, featuring three Aussie authors. 

Steven Raftner, Brian Castro, David Francis. Steven walked from Beverly Hills to the store, much to everyone's shock. His fictional history is about the one Australian passenger on the Titanic. He's a trooper. Courtney Love also crashed the reading, parading back and forth with an armful of titles while sporting a lacy pink dress.

To reach the reading for Brian, Andrew Allport, and Colin Dickey at Betalevel, we had to walk two very dark alleys, then head downstairs into the basement of an actual factual Chinese restaurant. Betalevel was a literary speakeasy and my favorite venue so far, cuz we got to drink very good dirty martinis while talking about literature with USC grad students.

Our final event in Southern California was really quite gorgeous. South Pasadena Public Library is lucky enough to have the magnanimous Steve Fjeldsted on staff as a librarian and event programmer. He brought Brian in and arranged for an opening musical performance on a traditional Chinese zither, had the event sponsored by the Pasadena Chinese American Club, and also arranged for Brian to stay at the nearby Bissell Bed and Breakfast. It was a golden night, enhanced by many familiar Kaya friends (hi Sesshu! hi Naomi! hi Cheryl! hi Sam's mom and aunt!) and this amazing guy on meds in the back who air guitared HEAVILY to the traditional folk music and yelling inappropriate things like "HOT!" after each song.

The inimitable, adorable Jane Marla Robbins in Santa Monica. We brunched on the beach with her dog, Camilla and talked about chapbooks and publishing, boyfriends and music. This is NOT Camilla the dog. This is a statue of a dog.

Before I could leave, I had to stop and say hi hi to performance artist/writer/actress/bicyclist Kristina Sheryl Wong, who graciously allowed me to stay at her apartment, catsitting Oliver while she was out conquering the world during Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Kristina likes West LA Japanese snacks, and so do I. We talked about boyfriends, publishing, Silverlake, Minnesota, and how things change even in three weeks, which is about how long I was on the road, doing book work.