Hello from Japan!
I have been here for two weeks now
Hello friends! It’s been a minute hasn’t it?
A lot has happened (as you may have heard from the last podcast) but I felt it was time to finally sit down and write a letter. Right now I’m in Ito, Shizuoka in Japan - and the house we’re staying at truly has some Ghibli vibes.
Leading up to the end of the semester were two projects that took my complete attention, and I was working right up until the last day before my finals were due. On one hand, my body of work for my thesis show finally had a breakthrough (which I will elaborate on at another time) - which was extremely gratifying and exhilarating, On the other hand, I also was creating a graphic novel cookbook for my Sequential Illustration class. It was a project I had vaguely dreamed up about at the start of my MFA, and it was nice to start the seed of the idea. The conundrum I had though is that both projects were very interesting and challenging to work on but I didn’t have the bandwidth to do them both at once. So, after making some really nice breakthroughs with my paintings, I had to stop everything completely and pivot, and spend the entirety of April and 1st half of May to create my book.
In spite of the extremely stressful deadline, the constantly changing script, and the dumb decision to do a graphic novel in *full color*, I found that I actually really enjoyed the process and as eager to do this again…but probably later haha. In fact, all thoughts about making work related to my thesis or future projects are the furthest thing from my brain right now because I AM IN JAPAN AGAIN AFTER 4 YEARS!!!
Dawood and I had been dying to go back and agreed to go back as soon as we were able to. Unfortunately, the cheapest tickets so happen to land immediately after the semester ended, so I had to hightail not only my duties as a student but also as a professor to make sure everything was done on time. I was completely wiped out the night before we left, packing after grading through all the portfolios and homework - and it felt like a whirlwind of a trip.
I was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to soak it all in and enjoy as much as I had before, but all my fears were allayed when we stepped off the train for the first time. Seeing the sun setting low and casting a golden light into the narrow streets of Tokyo while we quietly walked to our Airbnb, I could feel the joy rushing in. It was good to be back.
Anyhow, it’s been really nice to just fully engage in one activity, which honestly feels like a luxury (and yes, I know it is). I will be taking this time to fully engage my senses and being present. All thoughts towards work, thesis, future career and possible choices leading into 2024 can wait til I get back…but maybe I will still take it slow then too. We’re only meant to take things one day at a time after all.