March 2019 updates

March flew by while everyone in our little family was sick at one point. The cold we all caught was mild in the beginning, but was very persistent and we felt like we were not well for a long, long time.

There were some good things, too, though.

Some of my original works are now released for purchase at a gallery in Tokyo.
Please click the link below and scroll down:
https://knapford.com/

They have been successfully selling collectible and vintage posters, limited edition prints, and now expanding their range with some original artwork — with my art! I think my paintings are the first originals they carry :)

I also released some additions to my Eastern zodiac print series at my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/yorikoNewYork

These are giclée prints, professionally printed by an independent printshop in PA. Aren't the colors gorgeous? 8"x10", archival and ready to be framed!

Please stay tuned for other signs of the zodiac to be released, hopefully soon.

Shop Window at DaVinci Artist Supply in Chelsea: Now – Feb. 24

Happy New Year! ... It's late, but better than never.

For email/SNS new year greetings, I made this watercolor of running boars as it is the year of the boar (the pig in China), out of the twelve Asian zodiac signs.

This led me to design the shop window of DaVinci Artist Supply—a local art supply store I frequent because I love their range and the helpful staff—for their Winter Back to School Sale, which has been quite exciting.

Installation complete!
Yay!

If you are in the Chelsea area between now–February 24, please stop by and take a look!
DaVinci is located at:

132 W 21st Street

New York, New York 10011

Map

Mark and Kevin: two of the many nice people at DaVinci's!
Kevin is an illustrator.

A big thank you to Mark, who is in charge of marketing/promotion/design at the shop, who invited me and helped me throughout this process! He and I became friends last year or so while chatting about Japan and kendo. (I used to practice kendo waaay back when.) He is also a swordsman at Kenzen Institute who obtains the forth dan, and a talented representational painter. You can take a look at his work on his Facebook.

Window lit up in the twilight.
The lit-up snow drifts are Mark's idea. Beautiful.
These cutouts are available for sale.

Group Show at the Consulate General of Japan in New York

I will be showing one of my paintings alongside a group of wonderful local artists at a gallery inside the Consulate General of Japan in New York from Dec. 4-19. If you're in Midtown, please stop by!

"LOVE, FAMILY and FRIENDS"

December 4 – 19, 2018

CONSULATE GENERAL OF JAPAN IN NY | JIC GALLERY

299 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10171

18th Floor

(between 48 St and 49 St)

Hours: M-F  9:30am-  4pm

Closed Saturdays and Sundays

There will be no reception as it's inside the consulate (those uptight Japanese!), but friends, if you let me know you are coming, I'll try meeting you there. 

Group Show in Union Square

I will have a few new paintings in a group show in Union Square next month.

This year, a textile exhibition—of newly innovated sustainable fabric made from Kudzu plant—will be held by a group of students from Tama Art University (Tokyo, Japan; the art school I attended before coming to the US) at the same time.

If you are in the area, please stop by to see the show!
There will be some live music at the opening as well :)

Home Away From Home XIV 

October 22 – November 3, 2018

Opening reception: Thursday, October 25 from 7-9pm

TENRI GALLERY  map

43A West 13th Street, New York

Hours: M-Th 12-6, Sat: 12-3, Closed Fri + Sun

Commission | Family Portrait for Anniversary

This was a commission I turned in last month. The client wanted a family portrait to gift to his brother on his anniversary. So lucky to have this opportunity to paint this lovely family!

I had a limited number of reference photos as it was supposed to be a surprise (my client couldn't ask for too many of them without them feeling suspicious) so that was challenging. I made different sketches and decided to make it simple with just some pop of colors.

The client's brother posted a comment on Instagram(at the bottom of this post) how they loved this surprise. Always so fullfilling when you make your client happy :)

Work info

Size: about 40cm x 40 cm

Medium: colored pencils, gouache, gansai(Japanese watercolor in pans), walnut ink on paper.

Detail #1

Detail #2

Detail #3

Detail #4

Love the metallic frame Kyota chose!!

Watercolor for Sale @ DaVinci Artist Supply

A small watercolor of mine "The Bunny and the Sun" will be on view at my go-to art supply shop DaVinci Artist Supply in its Chelsea location, starting today through May 31st. They are featuring some new works by local artist under the theme "May Flowers". 

Please stop by and take a look at my work if you are in the neighborhood :)

It's also a great little shop for all your artistic needs; the people are kind &  helpful if you have questions!

May 9 - May 31

DaVinci Artist Supply

132 West 21st St (btw 6th & 7th Ave)
New York, NY 10011
tel: 212-871-0220

hours: 

Mon-Fri  8:45am-7pm
Sat-Sun  11am-6pm

Props for The Children's Place photoshoot

I made these cloud and heart pillows + soft cubes for The Children's Place SS18 Baby Bundle photoshoot. After being used as props, they are displayed at windows of one of their shops in Manhattan.

Yoriko on The Big Issue Taiwan

My creative work is covered in a spread "Business Tomorrow" column in the January issue of The Big Issue Taiwan 大誌雜誌, that came out on Junuary 2nd!

The Big Issue started 20+ years ago in UK to support the homeless to their independency. I loved their cause & the plus: the Taiwan version is designed beautifully.

Please spread the news if you have friends in Taipei. The article is written by SF based writer Hui-Min Tsai, who found me through my Etsy shop. Big thank you to Hui-Min and editor Brian Huang for this wonderful article. 多謝。

新緑

天気のよい土曜日、ふと空を見上げたら、こんな景色が目に入った。
若々しい緑があまりにきれいで、家に帰ってすぐ筆をとり水彩で描いてみた。

描きながら、漫画を描きまくってた小学生の頃、シーンの変わり目にこういう画をよく描いたのを思い出した。その頃の少女漫画によく使われてた手法を真似したんだと思う。梢と空。日本の漫画や映画、絵巻物にしても、こういう一見ストーリーと全く関係ないような「間」が、いつも面白いと思っていた。それが全体に奥行きを生むというか。

そのせいかはわからないけど、私の絵にも空白が多いと思う。美術の先生によく「バックをちゃんと塗りなさい」と注意された。小さい時はただ大きな空白を塗るのが面倒くさかっただけだったと思うのだけど、大人になってからは作ったばかりの下地や紙自体の白がとてもきれいに思えて、それを残しておきたいという気持ちがする事も多い。作品は自分が上に描いたものだけでなく、素材を含めてその物全体だといつも思っている。

New Website

I don't know if I've announced it here, so I will: I have re-designed my website. I use Wix and it makes it so much easier to customize stuff around! Thanks Wix!

Screenshot of my home page.
What do you think?

I love the "drag-and-drop" feature – you can be pretty intuitive. I am curious what you use for your website? I've heard Wordpress is pretty good, too...

Since I switched to Wix, I've been pretty good at updating my website with new work, but I update my Instagram account the most with new sketches and finished visuals (with bits of my daily life), so please follow me there.

If you know friends who loves art, illustration, who are art directors or agents, please spread the words by letting them know the link to my site! 

https://www.yorikony.com/

xo

Live Painting @ Airbnb Press Dinner

In the end of February, Airbnb invited me to work as an on-site artist at their press dinner. I painted postcard-size watercolors from the media guests' vacation photos - it was challenging because of the number of pictures to be painted in the given time, but fun All the guests seemed very excited about having an artist paint from their photos live. Everyone was happy to bring home my paintings and it made me feel good. 

 

Above was my work desk of the night :) The event took place at the second floor event space of Haven's Kitchen in Chelsea. The staff was all very kind. I'd like to do a lunch sometimes.

The Bucket List Family—this amazing young family who travels around the globe—was the night's co-host and it was great to meet this adventurous couple and got to paint from one of their beautiful photos. I wish I had more time to talk to the interesting guests, most of them editors/writers; that is my only regret as I was too busy painting!

Thank you Aribnb for the wonderful opportunity!

And thank you Holly from DKC News for providing me with some of the pictures here.
You can see some of them at my portfolio site, too.

Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day!

I've shared this a while ago in Instagram & Facebook, but to honor this day as a female illustrator/artist, I'd like to share it again:

womenwhodraw.com

Women Who Draw, an online directory of women illustrators in an effort to increase the visibility of female illustrators, with an emphasis on illustrators of color, LBTQ+, and other minority groups. What is great about it is ran by a small group of women illustrators to support other women in the industry. BBC wrote an article here.

They also have Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts, so if you want to be inspired by great art, follow them in support of female artists!

And yes, I am listed as one of them :)

I am so excited to be listed amongst amazing artists.

And some amazing women in my real life. Below is one of them I hang out pre-Women's Day — Yuko — my buddy from the 1st grade!

Even now we are both middle-aged,
we still feel like 6-year-olds! (Uh-oh)

ばばの命日

5 years ago today, my grandma passed away. She was not what you think of an old lady. She was energetic, fashionable, and walked faster than anyone (I'll add that she always RAN up stairs). She taught wood-carving and she loved art.

I was painting this bird picture when my mom reminded me about the day. Then I started to remember what grandma told me about how Matisse used black: how he treated black as a vibrant color. I thought I knew what she meant because black always looked richer in his paintings than other artists'. It didn't lack color: it was a color. It's funny I admired grandma of the same thing every time I saw her wearing a black sweater. It never looked dull and boring when she wore black.

My grandmother with my daughter 8 years ago.

The white bird represents peace and the yellow bird hope. The acorn and berries are seeds for something good. This picture felt appropriate for me and for the world today. Hope you can see this from up there, Baba (grandma in Japanese).

Process 1: the beginning.

Process 2: I like the simplicity of this stage as well.
Maybe I use it for something.

スイカの日

電灯下の食卓で、スイカをかじりながら、明日のバイトや他の仕事の段取りなぞを考える、夏の日の夜。

今回主人が買ってきてくれた小玉スイカは大当たりで、甘くてジューシー。

昼間、何も知らずにインスタグラムにスイカの写真をアップしたら偶然今日はNational Watermelon Dayだったんだとか。なるほど、スイカの季節もピークで美味しいって訳ですねぇ。

ムスメがかじってしまった・・・

気持ちいい風が入ってくるなー

午前中は快晴のお外へスキップして出て行きたい気持ちを抑え、イラストの仕事。危ぶまれていた今夏の目標、Repeat Patternを作るというゴールを今日達成！

YouTubeのチュートリアルを見ながらやったら、ちゃんと出来て感動。PhotoshopのSmart Objectsの使い方もわかったのだが、コレはかなり使えそう。また新たな絵をおこして、少しずつ色々と制作してみたい。

かわいく出来たので、調子に乗ってタグを作ってみた。

今日の色あい

午前中から韓国のオンライン・ショップからの注文品を制作。

去年もこのくらいの時期にどーんと発注してくれた。

注文の品をプリントし終わった後、いつも余ったインクでちょっと遊ぶ。

実験は楽しい。

これが今日の実験。

今グッとくる色合いはこんな感じ。
やさしい色。

今年の夏の目標は、Photoshopで一つパターンを完成させること。

本当はアナログに布にプリントしている時が一番楽しいのだけど、デザインに幅を出したいので、既存のモチーフを使いとりあえず一つは作ってみたい。

娘は今日初めて近くのサマーキャンプへ。

サマーキャンプは今夏初めて参加させてみた。

キャンプと言っても、ここは昼間だけ。共働きの親が多いアメリカでは、夏休みに子供をどうするかは課題。このキャンプは普段は放課後の学童保育をしている施設で、夏季は午前8時〜午後5時まで子供を預かって、プールや工作、外遊びなどをさせてくれる。うちは夏は主人が割と暇だけど、夫婦でフリーランスの身、いつ何時忙しくなるかわからない＋近くにヘルプを頼める実家もないので、夏の間なら平日いつでも使える10日間パックに申し込んでおいた。

施設まで送って別れる時は緊張した面持ちで「いってらっしゃい！」と声をかけても無言で今にも泣き出しそうな顔だったが、笑顔で帰宅。主人が早めにお迎えに行ったのが気に食わなかったよう、「明日は最後まで残る！」と豪語していた。お友達もできたけど、名前は知らないそう。

一瞬晴れ間を見たものの、夜はまた雨。

spring cooking

I sometimes get this phase when I am more enthusiastic about dinners and cooking in general. Last couple of weeks seem so. Sharing some pics of what I have been doing here...

Asparagus au gratin.
I've been into making this Béchamel sauce - so versatile -
once you know the basics, it's easy & always delicious.

Burnt Caramel Mocha Scones, not necessarily springy, but I had to paint.

Brussel sprouts with EVOO and garlic.

Aren't they beautiful?

Kimchee & avocado salad with fresh, homemade kimchee
from Park Korean Food at Green Flea Market in Upper West Side.
I drizzled some soy & toasted sesame oil.

And today was the Mother's Day. My 7-year-old made me a fancy brunch - French toast on a stick - and Randy got some crispy bacon. What more can I ask for?

My mother's home-cooked food nurtured us both physically & mentally - her dinners and lunch boxes are one of my favorite memories of childhood. I'm glad to see it being passed on to the next one in line!

つめたい春

今日、仕事帰りの空。

風が吹いたら高い梢がいっせいにゆれた。

冷たいけど春の風。

この間まで蕾だったマグノリアも満開。

今年の春は寒いせいか、花の息が長い気がする。

今日も寒く、チューリップはみんな閉じていた。

先日のデッサン教室で出したモチーフを、自分も生徒さんが帰った後、描いてみた。

久々に長い時間をかけて、丁寧に描いた。

デッサンは発見が多い。

思い込みを捨てて見るままに描くと、

いつの間にか平面上に架空の空間ができてくる。

「見えたまま」に描きながら、絵の中でのリアリテイも追求する。

そんな工程を交互にくり返す。

デッサンは、その人特有の世界の見え方なのだ。

これはモチーフの載っていたテーブルクロスのヘリ。

夜中に電灯の下で。

おニューに囲まれて

今年に入って、12年近く頑張っていたキャノンのプリンターが遂におかしくなった。ノズルが目詰まりして、カラー印刷部分がストライプになるようになった。色々調べて、プリントヘッドを取り出し、ノズル部分を真水や酢水につけたりしたけど、ダメ。仕方なしに白黒のみで使用していたのが、ついに今月に入ってまったく作動しなくなった。＄40で買って12年。お疲れ様でした。

慌てて新たな機種を買ったけど、私の必要な機能つきの物は一番安くても約＄150。値段もだけど、画質も印刷速度もこの10年でかなり上がっていてびっくり。

ちなみに、インクジェット・プリンターは①正規品インクを使うこと、②週に一度はフルカラー印刷をするのが、ノズルの目詰まり防止になるそうです。

ついでに新たなスキャナーも購入。
今まではこれまた古いスキャナーを使っていて、それを使うためだけに取ってあるこれまた古いアップルのデスクトップ・コンピューター（新しいパソコンだとドライバー対応が無いから）の2つを寝室の隅に置いて、絵をスキャンする度に寝室へ行ってはそれらを立ち上げて（もちろん恐ろしく遅い）という愚策を取っていた。

でも、「なぜ最近新しいグラフィックを作ってないのか？」と自問自答したところ、面倒くさがりの自分にはスキャンに異常な手間がかかることが障害になっていると思い当たり、少ない給料の中から予算を絞り出した。

結果、パソコン回りがかなり整備され、気持ち良く仕事しております。

それにね。
なんと先月末には新しいソファーまで頂いてしまったのですよ。
うちには2年間ソファがなかったのです。もともと8年物のIKEAのモノがあったのですが、既にボロボロで、ある夜ソファでうたた寝をしていた娘がおねしょをしたのが最後、後始末が嫌になった主人が「捨てる」と言い、それきりソファは我が家から消えた。で、ソファは高いし、もともとちゃぶ台がリビングに置いてあったし、なんとなく床に座布団やマットを敷いてしのいでいた。

ところが去年のクリスマス、義母が何かをプレゼントしたいと言ってくれて、主人がすかさず「ソファが欲しい」と頼んだわけです。ありがたや。

ずっと良さげなのを探していて、先月やっと見つけて遅いクリスマス・プレゼントを頂きました。

ソファが無い時は不自由を感じなかったけど、久しぶりに座ってみて、その心地良さにしみじみ驚いた。床に座りそこから立ち上がるのってそれなりに足腰を使うのですが、ナニこの半腰で既に座れるというラクさは。寝転んでみたら、固すぎず柔らか過ぎず、床にマットを敷いていただけよりも断然イイ。

娘も大喜びで、ソファが着いた翌朝は起きた途端、居間へ走って行きソファの右端の彼女の「favorite spot」で悠々と読書をしていた。私も気づくと仕事帰りなどに「あー家に帰ったらあのソファに座れるんだー」と考えていたりする。

今でもこのおニューのソファに横になって読書をするのが至福の時間。
インド人の友人が伝授してくれた手作りチャイなんかが横にあれば、もうパーフェクト。
「あー心地いいなー。こんな贅沢しちゃっていいのかなぁ」と思う日々はしばらく続きそうです。

 

新しいソファが大好きなウチの子達。