Sunday, July 12, 2015

Little Tokyo and the Japanese American Museum



Japanese American National Museum
Los Angeles

My friends Erin and McKenna, visiting the museum with me ...


Coming of the Immigrants, Part of the permanent exhibition ... 


Illusion and I Traveled over the ocean
Hunting money trees.
~Kijo


Wall of Suitcases and Trunks
by Hirokazu Kosaka

The importance of Hirokazu's work
Is that it recognizes that the most important things
Are sometimes the simplest.
The space between the heartbeats
And the suitcases that carries
More that people's belongings.

Suitcases, trunk, collection of the artist.
Re-created for "Common Ground," 1999


Come, merchants!
America is a veritable human paradise,
the number one mine in the world.
Gold, silver, and gems are scattered on her streets.
If you can figure out a way of picking them up,
You'll become rich instantly to the tune of ten million
and be able to enjoy ultimate human pleasures.
~Kitare, Nihonjin Guide


 

The exhibition of the Japanese interment camps ...


There were 10 internment camps, (10,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans) during WWII, after the bombing of Pear Harbor. It's a terrible part of our shared American History. This is a reessembled barrack, is from one of the camps.



Here's a tour of the museum with George Takei.


After our trip to the Japanese American National Museum, which started with the Hello Kitty exhibition, we headed across the street into the Japanese Village Plaza to have some lunch! We had sushi at Maruya, where I'd never eaten before. It was yummy and our waiter was awesome! 

McKenna having some miso!



After lunch? Mochi ice cream!!! Shortly after there were some serious Karaoke performers!



Mochi from Mikawaya. Aren't the colors beautiful!?


Mochi, if you've never had it, is ice cream on the inside and a thin sticky rice cake layer on the outside with a dusting of cornstarch so it's not super sticky when you are eating and when it's being formed. I think you can get it these days at Trader Joe's.

I had chocolate and green tea mochi!




Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the Japenese American Cultural and Community Center was closed, along with this great little coffee place and Ukulele shop, called U-Space! 

I've been obsessing on learning to play the Uke lately. In part, I think, because I used to play the harp which a huge and hard to carry and takes forever to tune. On top of that, my great grandmother used to play for us!


Here's one of the instructors at U-Space, Jason Arimoto.


 James Irvine Japanese Garden
Tuesday-Friday 10-5

Erin and McKenna ...


These photos were taken from above, looking down into the garden, because unfortunately it was closed. Something to return to!



Culture binds us,
gives us meaning
and provides us with foundation ...
it surrounds, entangles and supports our daily life, 
a matter of learning "what it is we have to know: 
to belong within a family and community. 
~ David Mas Masumoto



We ended up walking over to The Last Bookstore. It was a little farther than I thought but they were happy to have gotten to see it!  


An artwork that was being shown in the gallery area upstairs ...

States United (2010)
Gregory Beauchamp
Oil on Canvas 

his easy site here


Leaving downtown ... The Disney Hall


and The Broad museum below, which opens in September of 2015!


Links

I'm off to the art store! Hope you enjoyed this little visit downtown to Little Tokyo!

Blessings and light!

Monday, July 6, 2015

Inspiration! Hello Kitty! And the Japanese American Museum


Growing old is mandatory;
growing up is optional.
~Chili Davis


Don't you just love Hello Kitty? Well, even if you don't, I think you'll enjoy this post. (Especially the super cute Hello Kitty art created by the kids at my work!)

Hello Kitty Sits on a Sunflower
Pastel on Paper, 2014


by sweet Violet :)


Sunlit Road with Teddy and Kitty
Pencil on paper, 2015


by Maya


Floating Kitty in a Field of Green
Mixed Media, 2015


by Sasha


Hello Kitty Angel on Cloud, 2013
Animation cell, acrylic paint, plastic, sharpie, and pastel


by Vera

Hello Kitty Rides a Great Read Shark, 2014
Watercolor and Pastel


by Delilah 


Also by Delilah ... 
Hello Kitty by the Sea, 2015
watercolor and ink on paper


Kitty in Blue, 2014
Sculpey clay, acrylic paint


by Kya



Kitty and her Fishbowl, 2013
Pastel and charcoal pencil


by Jaffe


Hello Kitty (ハローキティ Harōkiti?)[3] (full name Kitty White (キティ・ホワイト Kiti Howaito?) made by the Sanrio company, (Japan) came to the U.S. in 1976.

I was probably 7 1/2 and thought she was the cutest thing ever. I remember I had a cute pink Hello Kitty sewing kit, pencils, and tiny red plastic address book that snapped shut. Adorable.

Of course, in the years since, her image has been on everything from vacuum cleaners to gas cans, and more.

Last fall a Hello Kitty exhibition opened at the Japanese American Museum, in Los Angeles.


I kept trying to get over and see the exhibition, then time flew by and I was afraid I was going to miss it. Fortunately, just in time, my friend Erin came up from San Diego with her daughter for the weekend and the Hello Kitty stars aligned! We made it!

 

With your admission ticket they gave you Hello Kitty ears, with a bow. The best part of that, was seeing loads of grown men walking around with these little ears and bows on! (Whether they were with a child or not!) I was planning to sneak some photos of the guys, but I got too distracted by all the cuteness, and forgot!


How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were?
~Satchel Paige


Below, Hello Kitty braces! Toilet paper?


I think this was a bedazzled handbag ...


Hello Kitty men's suit by Liberty of London! (2014)


And, why not?


The model for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.


There were big murals in the exhibition, as you can see below, along with a Hello Kitty surf board. In the same area there were roller skates and a skateboard.


Hello Kitty as the rock band Kiss.


I would love this sake set!



Everyone is the age of their heart.
~Guatemalan Proverb


Too cute to eat bento boxes!


Another wall mural ...



Each year of Hello Kitty's life represented. I love the preppy 1980 Kitty! Below, Erin and I with our graduation year, 1987. Love the punk rock plaid under it.


The key to successful aging 
is to pay as little attention to it
as possible.
~Judith Regan

Apparently, Hello Kitty is 5 apples tall. And, in case you are interested, she was born in the suburbs of London on November 1st. (So, I guess that makes her a Scorpio!) Not sure why the Japanese company picked London, but there you have it.

"She is portrayed as a bright and kind-hearted girl, very close to her twin sister Mimmy. She is good at baking cookies and loves Mama's homemade apple pie. She likes to collect cute things and her favorite subjects in school are English, music, and art." - source Wikipedia


After seeing all the cute Hello Kitty stuff, from over the years, we went into the area of the exhibition with art inspired by Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty in Bloom, Mixed Media
2014


Inner Kitty, 2014
Gouache on paper
Apak


The Gaze of Kitty, 2014
Acrylic, Acrylic Gouache, Tarpaulin
Kazuki Takamatsu


Super Space Titan Kitty
Fiberglass
Colin Christian
(love Makena's expression!)


Instruction, 2014
oil on panel
Kevin Earl Taylor



Scott Scheidly
Hello Lincoln, 2014
Acrylic Painting on Masonite


Hello Kitty ensembles made for Project Runway.


Hello Kitty dress (2009) worn by Lady Gaga and worth more than anything else in the show. (A guard told us some of the rare collectables on the dress were worth a lot of money.) Plush dress styled by GK Reid and originally shot by Markus + Indrani.


Marilyn style dress worn by Paris Hilton in 2009.


Bedazzled Bustier show costume worn by Katy Perry, designed by The Blonds.


Bows on the floor ... those are my spectators. 


 

What a fun day! We checked out more at the Japanese American Museum before roaming around and having lunch in Little Toyko! I will have to do another post with more of that day. We covered a lot of territory!

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.
~Mark Twain, 
Following the Equator

Links!
Please click on the artists' names above to get to their websites!


Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Independence Day!
Happy July!

Blessings and light!