Artist's Talk and Demonstration

This Wednesday 9th September I will be giving a talk and demonstration on my experiences with Japanese printmaking and paper making. Please consider yourself invited and come along from 7 - 8.30pm for some free washi samples and Japanese sweets! For more details: 

http://www.hotbedpress.org/courses/japanese-paper-making-printmaking/

'Returning to the UK for the Summer, after spending two years in Japan, Lucy May Schofield will give a talk about her recent residency at 'MI-LAB' (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) and paper making workshop at 'Awagami Factory'. Drawing on the important cultural relationship between paper making and printmaking, she will introduce and show samples of both washi (handmade Japanese Paper) and mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock printmaking). Lucy will share her knowledge, ideas and inspirations from Japan, with a focus on how to adapt these traditional materials and techniques into a contemporary art practice. '

Cost: £10.00 on the door / £5.00 members and advanced tickets.

Summer time WORKSHOPS & TALKS in the UK at Hot Bed Press.


 

JAPANESE BOOKBINDING & BOX MAKING

Weekend Course
Starting: Saturday 15th August 2015
Ending: Sunday 16th August 2015
From: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Tutor: Lucy May Schofield
About the course: 
Experience a unique weekend workshop in Japanese book binding and box making. Learn the skills to make 4 different Fukuro Toji binding styles, (four hole, noble, tortoise shell and hemp leaf) housed within a Hako Chitsu fold-down Box. Using authentic Japanese printed papers, washi, and vintage kimono fabrics sourced from Japan, this course will give you the opportunity to create a selection of the strongest, most elegant and practical bindings for printmakers and artists’ working with the book form.
Cost: £130.00 / £110.00 members
Maximum of 9 people - For enquiries and bookings visit the Hot Bed Press site here.


JAPANESE WATER-BASED WOODBLOCK PRINTING (MOKUHANGA)

Weekend Course
Starting: Saturday 5th September 2015
Ending: Sunday 6th September 2015
From: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Tutor: Lucy May Schofield
Mokuhanga is perfect for artists interested in a non-toxic, table-top, meditative printmaking technique. Learn the basic skills to create a key block and colour separation print, in the tradition of Ukiyo-e, using Japanese tools and materials. With countless possibilities, and minimum equipment (only a baren, no press required!), you will be sure to fall in love with both the process and results of this accessible printmaking method.
Lucy May Schofield has been working in Japan for the past 2 years, taking part in the artist-in-residence program at ‘MI-LAB’ (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) and learning about Japanese hand paper making at ‘Awagami Factory’. We are really pleased to have Lucy back with us on a flying visit. Lucy has taught for Hot Bed Press for 8 years and is an internationally renowned book artist with work in many collections. She also works with Sylvie Waltering, (who runs our year-long book arts course), as the other half of 'Battenberg Press'.
Cost: £130.00 / £110.00 members
Maximum of 9 people - For enquiries and bookings visit the Hot Bed Press site here.


JAPANESE PAPER MAKING & PRINTMAKING

1 Evening Course (ARTIST'S TALK)
Starting: Wednesday 9th September 2015
Ending: Wednesday 9th September 2015
From: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Tutor: Lucy May Schofield
Returning to the UK for the Summer, after spending two years in Japan, Lucy May Schofield will give a talk about her recent residency at ‘MI-LAB’ (Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory) and learning hand paper making at ‘Awagami Factory’. Drawing on the important cultural relationship between paper making and printmaking, she will introduce and show samples of both washi (handmade paper) and mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock prints). Lucy will share her knowledge, ideas and inspirations from Japan, with a focus on how to adapt these traditional materials and techniques into a contemporary art practice.
Note Prices are £5 Advance and £10 on the door irrespective of membership status.
Cost: £10.00 / £5.00 members
Maximum of 40 people - For enquiries and bookings visit the Hot Bed Press site here. 

TEDxFUKUOKA WOMEN 'Momentum' Event






TEDxFukuoka 
I am delighted to have asked to present at this years' 'TEDxFukuoka Women' Event on Saturday May 30th. I will be talking about the 'Bibliotherapy Artist's Book Library' project joined by two inspiring speakers whose talks will be based on the event theme 'Momemtum'. 

 TEDxFukuokaWomen “Momentum”
Fukuoka, Japan – May 1, 2015
TEDxFukuoka (Joe Okubo, Organizer) will host a public TEDxFukuokaWomen event entitled “Momentum” on Saturday, May 30th, 14:00-19:30, at Momochi Palace (Sawara-ku, Fukuoka).
TEDxFukuokaWomen is one of the 2015 TEDxWomen events being held in Japan. The event will be complemented by 3 exceptional speakers, including Reiko Nakamura, Managing Director of Schawk & Anthem Japan.
This year’s TEDxWomen theme is “Momentum”. In the words of the organizers, “We’ll explore the bold ideas that create momentum in how we think, live and work.”

TEDxWomen session:Session One & Two: 14:00 ~ 17:30 (Open 13:00)
Includes an on-demand screening from Monterey, CA, and three presentations from our local speakers. 
The speakers are as follows:
Izumi Haraga, Nature Art Educator
Reiko Nakamura, Managing Director of Schawk & Anthem Japan
Lucy May Schofield, Artist/Curator, The Bibliotherapy Artist’s Book Library (BABL)
Reception: 18:00 ~ 19:30
Application for tickets: http://peatix.com/event/78911/
More Details can be found at:
http://tedxfukuoka.com/en/

Sakura Part II



















Days of waiting spill over into days of dreamy awe. Days of feeling, looking too but mostly feeling. Sakura heralds renewal and possibility, presence of being, an appreciation and awareness of transience, impermanence. The continuity of the seasons, the reliability that warmth and light will arrive after the long cold desperate winter months. As true as encountering difficulties and challenges, over time there is a shift, a change, an alter in shape, a renewal of perspective, a look up, a look beyond and a move forward. Sakura reminds me to find courage, to be present, to have tenacity yet to constantly renew.   

Sakura Part I









As soon as the sun gives real Spring warmth and the chill in the late winter air subsides, the skies beckon and the trees sigh. There is a magical romance to impromptu mid-week picnics and close sakura bud inspection for it's estimated time of 'mankai' (full bloom). Everything needs to be done outdoors so as not to miss the ephemeral promise of its beauty. Drunk on anticipation, I draw and sew under the budding blossom. I eat under a Sakura each day the weather allows determined to be floored by it's lure. I observe silently, dogs dressed like their owners, organised refuse sites piled high with empty plastic o-bento boxes and wooden chopsticks, selfie sticks at every corner memories chockfull of moments, kawaii peace-signing girl troupes giving it their prettiest all, blue cloudless skies punctuated by tiny luminous petals and pink buds in waiting, 'shidare' (weeping) sakura and sakura that causing weeping. It's all as heart expanding as it gets. 

Anticipation








By mid March anticipation for the Cherry Blossom season is palpable. The days are longer, with time enough to head to the beach after work to glimpse the sunset, ride a swan boat or laze by the lake in the park long after the light begins to fade. Packing away thermals and hot water bottles and airing spring cottons. At home it's small steps towards spring, cleaning dusty winter windows and d.i.y haircuts, awaiting the best time of the year. 

The coming of Pinkness












milky coffee / framboise gelato / chirashizushi / 
kimono laundering / crab clip / wrapple workshop / 
ume buds / pink politics / chiffon karaoke / unagi choices

AKI days


Early Autumn in Fukuoka 






Perfect Autumn in Taketa 



















The most magical days in Japan happen between late September and late November. I am on a weekly koyo watch charting the leaves' transformation. When it's time, then I go hunting. I fly through the mountains, arms stretched, catching colours, drinking them all down to line the pit of my being for the l o n g cold winter ahead. 

Early Autumnal days
















Autumn crept around the corner and suddenly the days felt as crisp as the fallen leaves. It was still warm enough to swim in the Japan Sea in late October and a stream of wonderful visitors felt genki enough to don bathing suits to the disbelieving gaze of locals. Visitors en route from Korea and to New Zealand joined in karaoke marathons, puri kura flirtation, flea market dwelling, sashimi devouring. Octobers soundtrack featured Japanese rap in the grounds of our local shrine, a Japanese Speech Contest for a bouquets of international talents, Bulgarian yodelling at Oktoberfest and Yatai ordering above the sound of Friday night traffic. 

International Mokuhanga Conference 2014 - Tokyo






The 2nd International Mokuhanga Conference was hosted by Tokyo University of the Arts, with the Satellite show held at 3331 Arts Chiyoda. On Thursday I attended the Washi Dialogue - Printmakers Meet Papermakers after spending some time in the gallery absorbed in the Printmaking Studio / AIR Showcase exhibition. Feeling excited and moved by some of the possibilities and potential of Mokuhanga and impressed by the artists I met (Melbourne Printmaking), my hands were itching to get carving. 

Friday brought the opportunity to browse the wondrous Isetatsu paper shop to stock up on decorative woodblock printed papers, wander the haunting Yanaka Rei-en cemetery and visit Scai the Bathhouse gallery. I hot-footed it to Omotesando to catch the Letterpress From London exhibition at Paul Smith Space, where a collection of inspiring London-based printer makers presented an eclectic selection of Letterpress broadsides, books and ephemera. The exquisite work of Harrington and Squires made me feel homesick for England and for my own Adana press. 

I returned to 3331 Arts Chiyoda later on to listen to the The AIR Open Forum, where printmaking studios introduced their workshops and artist-in-residence programs. The opening reception was a good opportunity to talk to the directors and representatives of international studios and meet talented artists such as Dolores de Sade of East London Printmakers and Toshihiko Ikeda currently showing at Museum of Machida. 




On Sunday I spent the day at the main site of the IMC as a delegate attending a packed schedule of lectures and exhibition viewing. The speakers lectured on a huge variety of subjects and were so informative and inspiring. A few highlights for me were the artists' talks by Norwegian artist Karen Helga Murstig who spoke of Nordic light, snow, paper and print, and Katie Baldwin whose collaborative project 'Wood Paper Box' described a ten year friendship bound by Mokuhanga evolving into a 1 year project between the 3 printmakers with stunning results. A beautifully titled paper 'Handing out Happiness' delivered by the magnetic Tuula Moilanen was pure inspiration, focusing on  Japanese subjects of happiness in the form of mokuhanga ephemera. I was privileged to hear Yuasa Katsutoshi discuss the concern in the decline of Japanese elementary school children being taught mokuhanga in the current curriculum, and lucky to hear Kitamura Shouichi, master woodblock carver talk about his recent printmaking collaboration with Ogawa Eitaro in Shanghai. 









During the lunch break I explored the group exhibition 'The Content', where I could view the beautiful 'Wood Paper Box' collaboration as well as 'Yuki', a small collection of artists' print responses to the notion of snow. The Artist Print Book Exhibition 'Mokuhan-Ehon' showed treasures from the talented Karen Kunc and the lovely Sumi Perera . The wonderful humour and simplicity of the book by Tuula Moilanen stayed with me, as did the stunning mokuhanga works of a current student at Tokyo University of the Arts, who beautifully depicted moments titled 'Sigh' in woodblock and watercolour. The conference filled me with ideas and knowledge in an area I long to flourish, yet am only a sapling. 

On Tokyo Time



The window view from my temporary home, in Asakusa, East Tokyo.






An afternoon stroll around Asakusa & Senso-ji.





 A meander around Yanaka, browsing delicious paper shops, 
tasting homemade kinako omochi, basking in the Tokyo sunlight. 



A late night unpredictable karaoke treat with 20 wonderful Australian printmakers.






A lovely 'Crafternoon' with Hello Sandwich at 'East side Tokyo', making envelopes 
alongside new friends. Sharing oishii ramen, (tokyo style) and a long walk-it-off.





Stumbling into 2K540 Aki-oka Artisan on Saturday afternoon delivered 30 minutes
of wonder at an imono workshop, where I cast my own o-sake cup, with the help of a 
bevy of young craftsmen. Boy bands in Shinjuku freestyle jazzing and bidding a 
snappy sayonara to Tokyo as I skipped through Ueno park to catch a flight home. 

Contemplating Obsession





‘ALL THE NEWS THAT’S FIT TO PRINT’
75 years ago Homer Collyer was found dead in an armchair in the 5th Avenue Brownstone mansion he shared with his brother Langley. The NYPD emptied the house of 130 tons of refuse including 1 horse’s jawbone, 25 thousand books, 14 pianos, 5 dressmaker’s dummies, several guns and 15 year’s worth of daily newspapers. 19 days later they discovered Langley’s body less than 10 feet from where his brother had died, suffocated under the weight of his collapsed hoardings.
In an ode to brotherly love and the Collyers’ obsessive compulsive hoarding, I created this ghost edition of the New York Times distills 15 years of minor news stories taken from the NYTimes archive between 1933-1947. Re-printed and re-published for the benefit of the late blind Homer Collyer as a comment on the futility and sadness of saving everything.
Letterpress printed broadsheet, white ink hand printed on 50gsm newsprint, 597mm x 374mm, edition of 5 2012.  

 In addition to the broadsheet I created twin mausoleums housing interpretive personal collections reflecting some of the objects discovered in the Collyer home.

I gather and keep my own hair in jam jars. I collected thimbles as a child and was consequently teased. I hold onto a defunct Adana printing press, whose instruction manual is useless. I own a dead mans collection of ambiguous printing plates. I have rooms worth of miniature furniture yet no dolls house to house them in. 

Specimen boxes contain Sunograph prints, Letterpress prints, inkjet digital prints, and various objects. The coffins are not to be separated, and only exhibited as a pair, re-visited in 2014.

Shift.








As we drain the last of our shared summer days, we make time to look, time to make, time to rest, time to read, time to love, time to rearrange. We see everything anew as September beckons us with less balmy arms and promises of a shift, a return to feeling free. I embrace (with all my might) the opportunity to draw, carve, print, sculpt, write and notice all the wonder of here. I am fierce with it. 

Hashima / Gunkanjima / Battleship Island












Set sail from Nagasaki port to a tiny island abandoned, 
Coal mining community long gone,  
architectural skeletal remnants. 
The 'Nations first high' rise still standing, concrete.
But sea beaten, typhoon whipped, sun bleached. 
Haunting emptiness, tempting exploration.
Decades of decay prompt snapshot narratives, 
BondJamesBond villain comparison.
Head count on, head count off.
Head full of Bond girl fantasies.

Ishigaki jima





Dining on famed Okinawa soba and coffee kakigori. Secret breakfast tofu sets in the heart of inaka.




Hours under the sea at Yonehara beach befriending schools of luminous species. 







Eye-swimming in Kabira bay's turquoise sea and moonscape coral seen through glass-bottomed boats. Stray David Bowie eyed cats beg for a lick of ben-imo soft cream.




Cycling around Taketomi island, counting 'shisa' lined roofs, swerving ox, searching for star shaped sand.



 Dusk snorkelling at Sunset Beach in the company of poisonous yet shy scorpion fish and bikini-matching zebra varieties.


*Ishigaki jima is a short flight south from mainland Okinawa, closer to Taiwan and China, geographically and culturally, than the rest of Japan, and absolute paradise.