Yeah, it was that kind of day.  The day where I had to just hold on with all my hight, because if I would have let go I would have just tumbled thudingly to the earth.

So I hung in there.  I took a moment to sketch out the feeling with a piece of chalk.  I really hadn’t made any drawing for a while, but this one just spoke to me.  It was there just hanging off the letter T on the chalkboard.

Hold on, don’t let go.  Keep the focus, for in time all will be shown, if you are seeking answers.

The heat rose and in the late afternoon the winds came.  Winds swept across the road as I was walking back from the station to my house.  This dandelion that had gone to seed caught my eye.

The wind was pushing it this and that way but it didn’t let go of its sees.  It just bent in the wind and held onto it’s offspring.  People kept coming and going over the pedestrian bridge.  I was squatting there watching the dandelion dance.

So delicate, yet so strong.

Blowing in the wind, without letting go.

The rain just kept on falling.  All day there was nothing but rain.  It varied from misty rainfall to out right pours.  It was just water falling from the heavens.  Little droplets, splattering against my raincoat, and bouncing off my black umbrella.

Rain always makes me think of both Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area.  Both places it would rain like crazy.  In Miami the rain would suddenly come and jut pour, then the next moment the sun would be out shining.  The rain came as fast as it went away.  Other times the weather would be foul as the winds hurled the rain in vertical and horizontal sheets.

In the Bay Area, the rain would come, and the sun would vanish for days.  There could be several days in a row when there would be rain so constant that I would forget what a sunny day felt like.  The dampness was so cold that it would seep into my bones no matter how many lawyers I might have worn.

Today’s weather is much more like those long winter nights in Martizez, California.  The rain came and it would just stay.  I would stare out into the back yard where a small creak ran, and watch the water level raise and raise, until the little creak was a roaring river of chocolaty water.

Today is somewhere in between.  The rain hasn’t really stopped.  The air is a bit on the cooler side.  I still just stare out my window and watch the rain fall and listen to the sounds of the birds chirping in the late afternoon.

It is only rain.  It will be gone tomorrow. Let me just take out my umbrella and join the parade.

The weather today has been gorgeous.  It might seem strange but after a few days of some weather that just confused me, it is nice to have awoken to clear skies and coolish air.

The weather on the stroll around this Narashino neighborhood on Friday was perfect.  The small plots of land are always stuffed to the bursting point with plants.  The Japanese had a great knack when it comes to using space efficiently.  Most people who are into gardening will have plants lined up on walls, in front of the home, and even planting some in the earth if they have the space.

I love look at how beautiful and compacted these gardens are.  There is so much concrete we are surrounded by everywhere we turn, it is a pleasure to see some green leaves reaching towards the sunshine.

I too have tried to use my space efficiently by planting a container vegetable garden this year on my patio.  I will keep you posted on it’s progress.

Keep on sowing seeds!

It may be that spring is just about over, even though in Japan we have been having extremely odd weather.  It hailed yesterday.  There were a rash of tornados about a week ago, and the mercury keeps yo-yoing up and down.  All of this may be coming quickly to an end.  Today on my stroll around I spotted my first ladybug.  There he/she was just glistening in the sunshine.

Ladybugs are my friend.  And seeing this one reminded me that I need to plant some marigolds in and around my patio garden so that the ladybugs want to come over to my house and have a party.  Then they will be welcomed to feast on the little aphids that follow in the hot humid weather.

May you all have a beautiful day of rest.  Be on your watch for the ladybugs in your own neighborhood.

I paused at a corner I have passed many times.  Actually I have taken a picture of this corner in the autumn when the Japanese Maple was flaring red.  But today was different.  I noticed a small metal plaque that had attached to it a wooden plank.  Written on the wood was some Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy).

The brushwork is very hard for me to discover what exactly was written.  I can stare into the lines and appreciate the care, and the beauty of each ink filled stroke.  Each stroke then works in with the street corner.  All the elements are working in a harmony within the frame of my lens.  The Japanese maple, the wooden planter box, the advertisement behind the poetry are all synced.  I love Japan when all these elements stack up on one another within my viewfinder.

Shodo is becoming a lost art in Japan.  The youth have all taken to texting, tweeting, and blogging.  The computer tools allow the youth to write Kanji without know the step by step process to write them on paper.  This lost art was reinforced when I opened my mailbox.  Among the bills, catalogs and flyers was an actual letter.  This was not a form letter.  It was not an email.  It was a letter addressed to me written in a beautiful cursive script.  A dear friend took the time to write his thoughts out for my benefit on paper.  The letter’s words looped across the page, as I read my friends thoughts.  An art of lettering writing that I myself had been loosing, if I haven’t already lost.

It was a synchronous moment.  Seeing and photographing the calligraphy on the street corner and then receiving the beautifully written letter.  Sometimes we have days like these and sometimes we don’t.  We need to look for those signs that we are given.  We need to pay attention to those hints that the Creator is dropping us.  If we don’t we will forever be wandering aimlessly in the dessert.

Seek

Look

Find

Sometimes we just feel out it.  It is hard to know why or where it comes from, but there it is.  It is right before us, sometimes seeping way down into our soul.  The important fact is what do what we do?  Do we stay paralyzed and afraid to do anything?

I say, NO!  I know it might be hard, but it is that struggle through the rough patches in our lives that make those vibrant days that much sweeter.    We have to make that conscious decision to seek the light.  To seek out the sunny side of the river if the side that we are traveling on is in darkness.

For me that is the only way to live.  It is easy to say, but to put it into practice take effort.  We need to discipline ourselves to focus on that light that shines into our lives.  If there is no light then it is time for us to go out and find that light.

For me this past Sunday I found that light on the sunny side of the river in a place called Minami Kasai.  It is nothing special.  It is just my daily stomping ground.  The light was there, in a way it was always there, I just had to open my heart to feel it.

Isotta Dardilli’s Poster design for the COLORS of Money Poster, 2009

Todays’s Lucid Thoughts post is something a little bit different.  Rather than featuring a photographer’s work I have decided to showcase the work of Isotta Darilli is a queen of Italian graphic design.  She has been one of the coolest people I have met because of my involvement with Fabrica, and we have maintained an artistically creative friendship ever since our first emails about 5 years ago.

I met Isotta when she was working for FABRICA in Italy.  Fabrica is Benetton’s communication research centre lab where art is encouraged through various projects.  Fabrica is responsible for the amazing COLORS Magazine.  It is though a joint project of COLORS magazine that I first met Isotta.

I had submitted a blank COLORS NOTEBOOK for consideration in their collection.  I filled the the newsprint blank pages with stencils, photographs and words.  I was shocked to learn 6 months latter that mine had been chosen to tour with a COLORS Notebook world exhibition.  I was further dumfounded to learn that my images would be published in the FACES collection of the COLORS notebook project.   Because of this work, I formed a tight bond with Isotta.

Isotta’s heart is as big and fresh as her graphic work.  She doesn’t consider herself a photographer but she loves to take snap shots of her friends.  Her passion for graphic design has led her to take a short term teaching position this summer at Shanghai University of Fine Art, sharing her love of graphic design with Chinese students.

I invite my Lucid Communication readers to wander through Isotta’s website Isotype to get a full feel for her work.  I am inspired by looking at her images, and I am so thankful for the warmth and friendship she has shown me and my photography.  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Isotta for the Lucid Thoughts blog.

Please take a minute and introduce yourself to Lucid Communication?
Behind the scene I’m a bear. A beach bear, who loves the sound of the sea more than anything else. I’m lazy and I love to stay at home, watch movies and dream of an imaginary life. I love to spend my time with friends too, drinking red wine and smoking cigarettes.  I love also to waste time.

Where do you like best to take pictures?
I’m honestly not a good photographer, so any place could be good or bad, in any case my pictures will be bad.  I studied photography in high school, but I lost the knowledge on the way, because I have discovered art and graphic design.  I studied with an analog camera, developing my pictures in my bathroom (my mother was always annoyed about it, because she couldn’t enter in the bathroom for hours and hours).  Anyway, I really love to watch pictures from other people.

What was your first camera?
My first camera was a very nice camera and I still have it in storage somewhere.  It was a really old Nikkormat.

What camera do you like to use now, and why?
I don’t  have any cameras now, I just use an  iPhone.  I really love to take pictures with my mobile phone…eheh.

Does your design and your photography work together?
Yes, a lot of my work is connected with photography, but every time I have asked a good photographer to take the pictures for me.  I think that this is a good way to work.  I leave the photography to someone who can do his/her job really well!

editors note:  This is good news for all the photographers out there.  Isotta knows when to step aside and let a professional photographer take over.  In the end it will help take her projects to the next level.

We met because of your work with FABRICA. We first came into contact with the each other because of the COLORS Notebook, and later the FACES book.  You spent a long time working with FABRICA. What was it like working for them? How was it working with artists from all over the world?

Working at Fabrica was amazing!   I learned a lot of things, a learned to connect with people.  I understand the process of how people come to find a solution.  I learned that all around the world is full of very very very amazing people, young people, people that have something to say.  And, also, I discovered how nice  it is to share your opinion with others.  Surely with the help of other people your project becomes more beautiful.  And I also learned that it is always great to have fun while you are working!  If more people had fun while working the world would be much nicer place.

editors note:  Lucid Communication made a submission to the Colors Notebook project with little hope of anything coming out of my contribution.  I was shocked to find out 6 months later that my notebook had been selected to tour around the world.  It eventually led to the publication of the Fabrica book:  COLORS NOTEBOOK FACES. which featured a spread of Jacob Schere’s work, along with many other fantastic artists.

Isotta’s own COLORS Notebook

What did you learn from working with FABRICA on the NOTEBOOK project?
I already answered the first part of the question of what it was like to work for FABRICA. For the second part, WOW, it’s a very difficult question.  Colors Notebook was a project that I left a piece of my heart and soul with.  It’s very hard for me to talk about it, because someone above me took me out of the project to try to do it all himself, and the project died. Because you need a lot of  heart to do a project like that. So, it was my passion out of the box.  I don’t really know how to explain it, other than it really took a piece of my heart.

I’ve never seen so many people that loved to be part of a project.  And, all the people  give us such amazing contributions for free.  I understand that a lot of people all around the world does’t have any way to express themselves… therefore I wanted  to find a way for these people to be able to express themselves the best I could.  I would like to emphasize that I took over this project after my colleague, Lorenzo De Rita who invented it and then left FABRICA.

What do you want people to experience when they look at your images?
Are you talking about colors notebook?  That people become aware of what is happening beyond their reach.

How has digital design changed the design world and the way that you create?
Probably that you have more options to try to do something.  Everything is easier.  I discovered that many people are creative and before had no way to be.

You recently founded your own company, What are the goals for Isotype Studio?
I do not know, I’m currently spending a sabbatical moment (smiles!)But the energy here is fantastic, isotype is just a little part of WAX studio…We are only 7 people in total, but the space is place where very cool gypsy like people can come with their laptops and work on their own projects.  The people are free to interact and talk together about everyone else’s projects.

Is there anything else you would like to say to the Lucid Communication family?
Spend well your time because life is one and society needs solutions to be able to have a good life!

Where can we see more of your work online?
www.isotype.it (but after the sabbatical year I promise I will update it!!!)

I love his work, he give me a good energy to do my work!
www.sagmeister.com

I would like to express my deepest thanks to Isotta for taking time to share her thoughts and art with Lucid Communication.  I look forward to more interaction between us in the future.  In the meantime please browse her website, and take a look at a sample of her work below.

Tallulah Gallery Illustration

Tee Shirt Design for Nivea

The Faces book that Isotta curated, and featured work by Jacob Schere

Book Designs for Designer Block

CD Design for The Quick Brown Fox

Art Direction for the COLORS Money Exhibition

Art Direction for Canova Show for Fabrica

All images are used courtesy of Isotta Dardilli from her website http://www.isotype.it/ 

I often have to ponder about my place in Japan.  I sometimes really struggle with the fact that I am not Japanese and that I do not easily fit into society here.  But then again, I went though these same struggles wherever I lived in the states too.  So in the end, I struggle with these thoughts about society wherever I go.

I can look out my window and see the bay wedged in between the buildings, and the bridges.  If the wind is blowing in the right direction I can hear Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum float over from Tokyo Disney World, which is actually in Chiba Prefecture.  The mix of the world that I inhabit here is insanely boring, thrilling and ultimately surreal.

I was feeling sun deprived on this beautiful Sabbath day, so I grabbed my camera, and in shorts and a tee shirt hit my neighborhood.  I wasn’t the only one that was out enjoying the beautiful weather.  The park that sits only two blocks from my home was crammed full of people.

I just kept walking and this phrase kept popping into my head, “The Odd Reality of My Surroundings.”  I am not sure why, but those words seem to sum up my relationship with my own neighborhood.  My neighborhood is nothing special to most people.  It has its 7-11s and supermarkets.  It has homes, and large danchi structures, but it is my hood.  It is where I have called home now for more than 10 years.

Sometimes life just throws some thoughts into my head that the only way I can sort them out is though my camera.  I don’t know why, but it is often the only therapy that works.

So, I welcome you all to the Odd Reality of My Surroundings.

My friend Double You asked me what happened to the my urban images I used to take. I replied that I still take them, but I rarely share them.  I have become a bit obsessed with photographing how humans and nature interact in an urban setting.  To put it simply, I like to see some green in my images.

The crux of the matter is as an artist changing one’s point of view is essential for development.  After the earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, I no longer felt any comfort in my attraction to the urban world.  I saw the urban world as partially responsible for the nuclear mess that Japan found itself in.  I sought comfort in nature.  The colors enveloped my sadness. The resilience of the roots, stems and petals that still sprouted from the dust was amazing.

The perfection of the flowers reminded me that there is hope.  That the flowers can grow strong and beautiful, therefore we humans too could survive and learn to thrive.

As artist we are never completely satisfied.  We might be pretty happy with something at a given point of time, but when we go back and look at a piece of work later, we think I should have, or I could have done something else to it.  We, I, am always striving for new avenues of expression.  And changing the way in which I reflect and comment on the world around me.

Therefore, today I, LIVICATE to my friends DOUBLE you who gave me a nudge to show some images I have shot recently that urban images from my trip to the old part of town in Urayasu.

Sometimes to move forward, we have to look at where we have been to see how far we have come.