January 13, 2013

Engaged


Mingei….folk craft or folk art; the Folk Craft Movement (Mingei undô) was started by Yanagi Sôetsu (1889-1961; also Yanagi Muneyoshi).  Art of the People.


                                                                                                                 
Small  sake vessel with cups.  Made by Sachiko Furuya no date.

Often during the last few years, I would go with the Geezer to Balboa Park while he worked as a volunteer in the automotive museum.  I discovered there was a free tram almost in front of the museum, and this tram would take me into the heart of the park. 

The first year I joined The San Diego Museum of Art.  Soon after that I also joined the Museum of Photographic Arts.  I loved the both these museums, but I wasn’t passionately attracted to the works they offered.  I, who cut metal roughly, who was best at slab built pots, and threw paint energetically on canvas and paper, felt left out by the sterility of the works.  Slowly I stopped going.

Last year, I stopped in a few times at the Mingei museum.  No senior admission here, but I complained.  The works I saw there immediately engaged me.  I felt at home.  No paintings here, but everything else I was interested in was here and accessible.

Tentatively I asked, “Do you mind if join the Mingei Museum?”

“Only if you go more than once,” he said.

I found that now there is a senior admission.  I immediately stuck my brand new members badge on, and fell into an oasis comfort zone.  Although I was drawn to many of the small pots, like the sake vessel and its cups, in the Contemporary ceramics show, I tried to take pictures of most of the shows.  I found quilts, weavings, and upstairs the blue things in the True Blue exhibition.  I even sat for a time and watched a film on how to make Indigo…

…..all the while feeling right at home.   



  • Keeping those on the east coast in my thoughts.

  • Himself:  Really pretty good.  “The cold is waning.”  He’s off to shop till he drops with a numb eyebrow left over from the Shingles.  “I can live with that.”

  • Herself:  Short term memory is flat out gone today, but the long term is with me.  I’ll tag along with G and have fun.  Still caughing.

  • Reading:  The newly reformatted Good Housekeeping.

  • Balance:  Riding along today in good company.


  • 9 comments:

    1. I worry about you. Take care!

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    2. 'Sounds like a good thing to do. I played with my grandson over the holidays. We worked with clay and I rediscovered my love for working with my hands. One of my hopes--not resolutions--for the new year is to get back into a more creative mode.

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    3. Love it when you know you've got yourself into the right place, all museums are not equal. I can see echoes of your new teapot in the pottery picture. Take care of yourself.

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    4. I wish you lived near as I think you would help me learn so much more about art. I can read about it and then see it, but freqently I think I miss so much!

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    5. So glad you found a new place for joy....

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    6. I must start my museum going again....soon. Dianne

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    7. I love the folk art, much more than the formal paintings. That's what originally sparked my interest in Japan. I visited your mingei museum years ago and loved it. I also visited Yanagi's home, which is now a museum.

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    8. Yes it sounds like your sort of place.

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    9. Your mix of meeting physical challenges and finding new satisfying venues for feeding the soul inspire me to keep on keeping on as do your balance briefs.

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