Technique: This series Truth in Emotion - Beyond Time and Space is the combination of the mixed techniques with a solid concept. I often incorporate text, encaustic, oil, and Japanese paper, and own photographic images that I make. In this work, I also first created hand-painted silk and Japanese paper, sometimes using encaustic as a resist for the colors. The images in my work, for example, mountain, moon, bamboo, trees, textures of doors and walls, and cherry blossoms, may look as if they are from Japan, however, I intentionally used the materials from outside Japan such as New York City, Seattle and other places where I feel connected since I have lived or stayed more than just few days as a part of the journey of life; My photo images that appears partly in the work, which are Not just collage of printed images but archival pigment-ink-transfer, are actual evidence as I become a witness of our 21st century, conveying my series concept that depicts same emotions in different ‘time and space’. At the same time, I invested my own emotional content and imagination into these poems and works.
People today love and suffer just as the ancients did. Linked by our humanity, we face much of the same feelings and issues. It truly is beyond time and space.
For this project, the collection of 7th-13th century Japanese poems (known as *Hyakunin Isshu: 100 poems by 100 authors) were re-written in calligraphy by my father, a calligraphy master in Japan (who passed away in the recent year) using specific ancient characters (the same as back in those centuries) on traditional Japanese paper. I then have been creating art layering and integrating BOTH ancient/traditional AND contemporary/hi-tech elements by combining encaustic that is an ancient medium and other medium as well as own photographic images in each unique piece in this series. This is also a search for harmony in photography, calligraphy and other medium.
For more information of this work:
https://misakooba.wordpress.com/2017/09/19/artist-in-residence-part-2/