Studio #1 will be open the first 2 weekends of June for East Bay Open Studios. I'm excited for you to see my new work so come on down to Swarm Studios in Oakland's Jack London Square. I will also have a number of works for sale. 

Hey folks,

this is what 84 square feet looks like. But, as you can see, I don't think in square footage. I think in CUBIC footage. 

SO, 

I have 1008 cubic feet to fill and this is how I do it. One of those automated dry cleaner rails would be nice. Then I could hang and shuffle through my drawings with ease. 

Looks like it's time to find a larger studio space. 

'alo. 

I wanted to share what I've been working on. It's always interesting for me to see other people's studio process because you see the hemming and hawing and the conviction that goes into making THE mark. It's all very human. And no, I don't think it takes the mystique out of the final work. 

YES, the "At Fault" body of work is going archival. I've been experimenting with different papers and their idiosyncrasies and I think I've found something that works. 

I still do sketches and warm-ups with newsprint as you can see here. When it's showtime, the nice paper moves in. Not every one is a winner. It's all try try try. And learn learn learn. 

I MUST mention the very generous gesture of a fellow stable mate Kristin Jensen, for offering to let me use her studio wall for a month. I really need a larger studio space. Anyhow, I'm not so sure I'd be as immediately giving as her. Seriously, Swarm Studios has great culture. 

I've added a diagram of how GLINT was installed this past month at Swarm Gallery. (Click the image above for a larger view.) In unison with being pumped about the video footage I shot to document the piece, I realized the experience of the installation itself is not entirely clear. The question is how clear should it be? Does it demystify the experience if I lay it all out? Or should I maintain a certain level of aura of mystery? Perhaps the answer is a case by case basis.  

Another question is what sort of description, if any, needs to accompany the diagram? I have a fairly straightforward account of how the experience of the installation goes, but I also have a short blurb introducing the piece to the public which serves a different purpose. What serves the piece the best? Are both okay if applied respectively to differing contexts? 

account: 

"Viewers are invited into a light sealed and darkened environment. Upon entering they are asked for a few moments of patience. As one's vision begins to adjust to the ambient darkness, a spotlight emerges on the opposing wall. Within this faintly lit area, a web of glimmering lights gradually comes into view. Depth between said lights follow as the eye is further allowed to acclimate. The viewer is free to move along the back wall, and in effect, animating the chorus of lights in a slipping and sliding motion." 

intro blurb: 

"An immersive installation, GLINT catches light in an array of oblique fissures and reveals hints of its span while viewers let their eyes adjust to the totalizing darkness. Once visible, the slits of luminescence slip and slide in tandem with the viewer’s change in perspective." 

The moment is now. I am psyched to present my newest installation piece GLINT. The video footage I shot for documenting the piece is an unexpected favorite. 

The work can be found in the "Works in motion" section.

Thanks to those who made it out to experience the piece in person. 

Working with installations, I understand, is not an opportunity that presents itself frequently so I'm especially appreciative of the opportunities that have continued to crop up. I've been able to engage in a kind of thinking and making that I wouldn't have otherwise been confronted with for example, in say, drawing or film. 

Just like Swarm Gallery's blog post says, I have a new installation up in the Project Space at the gallery for THIS WEEK ONLY. The installation GLINT will be open to the public today from 4pm to 11pm and from 8pm to 11pm tomorrow night. The installation is open during the gallery's two remaining Sound Salon performances.

One of the primary challenges for this installation was to incorporate movement without a projector as I have with my last two installation pieces.    

Proper video documentation and additional images will be added to this website next week. I'll be making a "News" post when this exciting moment happens. 

BOOM. The installation, LACES, was right on the front page of Swarm Gallery last week. (Sorry for the retroactive posting.) LACES was reinstalled in the main gallery space as an accompaniment to Swarm's current exhibition "Sound Salon". The install came to life on the nights of 26th and 30th of January in harmony with an impressive range of musical genres from folk and electronic to jazz. LACES was also reinstalled for Oakland's Art Murmur on February 1st at Swarm Studios.

Wonderful shout out from studio mate, Sharaine Bell, on KPFA 94.1, December 29th, 2012. Smooth interview. Thanks!

Great to have been a part of this. 

Here's a look at some works on 12" x 12" panel I've been experimenting with. Just the beginning sketches for some concepts I'm working on. 

Everyone, 

There is a new installation piece posted under the "Works in motion" link to the left. The title of the piece is GLYPH.

This piece started out very different from the incarnation that it is now. Things change as the process teaches but with GLYPH, the turn was dramatic. So much so that I had to re-title the piece. SHEER LUMA, which was GLYPH's prior name, will be the next installation I'll be working on. 

Just an anecdote from behind the scenes.

Check out Swarm Studios this coming friday (October 5th) to see my latest light installation piece "Sheer Luma."

Click on the link above and take a look at "Musubi / Knot" installed in Oakland's City Hall. More photo coverage of "Art & Soul" art and music happenings after the jump.

Oakland Art Beat, Art Enthusiast "Photo Feature", http://oaklandartbeat.com/2012/08/07/photo-feature-oakland-art-and-soul-festival/, August 7, 2012, Oakland, CA, retrieved August 8, 2012

Oakland's favorite music fest returns with new look, digital art focus

"This year Oakland’s 12th Annual Art & Soul Festival will focus more on the “Art” than in previous years – with huge strategically-placed art exhibits in the streets and even with pieces within City Hall and the City Council chambers. 

One of those featured is Oaklandbased artist Masako Miyazaki, whose huge sculpture, “The Knot,” will adorn the side of Oakland’s City Hall. Born in New York and the new Oakland resident, Miyazaki designed her piece based on the traditional Japanese “Awaji Knot” – a decorative knot used traditionally for weddings and funerals, which symbolizes both strong eternal bond and something that will never happen again, Miyazaki said.

“I wanted my piece to have an open meaning,” she said. “It’s symbolizing the relationship of City Hall and the people – it symbolizes a bond, an organized tangle. And it involves a lot of complicated issues as well.” 

The piece, which is 13 feet tall and 15 feet wide, is still being finalized and will be black in color and large enough to be seen far and wide, she said. 

“I’m excited and I was given this amazing opportunity and I immediately said ‘yes,’” she said. Miyazaki heads a list of artisans lending their talents to this year’s festival that is a veritable who’s who of local and renowned artists including: de Young Artist Fellow and Artist-inResidence Alumni,Ex’pression College for Digital Arts, Black Rock Arts Foundation,The Crucible, NIMBY, Pro Arts andAmerican Steel Studios."

Tuseda A. Graggs, Oakland Local, http://oaklandlocal.com/article/art-soul-oakland-kicks-weekend-new-look-digital-art-focus, Oakland, CA, July 31, 2012, retrieved August 8, 2012

Tuseda A. Graggs, Shades Magazine, http://myshadesmagazine.net/norcal-festival-highlights-art-sf-bay-artists-for-12th-annual-event/, Oakland, CA, July/Aug, 2012, p. 25, retrieved August 8, 2012

A new commissioned piece, "Musubi / Knot" is now installed over at Oakland City Hall. What an incredible opportunity to work on public art. The installation will be up until the end of August.  

East Bay Express, "Arts & Culture", Oakland, CA, August 1-7, 2012, p. 43

Art & Soul Oakland to Maximize Fun with Expanded Focus

"On the grand stairway’s central landing in City Hall, Oakland’s own Masako Miyazaki presents "The Knot" as an open symbol suggesting both the societal ideal of diverse entities united for a common purpose and an entangled structure produced by the processes of complicated relationships and compromised situations. Miyazaki’s piece, exhibited for the first time publicly, represents knottings and unknottings as a natural series of changes resultant from the negotiations of different ideas brought to City Hall." 

Susan Mernit, KQED News Oakland Local, July 17, 2012, retrieved July 17, 2012