Initially I thought that my trip to Kyoto would provide an opportunity to really explore the use of the visual journal and refine my ideas about keeping field notes.As is so often the way with art and travel Japan led me to something else entirely.The travel journal became a practical document for jogging my memory, and the travelling bought me an awareness of a different aesthetic. I began to notice the Japanese approach to combining materials.This built on the ideas I was developing from Reijneder’s master class about building up artworks composed of many different elements.The use of natural materials to enhance manmade objects is very refined in Japan and I became aware of the way architecture, gardens, food, and pots were created to exist in dialogue with their surroundings.This resonates with my philosophy that art should be part of the world rather than apart from it.To create a pot designed to enhance the smell of the air coming through an open window or, a table to lead one’s eye to a beautiful mountain on a far horizon seems to be reinforcing the idea that art and life exist in symbiosis.
