Ikebana focuses on giving the now dying flower (freshly cut) a new, beautiful life. I was inspired to start incorporating this symbolism into my work, as I tend to explore death through my photography.
When Atsunobu Katagiri (atsunobukatagiri.com) came out to address the class, he was decked out in traditional clothing and talking about his traditional Japanese house. His house was awesome; it had mud walls, rice paper sliding doors, and a great garden. James was translating everything for the class as he introduced ikebana to us. After about ten minutes of speaking, he looks at us and says 'So are you all following me? Yea, I lived in Seattle for 5 years, I'm fluent in English.' He totally had me fooled.
Tsuda Nao showing us his work: www.tsudanao.com. These two are great friends and are often together while they make their work. Tsuda Nao is a successful fine art photographer and Atsunobu Katagiri is what I consider to be a 'sculptor' in a way. He sculpts flowers :) It is truly an art form, he made his way better than the class, but he did it backwards so we could see what was going on. Very impressive.
My very own ikebana! I forgot how important it is to bring the outside in. My mom has a huge, colorful garden and a house full of plants. I need to bring them back in my life at home.
After making our ikebana, we photographed them in Atsunobu Katagiri's traditional Japanese home and garden.
