Coincidence The Second: New
Years with Yoshio
arc3P160.
This morning the blog passed 1,000 page views. That’s a
milestone. Thank you for stopping by and spending part of your day here.
We
were on the topic of synchronicity, those just-so coincidences that keep
showing up as this project continues. Pete’s brother Rick sent me this in an
email:
In regards to coincidences, I found
this quote a few years back that you may find coincidental...
Albert Einstein,
“Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”
Like I said. Guardian Angels…
Anyway…
My wife Mary and I have been active in the Whittier Arts
community for many years. We both have produced some few pieces of work which
have been on display at various galleries and exhibitions. Indeed, I met Mary through a mutual friend who
ran a framing shop, and was an accomplished fine artist herself.
One of our acquaintances
is Yoshio Nakamura. Yoshio is 95 years old, a WWII veteran, a teacher, and an
artist of some renown. He has been instrumental in the Whittier Art community
for a very long time. His daughter is among Mary’s friends.
arc3P164
We saw Yoshio and his
daughter at a New Year’s Eve, 2019 Party.
Yoshio asked me, as he does every time we meet, if I have taken up my
stone carving again. As before, I told him I just didn’t have the fire to do it
anymore. And besides, I had a new project I was working on.
I told him about my friend, Pete Hampton and his work, and
how I was engaged in this project, this blog…
Yoshio interrupted me mid- sentence. “Pete Hampton! Was he
kind of…?"
As Yoshio searched for the right word, I offered, “He was
kinda’ nuts…”
“Yes!”, Yosh exclaimed. “He was one of my students at
Whittier High. (~1956—’58) I remember he would burst into my office… There was
no protocol, no boundaries. He would be… raving about all kinds of things. I
always wondered what would happen to him...”
So I told Yoshiro about the project, and explained how this is where my creative energies
would be going for the foreseeable future.
Yoshio nodded, smiled, and told me of a woman who had come to
him, and who is now in the process of organizing his studio, and cataloguing
his life’s work. The woman had told Yoshio, that she felt it was her “Mission”
to do this. Yosh added that she was a Mormon woman.
Now, I am not of the Mormon faith. Nonetheless, when Yoshio added
that, it shifted the connotation of the word, “Mission” onto another plane.
And Yoshio told me that it was my “Mission” to do this work
for Pete.
And with that:
This week we’ll get a first look at the paintings in Archive
3. There are three substantial sets of paintings in this box. The first is a
stack of smaller paintings, some matted, and one framed piece. There is also a
huge stack of cloud sketches. Finally, there is a good sized collection of
paintings from The Lost Canyon Trip. Those will come later.
arc3P163
Some of these pictures are difficult to photograph. The night scenes are very dark, and Pete sprayed most of his paintings with several coats of clear acrylic lacquer. Flash is out of the question. It's a challenge to get the light and camera angles just right to avoid the glare.
John, You have done an excellent job of removing the glare in these photos and I know it is difficult to do so. These pictures remind me of when Mary and I got a little too ambitious starting out at Sycamore Canyon near Spyglass road trail head and heading up the deer paths to the top of the hills near the water tower. It was a long hot walk down along the rim of the fire road and onto the street with houses, finally onto Beverly Blvd. We stopped to revive ourselves at El Buen Gusto Cafe over water, Margaritas and delicious tostadas before we trudged back along Workman Mill Road to the trail head at our original starting point where the car was parked. Quite a long ridge loop amidst tall dry stalks of some kind of plant Pete would surely know about...alas, no Dragonflys or lichen on that hot summer jaunt.
ReplyDelete