via videosift

this is one of the christmas presents i made for elijah.  it’s a panda backpack.  elijah really likes the pandas we’ve bought him.  he has three panda cuddly toys from ikea.  he really looks up to them, he’ll follow whatever they’re doing.  when his panda sits down on a chair without making a fuss, so does elijah.  when his panda eats quietly takes a few bites of supper, so does elijah.  so pandas are very helpful for elijah’s mama.

elijah is happy when his pandas are happy.

and he feels sad when they are sad.

i don’t know if he can really use this as a backpack, since it’s made out of felt.  but that’s okay, it’s just another useless toy from his mama.

(back)

(abdominal incision/zipper)

(a six leg elephant for elijah)

i am elijah’s personal entertainment device.

i read books to him from dawn to dark, and even later (it gets dark at 5pm these days).  i’ve read some of his books so many times i started reading them back to front, for variety.  i make sure to read the credits, publication date and all the small print just to keep myself informed about the world.  elijah says ‘book, yomu [read].  hon[book] yomu.  etto~ [hmmm], atta! [found it].  tech, okay” [he means a book called ‘iggy peck, architect‘ ]’.  he grabs a book or two from his bookshelf and tells me, ‘mama, sit!’.  he climbs onto the sofa and points next to him.  as a japanese citizen i’m naturally obedient, so i sit and read to him as much as he wants.  whenever he finds one of my books around the house he grabs it and pretends to read it.  then he says “okay, okay” meaning i’m supposed to read it to him.  if i start reading, he gets bored right away and goes off somewhere else.  sometimes he tries to take the book with him.  i tell him ‘that’s mama’s book’.  he firmly assures me, ‘mine!’.

i’m also his jukebox.  all day long, he asks me to sing.  he’ll say, ‘zoh-san [elephant], okay~’ or ‘abc, okay!’ etc..  i sing ‘zoh-san’ in japanese and the alphabet song in english.  as soon as i finish he says ‘okay!’ and he wants me to start singing again.  this continues even when we’re eating supper or when he’s nursing or when i’m driving the car.  he doesn’t care that i’m behind the wheel and it’s icy and i have to concentrate.  he says ‘mama, cookie, okay!’.  i used to think he was asking for a cookie and i’d give him a cracker (i told him crackers are cookies).  then i figured he was wanting me to sing ‘c is for cookie’ from sesame street (he saw it on youtube) again and again.  i start singing and crash the car into a ditch… mentally.  it won’t be long till elijah finds out i’m tone deaf, maybe then he’ll start listening to different music.

finally, i’ve been appointed as his personal toy maker.  i made him a panda scarf the other day since it’s been awfully cold here in saskatoon (-25 during the day, -35 at night).  it’s not as bad as it sounds — the sky is blue and everything is covered in white snow.  it is very beautiful and painful, nice to sit inside and look out the window. anyway, as soon as elijah saw the scarf, his mouth opened wide and he said ‘OH~! PANDA~!’.  it was almost as exciting for him as the time we had supper near the yellowhead highway on the way to edmonton and he spent 20 minutes pointing at every single truck that drove by (’OH~! TRUCK!’).  i was touched that he liked the panda scarf, even though he didn’t let me put it on him at first.

ever since then i’ve become his personal toymaker and i’ve been sewing away while he is playing and sleeping.  he likes elephants very much, but he didn’t have an elephant plush toy.  so i made one for him out of felt.  it’s flat like a pillow and has six legs.  i don’t know why it ended up with six legs. i just started making legs and kept going until i reached the end of the elephant.  elijah’s first reaction to it was enthusiastic (’OH~~~ ELEPHANT!’) and i was happy he noticed it was wearing socks.   but since then my elephant is only played with occasionally, but at least it makes it into the lineup of the favorite plush toys that elijah wants to say goodnight to before he goes to sleep.

the untitled love project book has finally been released by ISM.  i took part in phase 4 of this project. this drawing is titled ’soul pumping’.

there is a book release party + artist signing at the cerasoli : lebasse gallery tonight.

to buy the book (US$4.95), please visit ISM website.

After two years of exhibitions, interviews and editing the ISM: Untitled Love Project book is finally finished.

We will be celebrating with a book release party + artist signing at the Cerasoli : LeBasse Gallery on Saturday, December 13th, 7:00pm - 10:00pm.

The untitled LOVE project is an emotionally influenced experiment examining the broken heart. Each individual artist revisited a past relationship through their medium.

The book features each original artistic expression accompanied with interviews, short stories, or journal entries regarding the story behind the conceptual recollection.

FEATURED ARTISTS (in book)
Allison Sommers. Amy Sol. Angelina Wrona. Anthony Clarkson. Aaron Jasinski. Audrey Kawasaki. Bradford J Salamon. Brandon Francis. Brian M Viveros. Brianne Drouhard. Camilla d’Errico. Camilla Engman. Candace Metzger. Caro. Carrie Ann Baade. Casey O’Connell. Chris Ryniak. Courtney O’Quist. Crystal Yin. Dave Chung. Dave Pressler. Dennis Hayes. Elesavet Lawson. Erik Abel. Erik Siador. Grace Chee. Haubs. J Shea. Jarrod Eastman. Jen Tong. Jeni Yang. Jesse Hotchkiss. Josh Hart. Joshua Clay. Julie Lee. Justin DeGarmo. Katy Horan. Kelly Vivanco. Ken Garduno. Kenneth LaValle. Kmndz. Kris Lewis. Kristyn Dors. Leanne Biank. Lizz Lopez. Lori Escobar. Matt Dangler. Melanie Moore. Melissa A Contreras. M Mararian’s Inky Dreadfuls. Munk One. Nekoshowgun. Nicolette Davenport. P Williams. Patrick Ballesteros. PJ Fidler. Rachel Schmidhofer. Ron Velasco. Ronald J Llanos. Sanithna Phansavanh. Sarah Joncas. Scott Altmann. Scott Chenoweth. Sheesh. Suzanne Clements. The Dead Beatnik. Tony Philippou. Yuka Yamaguchi. Yukari Nishi.

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS (not in book)
2h. Alexis Mackenzie. Alison Casson. Anders K Iden. Andrew Hem. Brian Kesling. Catia Chien. Dan Ah Kim. Daniel Fleres. Daniel St George. Edwin Ushiro. Gabe Leonard. Jesse Kerr. Jimmy Bleyer. Jon Todd. Katherine Chiu. Kristian Olson. Lilly Piri. Marco Zamora. Marie Barr. Matthew Feyld. Mike Stilkey. Pamela Henderson. Rad Sechrist. Rich Tuzon. Rob Kruse. Scott Barry. Scott Saw. Seizer. Timothy Karpinski. Tuan Vutran. Tommii Lim. Victor Marquez. Zoso.

ALSO ON DISPLAY DURING THE EVENT
Gallery I: Evan B. Harris ‘Maritime & Mythology’
Gallery II: ‘Gifted’ Group show featuring small works of 12″ x 12″

Cerasoli : LaBasse Gallery
8530-B Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
www.cerasoli-labasse.com

the electric company

today, elijah turned 18 months old.  he hasn’t learned to sleep through the night yet.  i’m writing this post at 10:30pm and he’s already woken up once since 7:30 pm.   he called me saying ‘mama~, mama~’.  when i went into his bed room, he was just about to open the door (now he sleeps in his bed, not a crib.  so he can come out of his room anytime!).  he said to me “that way!  thay way! (pointing at the rocking chair).  SIT DOWN!  OPPAI~ (breasts)”.  i nursed him and asked him “bed?”.  he walked up on the bed and i sang to him and he fell asleep.

elijah has learned all the letters of the alphabet and most of the numbers (1 -9) in nice mixture of japanese and english.  he started to say some adjectives and phrases as well.

every night, before he falls asleep, he recites some of the words he knows.  it goes like this:

(elijah)”acchi [that], kocchi [this], docchi [which]? dump truck, garbage truck, dump truck, garbage…  mail truck, ookii truck.  papa.  truck, big truck.  digger~ (with hand gesture).  mama~ dai~ [i love you] (gives me a hug).  utau~ utau [sing].  kon kon, OKAY~! [then i sing ‘yuki ya konko’].  are?  are? naine~ [hm? hmm?  there isn’t…].  atta! [i found it!] panda!  sleeping…  blanket, blanket (he covers panda with a blanket).  sheeee…..  wawa [water], hoshii, hoshii [want].  ageru~ [give].  that way, that way…  kitchen.  bye bye~!”

(me) “do you want me to go?  okay, i’ll be in the kitchen. daijyobu [it’ll be okay].  i’ll be back and check on you later. (all in japanese)”.

(elijah)”daijyo-bu.  bye bye”

(me)”oyasumi [good night].”

(elijah) “o,ya,su~mi”

(me) “shimeruyo [i’ll close the door.]”

(ellijah)”shimeruyo, bye bye”

[i close the door]

(elijah) GYA~~~~~~ (crying…)

[i come back to his room]

(elijah) “star~star~…twinkle, OKAY~! (then i sing ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ in english).  “tokei [clock], OKAY! (then i sing ‘my grandfather’s clock’ in japanese).  kira kira, OKAY! (then i sing ‘twinkle~’ in japanese)”.

a few more songs later, he falls asleep…

C is for Calm down, elijah.

maximum team power duck (decapitated version) and C-section bunnies are taking part of 4th annual handmade plush show at monkeyhouse in los angeles.  Maximum team power ducks are a special guest of my first book called “the boring life of spencer, the ennui dog‘ (2006).  click the link and you can read some of the pages.

if you’re around in los angeles tonight, please drop by.

 Wild Wild Kingdom - handmade plush of the animal kind
december 6 - 31

Opening reception :: December 6th Saturday, 4 - 8pm

Artists include: Heidi Kenney, Anna Chambers, 13:11, Sara Lanzillotta, Clara Boo of Curioddities, Aglaia Mortcheva, Toys from Saturn, I Heart Guts, Couch Tomato, Josh Taylor/ip2much, ichae ackso, Jenny Harada, Nancy of MinJae, Cimmi Mills, Nataka Moya Moya, Tsai-fi, Douglas Alvarez, Kathryn Keys, Renee Lawter, Beenznrice, Terri “Tooter” Berman, 9-Kei, Yuka Yamaguchi, Winona Regan, j. fuchs, 3 Sheets, Krystle Swaving, Vera Paras, Glenda Rolle, Lucy & Otis, Randy Kono, Jake Dino Miller, Natalie, Zola and more….

Monkeyhouse toys and art gallery

1618 1/2 Silver Lake Blvd.
Los Angeles
323.662.3437