My work traverses a number of interests, inspirations and practices. The first is the observation of thingness spirited by immense curiosity. Living so close to nature even in a small city environment, our lives are steeped in a wealth of diversity of plant and animal life intermingled with the constant changes of weather and seasons. Everything is moving and translucent, shifting, even if imperceptible; no steady state, no permanence, no solidity.

 

My longtime interests include practices such as meditation and Buddhist studies, hatha yoga and Japanese ikebana, flower arranging. I have had the great good fortune of studying with many accomplished teachers as examples, many paths to enter. These practices form an adjunct to art studies, formal and ongoing of drawing, brush work, printmaking and working with Japanese hand-made washi paper. Discovering washi came about through my association through Toronto’s Open Studio during the 1980’s. Beginning with chine collé, and marouflage collographs, washi started as an added decorative paper element within traditional etching and monotype printimaking. With further experimentation via direct painting, and collaging, washi expressions led to large banner type installations and the increasing use of transparent layering juxtaposed with acrylic washes.

 

Patterning, texturizing, layering, transparency and colour have now included malleability as my washi experiments have become three dimensional, sometime heavily pigmented and object-like.

 

August 1,2023

Heather Midori Yamada