Japan: Tokyo day 3

Thanks to the world cup I was able to stay up late and beat the jet lag! We woke up at a reasonable 8:30 and found a beautiful day waiting for us. First let me show you some shots of our apartment.
I sleep here in the living room on a futon and watch the FIFA on our flat screen.


Yasha has got nice private quarters fit for a, well, a queen.


The balcony is great for a smoke and take in the sunrise and sunset.

The kitchen is super cute and equipped with all we need from rice cooker to coffee maker and then some.

For the past couple of mornings I have been preparing eel omelettes to get our energy up for the long walks ahead.



Today we made our way to Shibuya to meet up with Rie who will be modeling for me this Tuesday. First we walked around a bunch to check out the area with all its shops and places to eat.


And if you want some puffer fish, this is the place.



The malls are filled with funny little clothing shops for your cosplay, forest girl and hip hop super cool fun times with the girls screaming irasshaimase! in super high pitched voices.





We met Rie at the doggie sculpture at the Shibuya station. She took us to a sushi conveyor belt joint for yummy fish and beer.

She then took us over to Harajuku to look for some fabric for the shoots.

We met up with her buddy(his name I forgot) who knew a perfect shop to find old kimonos and we scored a nice all white one for my ghosts. It was a looong day full of great conversations and finds. Now its rest up time, make spagetti and watch Japan in the world cup. See you tomorrow!!-David






Another day of beautiful weather in Japan - we are blessed. It should be rainy season but we have been lucky - which is very good for scouting parks and locations for the shoots.

Today took us to Shibuya and Harajuku.


We met with Rie our second beautiful model and she was wonderful and amazing. She took us to a little Sushi place where in order to enter we had to agree to have 7 little dishes - i gave up after 4 David managed to eat all 7 and a beer ;-)

Than our wonderful guide and model led way to a very special little street in Shibuya known for being THE hangout place for the high school kids and "Harajuku Lovers". Store after store filled with costumes of comic characters, fake eyelashes, neon colored backpacks, Lolita dresses and tiny miniature top hats for prices that made me think I should start import- and exporting those things to the US i'd be a millionaire and finally a dog clothing store to match your bumblebee clad owner.


It reminded me of St.Marks in the early 80's and Camden town around the same time. A little cheesy, a little weird but a LOT of fun and creativity.


We bought spiderweb eyelashes for the girls and left to meet yet another friend and helper for this shoot " the stylist " We will get his name because we forgot and he is coming for the shoot on Tuesday. He knew of our search for a white Kimono and so he led us to a store called " Chicago" where we found vintage Kimonos and all the accessories needed to make it look authentic and stick with the white ghost theme of the Obake. As you can see David was so excited that upon our return home he could not resist but had to play dress up - I made him serve tea immediately ;-)!!
xoxoxox Yasha

Japan: Tokyo day 2

I have traveled to Japan along with my good friend and owner of Strychnin Gallery Yasha Young who is behind the production of my next project about Japanese ghosts and demons. We have come to Japan to gather the materials and inspirations to put the show together. The exhibit will be next June with a sneak peek into the project this fall at Art 21 in Cologne Germany in which I will premiere a few pieces. For the next 3 week we will gather images and thoughts of our travels to share on this here blog. We will both be posting images and text of our adventures throughout our voyages in Japan.
We both hope you will enjoy this peek into our trip and spark some anticipation of the works to come over the next year.
We arrived 2 days ago(the 22nd) to a seriously humid and rainy season.




After settling in and getting provisions, we rested up and began the exploration of the city of Tokyo. We met up with the first of my would be models, Fujiko, who is also a renowned DJ and I look forward to the shoot with her. I was too preoccupied with my soba and tempura to get a photo of her at lunch but I will share that after the shoot with her. We met her after a stroll through Roppongi with sudden and scattered rain showers.







I am now just trying to stay awake after filling my belly with fried jack mackerel and tempura at home. I just wanna see the world cup, since now its on at night rather then when I wake up in the morning.


Our apartment is actually bigger then I expected and thank the lord has air conditioning. The area is 白金高輪駅（東京）..i mean Shirokane Takanawa and is quiet and pleasant.
There are a few shrines and temples right off our street. I cannot wait to see more!
-xoxoxDavid


Ahhh finally we have arrived - after about 20h of travel and one super nice virgin atlantic flight attendant who had a constant supply of tea with honey for me I touched down Narita airport with and snotty nose and one bag less due to Heathrow stop over - no surprise there.....! Now all I needed to do was wait another 6 hours for David to arrive and finally after delay after delay there he was !!!! Tired, sweaty but happy and ready to get on we took the Limousine buss through tokyo and than a very cute cab (!) to our apartment in Midtown Tokyo. After such a long day the temperatures outside this beautiful little place with air condition, fridge and shower for ridiculous $$$$ was worth every penny !! A quick shower and out we were to go to Peacock supermarket. You quickly learn that eating healthy might be expensive in NYC when buying organic but I mean one onion for $2.50 and two oranges for $3.95 - are you serious? !! Yes Tokyo is the most expensive place to eat fresh fruit or vegetable - a green salad with tomatoes - equals about $9.00 and that got you one head of romaine lettuce and 2 small tomatoes.
We bought the bare essentials and David decided to get one of his favorites - fried Octopus balls !!!! now followed a quick dinner and than passing out on our first night in Tokyo me in the bed ( Thank you David ) and he on the futon extra in the living room with football and some good japanese beer.


Today we woke to a lot of rain and I personally to a polka dot umbrella David brought especially for me his albino friend! We decided to venture out to Roppongi to meet with one of the potential models and after a long walk past thousands of on the street drink and coffee vending machines we arrived at one of the "new" Tokyo landmarks Roppongi Central Mall where we broke down and although filled with shame had a Dean and Deluca steamed soy milk - so much for "yeah man we are going to do it all authentic old school japanese style " - but it was sooooo good......

We still had some time to kill and ventured off through a beautiful park and found in between skyscrapers and parking lots a tiny street with a beautiful little temple and very old cemetery with beautiful big trees and japanese grave sculptures. A very peaceful place.




Then Fujiko, shopgirl during the day and a major celebrity DJ by night met with us and took us to a little Rahmen noodle spot where we sealed the deal with hot and cold Rahmen and Buckwheat tea. The excitement of getting started and scheduling the first shoots was in the air and she may even have an original Kimono !

So one new Passu card later - it's the japanese oyster card - and our first subway ride which is an amazingly easy and fast system we were back ohm for a nap and some homemade sticky rice beer and of course ready for FOOTBALL! ( yes david found CNN amongst those 323558 channels !!! )
-xoxoxYasha

Summer Screen Parties 2010!!!

Hey there folks! Summer is here and it is time for some silkscreen fun time action party goodness. Starting this upcoming Sunday the 13th, I will begin hosting a series of fund raising screen parties at my studio in downtown Manhattan. The monies raised will be going towards helping artists involved in a new art fair held in Cologne Germany for underground artists offering affordable booth space for those who cannot afford the high priced entries of more established art fairs while showing right along side the big boys. The fair is called Blooom and this is its first year. I have been asked to curate a booth and will consists of 6 great talents under the title of Guild of The Black Eagle, a multidisciplinary collective I started in 2006. So I am going to host 6 parties over the next 5 months to help these artist raise a few extra bucks towards their project.

The first artist I will be screening with is Ivan Mora. He and I will be screening this Sunday the 13th from 5pm until midnight. We will be new screens as well as a bunch of older designs.





How it works is you bring something to screen on, shirts, pillow cases, any printable surface, and for 5 bucks, we put our designs on it for you. Its fun and cheap and for a good cause towards giving artists the opportunity to showcase their works in Europe.

Where?: 93 2nd Ave. buzzer 1 (press buzzer hard) between 5th and 6th streets in the East Village Manhattan.

When?: This Sunday the 13th of June from 5pm til midnight
Bring?: stuff to print on and 5 buck per item, and cold beer!


It is gonna be hot up in the studio so don't wear leather pants.
I will have a punch bowl offering cold drink(spiked) but do not feel scared to BYOB since it will be limited

Also there will be a raffle offered at 5 bucks a ticket with the chance to win up to 4 prizes! The 1st prize is a plaster ship I made, the one golden version of the "Black Ships" installation I will be presenting this September at the Governors Island art fair,another great art fair for artists by artists project here in NYC. There will be 3 other secret prizes! Raffle drawing at 11pm.


Aaaaand, just for this party, there will be 8 x 10 one of a kind screen print on wood available for just 20 bucks each! They are limited as well so come early and grab yourself one! These are only available at this party and that's it!

We will also be showing new prints by Mark Sobczak which are quite beautiful. He is a fantastic photographer who has been working with artist Gregory Colbert for over a decade.

Please come and join us and help us get these guys across the sea and showcase their work!
here is the list of Guild of The Black Eagle in Germany this year
Ivan Lee Mora
Buddy Nestor
Jeff Faerber
CJ Stahl
Jeremy Holmes
Eduardo Benedetto