We interrupt this regularly scheduled writing session...

Trembling Aspen | Series 04_My Life Here | Issue_06

I’m sitting in Hoshino Coffee not far from Yokohama station. I’ve just asked a couple of O-ji-san* if they mind if I take a  picture of the room. It felt like the polite thing to do, since they’d be in the picture. I’m not sure if they were appreciative of the gesture, or annoyed that I had interrupted their rather intense conversation which had been going since I sat down more than an hour ago. Whlep, either way, I tried. And having permission, I feel completely okay with posting the picture. 

I came to Hoshino to write. Coffee shops work for me. Most of the time they help me focus and get a good chank** of work done. On this occasion, I needed to get at least one thing done, a supplementary document for my 2024 Koganecho Bazaar spring exhibition proposal, which is a proposal to create a GratitudeGrief Quilt. If writing went well, I hoped to also get at least a first draft of the next issue of the newsletter done.

This issue—despite having been sick and having hit a significant holiday lull, I will again gracefully remind myself—still felt overdue. I was feeling the pressure of a self-imposed deadline. 

Despite the pressure, I’m getting better at setting aside one task so as to focus fully on another, rather than spin hopelessly around both, which is what I managed to do. (The focusing thing, not the spinning thing.) The last 45 minutes or so had lead to a significant chank of writing that I was mostly happy with. I hit a natural pause, and in that pause, in slipped a thought about the next newsletter issue. Focus, gone.

However, rather than losing focus and hopelessly spinning, up popped inspiration. My last thought regarding this issue, earlier in the day, was that I’d write about my GratitudeGrief Quilt project. Here I now sat with 45 minutes worth of writing about exactly that. Lightbulb moment. 

I’ll share the project proposal writing I’ve just finished! I don't have to reinvent the wheel. Most of the writing is done! And I'm happy with it!

It’s amazing how energizing that combo of clarity and hope can be. Energized, I switched gears, and started writing what you just read.  

Knowing what I'd be writing about, I first took a picture of the O-ji-san, to show you where I am. And here we are, all caught up, back at the beginning of the piece.

Except you have no idea what the GratitudeGrief Quilt project is.

Having told you the harrowing tale of partial writer's block, and the resultant and exciting (to me) way through, I'm going to get this out the door while it's fresh (and to allay the encroaching sense of over-due-ness).

Next up, in the not too distance future, after I finish and submit my proposal, I'll share the contents of said proposal, the GratitudeGrief Quilt project.

And now...I turn my attention back to the proposal...

* O-ji-san: literally "uncle," refers to any middle aged man. I tend to use the term to refer to dudes who look and act like Japan in the 80's was the time to be alive. One of these dudes was classic O-ji-san mode. BTW, Hoshino is chain of classic 80's kissaten (coffee shop), the kind where you pay far too much for a cup of coffee, so as to sit undisturbed for hours on end.

** This is a new, accidental term I am hereby officially adding to my vocabulary. I don’t know why, but I prefer “a chank of writing,” to “a chunk of writing.” 

Hey, I’m Steve, an artist-in-residence in Yokohama, Japan. I make collaborative art, participatory art, interactive new media installations, and abstract visual art. I explore themes of home, identity, belonging and how to live your life like a work of art. I write about it all in this very newsletter, Trembling Aspen.

I’m learning out loud so we can learn together.

If you would like to support me, my residency, my work, and this newsletter, or if you are interested in crowd-funding interdependent art-making in Yokohama, Japan, please consider subscribing.