Margaret Devine takes a look at Susan Sakamoto's art Friday at the Esplanade. Sakamoto's art is now on display in the pay-what-you-will format.--NEWS PHOTO MO CRANKER
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@MHNmocranker
Susan Sakamoto has called the Hat home for just about her entire life.
Friday evening she held the reception for a solo art exhibit at the Esplanade – something she has never done before.
“I’ve had shows around the city in different locations and I have contributed pieces to other Esplanade exhibits, but I have never had my own,” she said. “This is a really big deal to me and it’s been a long-term goal for me to have a show at the Esplanade.
“This is a real honour for me.”
The gallery will be open until the end of March, with a number of different types of art being showcased.
“This show is mixed media,” said Sakamoto. “The theme of the show is ‘boro’ which comes from the Japanese term of Boroboro – that means rags, tethered or repaired.
“I use the ‘boro’ theme to create layers in the gallery.”
Sakamoto says her father in law, Hideo Sakamoto, had a big influence on her exhibit.
“I’m using a lot of my father in law’s notes – things like notes, payroll tweets, things about farming and planting plans,” she said. “I look at these documents and realize how little we know about peoples’ lives – the ones that come before us.
“I look at what we can learn by looking at their lives and thinking about our grandchildren – we have 10 that don’t live here.
“They won’t know me like our kids knew their grandparents – to me, this is a way of building a relationship with them so they can know me when I’m no longer here.”
Sakamoto has painted since the early 1970s, but she says she has kicked it up a notch within the past four years.
“Lately I have decided that I won’t decide what to paint before I start, I just start painting and go from there,” she said. “This has been so freeing and I just keep painting until I am satisfied.
“I respond to what I put down on the page rather than letting my idea dictate what I do – I let the surface and the paint tell me where to go.
“All of the work on display has come from the past couple years and I’m just really excited for this opportunity.”
The gallery is part of the pay-what-you-will program put on by the Esplanade. For more go to http://www.esplanade.ca
