While I was in grad school, I pushed really hard to have an excuse to travel the world and see what was out there that wasn’t NY. I especially wanted to experience traveling and living in Japan. It was a country where it was constantly at odds with itself aesthetically, culturally, and artistically. It is simultaneously the most tranquil, simple, and peaceful place to exist, while also being the most chaotic, over stimulating, and manic environments I have been in. It was a dichotomy of attitude and views, past and future, all existing in one frame at a time. After trying for two years I got to go there, I got to teach functional sculpture and study with carpenters in Kyoto. It changed my very being, and set off a relationship with the country for five years.
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