13 Comments

The world needs more blue butterflies and real honest connection, space, stillness. Really we just need to remember how to see again.

The reality of the world we live in is a perfect metaphor for the pigeon 😒

I think our job as artists is to keep showing people the 🦋 maybe slowly we can help people come home to self.

🦄👩🏼‍🎨

Expand full comment
author

I like your interpretation! This is what I love about art – it has the ability to open a dialogue between people. To me, stories and art, in general, are about communicating ideas and seeing how others respond to those ideas. That's also why I enjoy interviewing people so much. I have my own point of view on how the world works, but when I have the opportunity to engage in a conversation with others, my perspectives shifts through the exchange of energies, ultimately creating a more dynamic point of view. Thank you for sharing your perspective! I truly appreciate it.

Expand full comment

Couldn’t agree more. Whilst I don’t interview others on my podcast as yet, I do love the feedback and watching how conversations open up from a really vulnerable place.

Incredibly grateful for the substack platform for prioritising this type of communication.

I’m curious to know if you are seeing a pattern since Covid. It seems as though there is a collective yearning for so many people at the moment. This notion of “coming home to self” seems to be on the forefront of a lot of people.

Are you noticing this as you travel and interview?

Perhaps it is just some sort of algorithm that I have triggered 😅

Expand full comment
author

I'm not entirely sure if what I am witnessing is a collective shift in consciousness. But I have noticed that a lot of my interactions with people have changed. I also think that I have changed a lot since moving from LA, and by making the decision to live abroad.

I will say that I do feel a "presentness," with others that I have not felt before. Maybe in spurts or with people that I have been longtime friends, but in LA I would never randomly walk by the barber I go to, and then stand there and talk to my barber in broken Spanish/Portuguese mixed with English for an hour LOL! I mean... I find this sort of interaction quite charming now. In LA, I might have found it to be frustrating and/or annoying, but again, I think I have changed a lot...

So, I don't know... What have you noticed? Do you feel like there's a collective shift? What are your thoughts?

Expand full comment

Hmmmm where to start ...

I feel as if from a personal perspective I have certainly noticed some pretty heavy patterns. The last few years but in particular this year I’ve taken conscious effort to be more still and present. I’m an ex gymnast that competed internationally for years from a young age so there are some pretty strong pathways that have driven the way I operate. It’s the “you need to be struggling in order to succeed.” “If it’s not hurting you’re not working hard enough.”

I didn’t realise how much this mentally was ingrained in me up until being forced to stop.

I became a full time artist around the time Covid began which coincided with my gymnastics career finishing AND having a baby. So to say change would be an understatement 😆🙃

For the first time I realised that I had never actually been still. I found the concept of stillness and ease so terrifying, every day I still need to remind myself that there is no gold medal in art.

I think this is why art has always provided such polarity for me.

Now being fully immersed in a creative life and also surrounding myself with other artists it has been an eye opening experience watching as so many other people around me are realising that to be present is a conscious choice we have to make. I think people are realising that stillness and silence and complete freedom when it comes to our consumption of external information is actually very hard to come by.

It’s a journey I’m continuing every day and is one of the reasons I started my podcast and writing on substack.

I can see so many shifts in my work as a result of the choice to be inflow with the current rather than always rowing up stream. ✨

Expand full comment
author

Aw I see! I too have been an athlete my entire life, so I can understand the "struggling in order to succeed" mentality. I'm so glad that you are working on this stillness within yourself.

Regarding what you said, "I think people are realising that stillness and silence and complete freedom when it comes to our consumption of external information is actually very hard to come by." I completely agree with you. And I believe that in order to be in flow in this modern age we need to be able to disconnect from that external stimuli. We also need to be truly honest with ourselves about what we want out of life, or else we will be carried by the inertia of simply existing and going through the motions.

I love your paintings btw :) they kind of remind me of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, in the best way!

Expand full comment

Ooo I haven’t heard of them I’ll have to check them out 👌🏻

Expand full comment

Beautifully written... Have to admit I yelled (out loud) “Nooo” with that ending.

Can certainly see a metaphor for so much of society in this visual.

Expand full comment
author

Haha! Thank you Korynn, and thank you for the support / feedback. I'm very curious what message you took from reading this :)

Expand full comment
Apr 9, 2023Liked by YOSHINO

Your writing is so calming and really sucks the listener in, I felt like I was there. Wonderful!

Expand full comment
author

thank you thank you!! :))))

Expand full comment

Wow, Yoshino. Beautiful work.

Light/dark & dark/light are but hands within hands.

Thank you for writing.

Expand full comment
author

Thank you brother!!!!

Expand full comment