The Izumi Art Club exhibition

 There are seven students who stayed with our teacher, Wakamatsu Sensei, after the earthquakes. For a few months we had classes in his remaining studio and then things were arranged so that we had classes in the NHK Bunka Center again, but this time in a downtown school, rather than the one in Izumi Chuo. Yesterday I was having coffee at Starbucks in Izumi Chuo and noticed that the lights were on in the old classroom so maybe the repairs have finally started.

In this picture we are arranging the pictures before hanging them. Two of the faculty from the university help us put up the show in a professional manner. Using tape measures and string, the pictures are arranged at the same height and with equal spacing between them.

 This shows the result of an hour or so of work. Altogether we had 40 pictures and some other stuff.

 My pictures this year were all about disasters. They were very therapeutic to do, but now I have gone back to trees, my favorite subject. This building was shown in the newspaper and it had been damaged by wind.

 This was a takeoff on a woodblock print by Hiroshige, but I replaced Mount Fuji with a Japanese style house to represent the tsuname.

 This is the famous ruins at Hiroshima and represents man's inhumanity to man.

 Three of my fellow students (we are all old and the men are retired) checking out the pictures.

 Kato San took pictures of all the pictures.

 After all the pictures were hung, Wakamatsu Sendei gave a critic of each picture as a learning experience of us.

I had one additional picture in the show. I did it before the earthquake and the subject is a canal scene from Europe. I used a photo that Wakamatsu Sensei had taken on one of his trips as the basis for my drawing. Most of the time I start with a photo but change things to make a more interesting drawing. Sometimes my work comes entirely from my head.