1/12/2023

What 56 Years Taught This Painter About Anger

Gabby is a 56-year-old transracial adoptee, who describes her past self as the angriest, most bitter person. Today, that’s far from what you’ll feel when you experience her work, which is rooted in healing and joy. Ching Ching, a childhood taunt she heard from bullies, became a series of work Gabby made in 2014, where integrated Chinese porcelain to pay homage to her roots. Gabby has reconciled that her life experiences as a Chinese New Zealander was and will be different from her family’s, who are all white. She’s also connected with more adoptees and bi-racial folk who can relate to her story. Her art is not only making up for the years she denied her heritage, she’s creating a legacy for herself and the communities she cares for. Color: Haruka Motohashi

1/12/2023

What 56 Years Taught This Painter About Anger

Gabby is a 56-year-old transracial adoptee, who describes her past self as the angriest, most bitter person. Today, that’s far from what you’ll feel when you experience her work, which is rooted in healing and joy. Ching Ching, a childhood taunt she heard from bullies, became a series of work Gabby made in 2014, where integrated Chinese porcelain to pay homage to her roots. Gabby has reconciled that her life experiences as a Chinese New Zealander was and will be different from her family’s, who are all white. She’s also connected with more adoptees and bi-racial folk who can relate to her story. Her art is not only making up for the years she denied her heritage, she’s creating a legacy for herself and the communities she cares for. Color: Haruka Motohashi

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The UFO Summoner From Ishigaki Japan

Ishigaki Island, Japan. Everyone's heard about people running into aliens. And everyone thinks generally the same thing: those people are crazy. Claims of encounters with extraterrestrials are usually dismissed as superstition or hallucination. So, when we heard reports of numerous and consistent UFO sightings on Ishigaki -- a modest, neighboring island to Okinawa in southwest Japan -- we arrived as skeptics. When we got to the island, we met Naoyoshi Watanabe, a resident who's heard of a creature with freaky features..."like some sort of mummified octopus, but with a face, arms, and legs." He says his friends came across the creature while fishing in the popular tourist spot, the "Blue Cave." Weirdly, about a week after they told Naoyoshi-san about their encounter and request to look into it, they'd forgotten about it entirely. When Naoyoshi-san's tried to follow up, they don't know what he's talking about. That's weird. But it's one story, and we weren't fully convinced. So we trekked up to the northernmost tip of the island to meet with Suekazu Maeda, a man who claims to regularly 'summon the vehicles of the legendary beings.' He was excited by captive audience, and walked us through his tried and true method - flashing a light into the night sky. Initially, nothing happened, just as expected: no outer-world being appeared. But then, almost as if on command, spheres of light as big as the stars were bursting into the night sky. Over the course of an hour, we were in awe as we witnessed around 8-9 flashes of light interacting with each other in the sky. We were shocked--it felt like being in a daze. Maeda-san, however, was unfazed. He's seen them before, many times, even heard them make noise. He only wishes he could see their faces.

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What 56 Years Taught This Painter About Anger