On June 28, 2013 Japan’s Ministry of Culture awarded Sarah Brayer its Bunkacho Chokan Hyosho (“Commissioner’s Award”) for her contribution to making Japanese culture better known and understood internationally, through her original creations in Echizen washi (Japanese paper).
“Creating luminescent beauty in Japanese paper” was the title of my worldwide TED talk audition in Tokyo. You may view the talk here. The TED experience is testament to the power of positive ideas, and how that reinforcement inspires listeners and speakers to both reach higher and go to new levels of expression. I am grateful for the chance to speak about my passion for luminosity, paper, and light to an international audience.
Oceanic Moon, a 5-panel luminescent paperwork has found a new home in the Johnson Museum of Art’s permanent collection in Ithaca, New York. As the first work in the Luminosity series to enter a museum collection, it is a fulfillment of my dream to take Luminosity to public spaces. More news about the installation to follow…
Excited to be working in a new medium while in China, I created glass works at the Schoolhouse studio at Mutianyu, Beijing last autumn. I experimented with adding photo-luminescent pigments to the hot glass, which resulted in a mysterious glow at night. These works were shown in Kyoto at Gallery Shinmonzen in November.
“Sea of Clouds,” (50 x 50 cm) is my latest editioned print. I have developed a new way of embedding the aquatint image between washi fibers as if the clouds were drifting through the piece. The washi and print are integrated into one. Each piece is slightly different due to the hand pouring of the washi fibers onto the screen. The print was published in April 2012 in an edition of 35.