The World of Joyce Kamikura

Artist's Statement

My Paintings represent my personal response to my environment. My ideas are not whole but fragments of what fascinate me and are seeds from which my works begin to develop. As a result, although my works undoubtedly have roots in my daily living, they may be a good deal removed from reality; some of them may be quite representational while others become abstracts.

By exaggerating vibrant colours, entertaining visual textures and other elements of design I take my painting mediums beyond their traditional execution; into mixed water media, acrylic, collage and oil. A subject leads to an idea. Then it becomes an immediate cause for me to paint, ultimately experiencing fun and struggle of permutations and possibilities deriving from that idea. It is not so much in the final product, but in the process and struggle to bring all elements together to function in harmonious presentation in a painting, that I derive so much satisfaction and pleasure as an artist. Visit my other site: http://joycekamikura.wordpress.com/

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

East Timor: Christmas 2018 and New Year's Day 2019

Christmas and New Year in Timor Leste (East Timor)
It was a long flight from Vancouver through Taipei to Bali to East Timor, but the trip was worth the adventure as we were greeted by our daughter, Vivienne from Geneva and her husband, Ronny, who is representing the UNFPA in this new country. Signs of colonial days under the Portuguese rules are seen in many places in Dili. After years of war with Indonesia, the country is finally independent although with trials and tribulations of a developing democratic country, helped by the UN and others. Its capital, Dili with its many embassies face miles of sandy beach front. Its infrastructures are primitive but its landscape is just gorgeous with miles of unused sandy beaches and multi-coloured forest greens adorned with tropical flowers among various shapes and sizes of tropical leaves. Fruits like mango, banana, rose apples, coconut, avocado etc. seem to grow in the wild lush forest of the island. Ronny managed to import a turkey for our Christmas dinner. It looked like a big fat chicken with a long neck with no giblets in its cavities but a long flattened skin from the neck attached to it. Cooking it was an adventure but amazingly it turned out well even with minimal available supplies and seasonings we are used to, at home. It was a wonderful Christmas gathering, joined by Ronny's two sons, one from Japan and another from Montreal.