Art in the Garden
Bamboo Art: Meditation & Transformation

Fall 2012

Bamboo Art: Meditation & Transformation

Within Zen design, the circle—or enso —represents

In Bamboo Art: Meditation and Transformation, onview November 2–25, the work of three artists
with an intertwined story—Charissa Brock, Anne
Crumpacker, and Jiro Yonezawa—comes together inan exhibition focused on the art and craft of working
with bamboo as a life-affirming process for both theartist and the viewer.
Yonezawa works with split bamboo, the traditional
method of Japanese basket makers, and is widely
known as one of Japan’s finest bamboo artists.
He received his training in Beppu, Kyushu, a city
famous for bamboo crafts. With homes today in both
Kyushu and Portland, Yonezawa says that bamboo’s
regenerative quality intrigues and inspires him.

enlightenment, as it is both bounded and boundless.
The enso is a microcosm and metaphor for life, theinterconnection of all things.
A N N EFor this exhibition she has completed a newilluminated sculpture in the shape of a circle madewith whole rings that are crosscut, a first for her.
“It will be exciting to see it at the Garden,” she says.
“I hope from viewing the work visitors will have asense of well-being and experience a connection
with nature.”

Jizo 2 and Untitled, Jiro Yonezawa, 2005

“Preparing strips to weave and then weaving forms
from those strips is inherently meditative,” he says.
“The cacophony of life dissipates; the sculpture
emerges vigorous and vibrant.” Yonezawa’s large
and small-scale forms are included in the collectionsof the American Craft Museum, New York; theCrafts Council, London; the Portland Art Museum;and many other museums around the world.

Untitled, Charissa Brock, 2012

While earning her MFA, Crumpacker’s mentor wasCharissa Brock. Brock is an internationally known
bamboo sculptor, based in Portland, with an MFAfrom the Tyler School in Philadelphia. Exhibitions
and collections across the country feature her work.
Brock uses both split and crosscut bamboo. “I likeworking with multiples of elements, small pieces I
can repeatedly stitch together. The repetition of thework creates a meditative space where possibilities
of future pieces can be dreamed,” says Charissa.

Anne Crumpacker is a member of the first
graduating class of the MFA program in Applied
Craft and Design from Oregon College of Art andCraft and Pacific Northwest College of Art. She took
her first class there from Yonezawa, who taught her
fundamentals such as how to split bamboo.
Crumpacker uses a crosscut bamboo technique.
Her works create what she calls living topographiesthat interweave scale and proportion, light andshadow. Patterns mimicking the use of river stone intraditional Japanese landscape design call to mind
rivulets of water.

C R U M P A C K E R

Bamboo is a sustainable material that has playeda prominent role in the arts and crafts of Japan forcenturies. This exhibition celebrates some of thenew directions this versatile material is taking at thehands of artists influenced by both East and West.
Enso Luminary, Anne Crumpacker, 2012

Bonds, Jiro Yonezawa, 2011
2A RT IN THE GA RDEN

SUMMER 2008

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S P ON S OR E D BY :James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation

Diane Durston
Curator of Culture, Art, and Education
ddurston@japanesegarden.org

Front cover: Detail, Cross Currents, Anne Crumpacker, 2011
Back cover: Cross Currents, Anne Crumpacker, 2011

All Photos: Jonathan Ley

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