The artwork that Shizuko Greenblatt creates is focused on
inspiration, beauty and the promotion of the goodness in our world by utilizing
Japanese calligraphy characters, fanciful landscapes of flowers and trees and
blended colors of her own creation, which she boasts, she can match perfectly
due to her past background as an interior designer.
Some time ago, the artist Shizuko Greenblatt, invited me to
join her for an English-Japanese Tea Party in the midst of her garden nestled
in the heart of the West side of Los Angeles near the City of Westwood where
the Pacific Coast ocean breezes gently sway the clusters of pink Japanese
wisteria that hung from their branches. This interview held a personal touch of
the beauty that inspires her characteristic positive nature of her artist
renderings. Her garden was blooming with geraniums, orange nasturtiums, light
blue and purple morning glories, red, orange and pink roses, crimson gladiolas
and much more. The tea party was held under the canopy of well-developed bougainvillea
bushes draped and climbing along the white wood structure of a square gazebo
patio where the sun cast shadows of the patterns on the patio floor. By
thinking of her calligraphy characters in my mind, I could visualize Shizuko
painting in this field of flowers with soothing strokes and playful patterns.
Shizuko arranged and prepared for our tea party just as
carefully as she prepares her canvas for paintings. Her husband Dick, whom she
credits for assisting her in the construction of some of her most delicate
frame works came out to the table first and took his seat at the head of the
glass table facing the expanse of the garden. “Dick likes to sit right here and drink a glass of wine
while looking out about the garden!” Shizuko revealed, as she brought out a
tray filled with the English porcelain tea cups and traditional tea kettle.
She
set out a bowl of colorful fruit berries, green grapes, blueberries and
strawberries on the shelves of the three tiered serving tray, then brought out
a dessert tray of Japanese Flan, Japanese cookies, scones and Swiss chocolate
hearts. She came back minutes later with another tray containing the
traditional Japanese tea pot and cups as well! Shizuko made many trips to her
kitchen along a stone path that lead to the gazebo. She wore a solid green and
teal colored top with an elegant skirt layered in chiffon with patterns of tiny
delicate flowers and she walked carefully along the path each time.
Meanwhile Dick explained to me the importance of the
Japanese Tea Ceremony and how relevant art is to the Japanese people at all levels
education. Dick described how all the Japanese people are creative throughout
their culture that even the men who drive trucks in Japan know how to
appreciate, read and write poetry such as the Haiku style of literature. “Sue
collects tea sets,” Dick added, “She’s got so many of them!” he exclaimed, “She
just loves the tea sets from different eras and different countries in Europe
and Asia.” The two of them admitted they have traveled a great deal around the
world appreciating the arts and visiting relatives.
Thus here in her garden, Shizuko revealed an inner
peacefulness that is present in her art. Even the conflicts of the outer world
feel soothed in the space between her signature letters and sculpted framed
pieces. Her solo show at the LA ARTCORE at Union Center for the Arts finds
Shizuko Greenblatt surrounded by her friends, fellow artists, admirers and
family. The collection of photographs by Ginger Van Hook that are included with
this story is a three part documentation of our first opportunity to work
together to photograph Shizuko’s solo show at Los Angeles Art Association, at
Gallery 825, a show at the Pacific
Asia Museum in Pasadena and our recent Japanese tea together. Shizuko Greenblatt
was included in both the Los Angeles International Airport Show as well as
the current Ontario International
Airport Exhibition titled: “Out of Thin Air” Curated by Ginger Van Hook and
sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs, LAWA (Los Angeles World
Airports) and Scott Canty, Director/Curator with the Los Angeles Municipal Art
Gallery at Barnsdall.
It is my pleasure and privilege to bring you these images of
a period of time that I was introduced to her style of painting and to have
personally enjoyed her art works and followed this artist, Shizuko Greenblatt
since we met, sometime in 2008. ~ Ginger Van Hook.
Los Angeles artist and curator Shizuko Greenblatt combines Japanese
characters and fusion ikebana with Western expressionistic sensibilities in her
mixed-media sculptures and paintings. The artist's joining of elements of
Eastern and Western cultures, revels here, in the aesthetic possibilities
of the shared moment between cultural perspectives as it produces something
new, propelled by vibrantly-orchestrated compositions and arrangements.
An uncanny sense of design and
vision pervades all of Greenblatt's works: Controlled elements of gradated
color or a Japanese character give way to the natural flow of an ascending tree
branch or gestural brushwork. Indeed, balance is a fundamental quest in
Greenblatt's approach. Her desire is to communicate a positive and inspiring
message through not only through the use of balanced elements - the weight of a
line, the thickness of paint or the proportions between natural and plastic
elements- but of the characters themselves which carry such associations as
"Passion for Life", "Go Forward" and "Infinite
Growth". Greenblatt comments that these messages underlie all of her works
if not explicitly, then implicitly. But after all, Greenblatt's objective is to
create: Whatever character or material she uses is only a beginning point to
modification or alteration in order to take it somewhere unexplored.
Artist Reception:
Sunday, June 2nd, 2013
3pm - 5pm
Conversation with the artist: 4pm
LA Artcore at Union Center for
the Arts
120 Judge John Aiso St., Los
Angeles, CA 90012
Gallery hours: 12-5pm, Wed-Sun.
And on another studio visit in 2010, Shizuko invited us all to enjoy a mimosa breakfast. We enjoyed a meal under the canopy of bougainvillas and morning glories cascading along the patio gazebo. Pictured below, artist Shizuko and Dick Greenblatt Artists Michal Giancriastiano and Luke Van Hook, Artist Karen Frimkess-Wolfe and her husband Ron, and Artists Richard Bruland and Dori Atlantis:
