Divya Marie Kato’s Blog

Learning For Cheer, In A New Year ;)

23rd January 2017 By divyamariekato

And we’re off!
Calvin: “It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy…Let’s go exploring!” – Calvin & Hobbes (aka best cartoon strip of all time)

And, there’s never been a more urgent need for magic making. Here’s to our little rocket ship and the adventure ahead.

(This course’s now fully booked, but if you want to join us for the Spring Course, we start April 4th. Sign up via email: info@divyamariekato.com)

Yup, more magic. More joy. More art. More music. More trees. Looks like there’ll be more big changes coming our way this year too, so keep close to whatever you can that gives you faith in being a human. The things that bring you comfort and cheer.

Need some cheering up? There’s a funny face for ya. (yup that video clip pic) Why’s my mouth scooched off to the side and why take art classes with me? Why take art classes at all?

Check out my new video here for what you’ll learn (or click on my funny face pic over there) – made with the help of hubbie of awesomeness and my film dude extraordinaire, Kyle McCloskey.

And a note on learning… see this pic here? We look like shiny, happy people, don’t we? Post workout in Yoyogi park with the ladies from FEW (For Empowering Women in Japan) and Pauline from Mom In Balance. She’s on a mission to help mamas keep fit and feel fab. And, WOW – I used parts I didn’t know I had!! (And, YES I felt them the next day.)

Thought about this after our first drawing class of 2017. It’s brave turning up to do something you haven’t done for a while. And your body lets you know – “Gosh, we haven’t used those bits in a while!” – and then…

We stretch. We get bigger. We get used to using those bits. And we become, step by step, a little bit more awesome and better equipped to deal with what comes our way. What’s a part you haven’t used in a while?

Did a class recently as a birthday gift. The face was priceless. Once back in touch with your creative side, you wonder why you haven’t been there in a while. Come back to the right side. (literally, if you think about your brain.)

Know someone who’d love a creative gift? Write to me: info@divyamariekato.com

Happy weekend all, make a good day.

Ever draws, DMK x

Click Here Or On Picture Above To Watch Video

In my last post…

Finding Home in 2017. The holidays, our word for the year and lots and lots and lots of dahl. Read here

Drawing Classes 2017

My art teacher Divya taught me so much! My door of happiness opened thanks to her lesson. It’s more than just drawing. It’s magic!!! It’s totally worth experiencing this new world. So beautiful!

もっと事前にご案内するべきでした
冬レッスンは1/24明日スタートです…
私の人生を大きく変えた素晴らしい描くレッスン💖幸せの扉が音を立ててパカっと開きました🌟

興味ある方は、スケジュール抑えることをオススメします

全5回、19-21時、少人数制。
冬レッスン: 1/24, 2/7, 2/21, 3/7, 3/21 ***Fully Booked***
春レッスン: 4/4, 4/18, 5/9, 6/6, 6/13 ***Registration Open: info@divyamariekato.com***
秋レッスン: 9/21, 9/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/7 ***Check For Updates***

私の大好きな先生divya💖 Details Here

Hi, I’m Divya and I’m a British artist in Tokyo helping people reignite creativity at home and at work through drawing.

Classes & Workshops will start up again from January 24th 2017. New Year Course Fully Booked. Spring Course Starts April 4th 2017. Details here or email me at: info@divyamariekato.com

As adults, we often lose sight of our creativity:

Always wanted to draw, but think you’re not good enough?

Did you draw before when you were a kid, but now you’ve left it behind?

Heard all these great things about creativity and drawing and how it helps you release stress, problem solve, spark ideas…but you don’t know where to start or it’s been a while?

Well, did you know that drawing’s the easiest way to get it back?

Through drawing, we can rediscover our creative selves and receive inspiration, happiness, creativity and joy in the process. Drawing’s also frequently used in forms of art therapy, personal and professional development, for its cathartic, stress releasing and idea sparking properties.

Hi I’m Divya and I help people reconnect to their creativity through drawing. I’ve been drawing my whole life and have been sharing drawing, in some form or other, for the same amount of time. I get assigned by TEDx to host workshops, by companies like LUSH to highlight issues they care about through creative events, by the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan to take part in creative community aid work, by For Empowering Women in Japan to host creativity workshops, by Dokkyo University to empower their international students through creativity classes and by Tokyo Helps to raise money for community relief fundraising campaigns.

Years of experience teaching within the international school environment, have familiarised me with what’s good and what’s not so good about our education system. Being raised around the world, meeting people from all walks of life, has made me into someone who lights up around others.

I’ve coached preschoolers to students to adults and have held countless live painting events, community events, classes and workshops. Why? I love the light up moments. When faces light up in recognition of what they’ve created.

Been a while? Believe you can’t? The biggest renewable resource available to us, is one that doesn’t get given enough attention at school or at work.

From idea sparking to stress relief, team building to highlighting important issues, discovering purpose, motivation and daily joy – creativity is the one thing that no one can take from you and the one thing that only increases the more the you use it.

Pick up a pencil. Start and see. I’ll show you how.

Wanna dip your toe in? Click here

Wanna join us for classes or workshops? Head here for classes and here for workshops

Can’t find what you’re after? Get in touch with me right here: info@divyamariekato.com

And…things just got even better! Want us to bring creativity to your home or office?

Divya’s now partnered with her husband, Masahiro Kato, to be able to deliver workshops bilingually. The British-Japanese husband and wife team are combining their shared experiences of creative living around the world, in order to being creativity to your home or workplace.

These are workshops with a difference and the experience will be an unforgettable one for your family or for your team. Creativity workshops click here

Keep in touch via email: info@divyamariekato.com or for latest news, follow us on Instagram:

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Finding Home In 2017

8th January 2017 By divyamariekato

Happy new year friends. We’re a week (and a bit…) into 2017 – how are you?

The holidays have been as unplugged and outdoors as possible for team DMK.

Walks, bike rides, coffee catch ups, reading, writing, meeting friends, calling family, movies, museums, music, drawing and cleaning up our house.

In my last post I talked about the face that lights up. (You can check it out over here)

For this, my first post of 2017, I thought I’d share our word for the year and how it came about. A word that kept bobbing its head up, at strange and unexpected times, throughout the holidays: home.

Felt home as I was drawing the picture above of Jakuchu Ito’s famous rooster for 2017. I had a You Tube video of the London fireworks on and the combination of one of my favourite Japanese artists with my home city caught me off guard. Just felt like home. Click here for a video of that moment or on the rooster above

Connecting homelands. London will always be home but home is here in Japan too.

Less about the what and where and being attached to geography. More about that feeling. I feel home in places, in people and always in the creative space of making things. How about you? Where do you feel home?

What does home even mean? Does it mean feeling comfortable? Or feeling completely yourself? Spent so much time reflecting on this one over the holidays. Especially with friends leaving Tokyo to fly home and others, like us, finding home here this year with get togethers and cooking the things that smell of home.

Which brings me to what REALLY got me thinking…

See this picture below?

This is home in a bowl.

My Mama’s dahl. (aka liquid gold) We’ve been working on this all holiday and…it’s pretty close! What took me most by surprise, were the feelings that came along with the cooking – brought back childhood memories – all the smells and sound of mustard seeds popping… and here’s a video if you want to enjoy stirring it up with me (or click on the pic of soul bowl deliciousness below)

Home in food, in feelings, in loved ones, in the creative space… and when these things come together?

Joy. Through. The. Roof.

Had the great, great pleasure of conducting a drawing workshop for a family as their Christmas present. It was incredible being there in their home, everyone gathered round the table, different generations drawing together. So much fun and that feeling was definitely home.

Very grateful. LOVED every minute of it. Want us to bring a workshop to you? Details here or come join our new weekend drawing workshops in Tokyo dates and details here

Now, back to the dahl. Yes, this post is ALL about the dahl DAHLING.

Will leave you with a little something I wrote during last year’s writing retreat hosted by Lauren Shannon of Tokyo Writers Salon (if you haven’t been, go – fantastic fun!)

The Tin

Wafts of garlic dance with cumin around the room.

Onions joyfully spitting oil in short, playful bursts.

Moving the large, heavy, chopping board, I catch my heart swelling.

It’s time to open the tin.

It winks at me in the overhead light. Hello, old friend.

This tin has been in our family for as long as I can remember.

Mama’s golden, bangled hands would clink as she opened it and my five year old eyes would widen with wonder.

A rainbow of colours – hot, cayenne reds, mellow, turmeric yellows, the small, dark mustard seeds jiggling around happily – one by one taking turns jumping into the pan.

My nose would twitch and itch with the takeover of smells

(not unlike the assault on the senses when arriving at Delhi airport)

“Pop!”

The mustard seeds begin to pop, jolting me back to the present.

I hold one in my hands and remember Mama saying:

“All the faith you need in one mustard seed.”

Best wishes for a good start to the year friends.

May you feel home wherever you are.

Ever draws,

DMK x

Hi, I’m Divya and I’m a British artist in Tokyo helping people reignite creativity at home and at work through drawing. Classes & Workshops will start up again from January 24th 2017. Details here or email me at: info@divyamariekato.com

As adults, we often lose sight of our creativity:

Always wanted to draw, but think you’re not good enough?

Did you draw before when you were a kid, but now you’ve left it behind?

Heard all these great things about creativity and drawing and how it helps you release stress, problem solve, spark ideas…but you don’t know where to start or it’s been a while?

Well, did you know that drawing’s the easiest way to get it back?

Been a while? Believe you can’t? The biggest renewable resource available to us, is one that doesn’t get given enough attention at school or at work.

Pick up a pencil. Start and see. I’ll show you how.

Wanna dip your toe in? Click here

Wanna join us for classes or workshops? Head here for classes and here for workshops

Can’t find what you’re after? Get in touch with me right here: info@divyamariekato.com

And…things just got even better! Want us to bring creativity to your home or office?

These are workshops with a difference and the experience will be an unforgettable one for your family or for your team. Creativity workshops click here

Keep in touch via email: info@divyamariekato.com or for latest news, follow us on Instagram:

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divyamariekato

The Face That Lights Up & Happy Holidays

11th December 2016 By divyamariekato

Warmest wishes to you and yours and all the best for 2017. To health, peace and creativity. See you all in the new year. Love, Team DMK x

So to the last week of 2016. It’s been a big year.

Recently posted a picture of a tiny, mustard seed in my hand. Remembering words taught to me long ago: “even if you only have the faith of a mustard seed, it’s enough.”

How to keep faith and keep going? Simple. We take whatever steps we can to contribute and to create.

Contributing to community. Creating for joy.

In my last post, I talked about happiness and what makes a good life. (you can read about it here) Timely as many of us head into the holidays. About creating a life you don’t need a holiday from.

On a recent coaching call with the marvellous Natalie Sisson, aka The Suitcase Entrepreneur (if you haven’t checked out her Freedom Plan – get your lovely self over here) we talked through my one main thing – “What’s the dream, the one, main thing, why you do what you do, what you want more of?”

We talked business, what’s fun, income streams, what to focus on, websites, online presence, present moment presence – we went through it all and then got to the JOY. Natalie brought me to my big why:

“The dream is basically that face. That face that lights up in recognition of what they’re able to do.”

And what does that face look like?

This beautiful face from the TEDx Youth drawing workshop I did last month. Beautiful faces from my drawing classes at Afrika Rose this year. Faces that light up.

And I want to help more faces light up. I also want to do more things that make my face light up. And so…

I’m making more space for it. Next year looks like, more classes in person – have opened 3 courses in 2017: new year, spring and autumn, more classes online for those who aren’t in Tokyo and more workshops.

Partnering with my favourite human, my wonderful husband Masa, to bring one of a kind, bilingual, creativity workshops to homes, schools and offices A workshop that’s fun, inspiring and joyful? A team build with a difference? An unforgettable experience creating an art piece with your family? 2 hours. 2 artists. Bringing it to you in 2017. More on that here

For now, one call to action. Talk through your one, main thing with a friend. Keep going. Talk through all the practicalities and possibilities. Until you reach that point in the conversation. That point when your face lights up.

Happy holidays friends and see you again soon in 2017.

Ever draws, DMK x

Found these links helpful while researching how to help Aleppo:

Link to Huffpost article | Link to Glennon Doyle Melton & Together Rising post

So who am I?

As adults, we often lose sight of our creativity:

Have you always wanted to draw, but think you’re not good enough? Did you draw before when you were a kid, but now you’ve left it behind?

Have you heard all these great things about creativity and drawing and how it helps you release stress, problem solve, spark ideas…but you don’t know where to start or it’s been a while?

Well, did you know that drawing’s the easiest way to get it back?

I’ve coached preschoolers to students to adults and have held countless live painting events, community events, classes and workshops. Since leaving full time employment in international school teaching back in 2012, increasingly so. And I have no intention of stopping. Sharing drawing is my life’s work and what I absolutely know I do best. Why? I love the light up moments. When faces light up in recognition of what they’ve created.

Been a while? Believe you can’t? The biggest renewable resource available to us, is one that doesn’t get given enough attention at school or at work. From idea sparking to stress relief, team building to highlighting important issues, discovering purpose, motivation and daily joy – creativity is the one thing that no one can take from you and the one thing that only increases the more the you use it.

Pick up a pencil. Start and see. I’ll show you how.

Wanna dip your toe in? Click here

Wanna join us for classes or workshops? Head here for classes and here for workshops

Can’t find what you’re after? Get in touch with me right here: info@divyamariekato.com

And…things just got even better! Want us to bring creativity to your home or office?

These are workshops with a difference and the experience will be an unforgettable one for your family or for your team. Creativity workshops click here

The ways of business are changing. The new way involves connection, creativity and innovation.

Keep in touch via email: info@divyamariekato.com or for latest news, follow us on Instagram:

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divyamariekato

Happiness & TEDxYouth 2016 ‘Utopia’

23rd November 2016 By divyamariekato

Earthquake yesterday. Big reminder of time and how we spend it. A day of thanks and counting blessings.

Grateful that people stayed safe and there wasn’t too much damage. We do experience earthquakes often here and little by little get used to the small ones. But for those here in 2011, bigger shakes bring back many things.

We were up talking late into the night, my love and I.

When we got together, one of the first things we talked about was: What makes a good life? How can we make one together?

Without hesitation he replied: “It means being happy to die. Being so happy with a life well lived, that when it’s time and hopefully when we’re old and wrinkly, we’re happy to go.”

Since then, we’ve been building a creative life together. Not to get somewhere in the distant future, but to make every day life so delicious, we don’t need a holiday.

That to us means a slower pace with time in nature, time together, time with our favourite people, time spent learning and creating and work that we love.

Work we love so much we’d do it for free.

One of the things I’m most grateful for, is that we do love our work THAT much.

I’ve been blessed this year with many opportunities to share my work with drawing with different people of different ages: from students to adults.

This workshop with TEDxYouth was one such opportunity. The theme: UTOPIA. What is it? How do we find it? What stands in the way?

I opened my workshop with this quote: “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” – Sylvia Plath

We took turns sharing our doubts with each other. Then we went from table to wall, drawing our way from doubt to done. Later, we sat down and looked at it with wonder.

The doubts don’t go away. Especially the ones around the question of happiness, utopia and what makes a good life. But there is something we can all do with them.

And that’s where the magic is.

Hi I’m Divya and I help people draw again. Been a while? Believe you can’t?

The biggest renewable resource available to us, is one that doesn’t get given enough attention at school.

From using doubts to find solutions, idea sparking to stress relief, team building to highlighting important issues, discovering purpose, motivation and daily joy – creativity is the one thing that no one can take from you and the one thing that only increases the more the you use it.

Pick up a pencil. Start and see. I’ll show you how. Registration open for classes & workshops 2017. Email: info@divyamariekato.com to book a creativity workshop.

Wanna dip your toe in? Click for my beginners guide here

Wanna join us for classes or retreats? Head here You’re invited! Having our 2016 class exhibition on 11/30! If you’re interested in classes come meet the students and see the work!

Can’t find what you’re after? Get in touch with me right here: info@divyamariekato.com

Gallery & Lead Up Pictures

TEDxYouth Tokyo 2016. Utopia.

BIG love and thanks to you, to Shibuya Smart News for an awesome venue, to all inspiring speakers, workshop leaders and audience who joined us – fantastic being with you for a day exploring our theme and congratulations on a hugely successful event. Thank you for bringing both joyful human expression through performance as well as attention to tough issues to the stage.

If there is a path towards Utopia, I think we all left with some awesome sparks to light the way. Collapsing in a happy heap of gratitude for a good day. Ever draws, DMK x

The lead up….

3: Informing performing. Behind all that happens on stage, is all that happens off stage. Fun meeting the TEDxYouth Tokyo team – all there after school prepping and planning at this year’s venue: Shibuya Smart News.

All the time and effort, that goes into putting on events like this, can sometimes be missed on the big day, so please give them a big thank you hug or handshake when you get here!
Behind all that happens on the canvas, is all that happens leading up to holding that pen, pencil or brush in your hands. Investing time and heart in planning and preparing the ideas for our drawing workshop. Delighted to be invited and after seeing the fantastic venue even more so – my drawing workshop’s going off the page… and onto the walls!!
The unmistakeable Jane Best, from Refugees International Japan, will also be there to inform us of developments and how we can help. 11 speakers, 5 performances, 3 workshops. November 20th. More coming soon, for now here’s a salute to the offstage off page experience and energy.

2: Madness & Mascots – pretty much sums up yesterday!! They said we could draw on the walls, so…we did!

Japanese mascots, like this little dude, Chikyukun – a character of the earth and for the earth – are HUGELY popular here.

Chikyukun was created by Smart News, the host for this year’s TEDxYouth Tokyo event and so we had a little fun with him!

1: Roses from Afrika Rose are chillin’ and looking forward to doing a drawing workshop today – especially so as at our cool venue, Shibuya Smart News, the walls aren’t off limits and we’ve stocked up on Idea Paint markers! The team were working hard at rehearsal day yesterday.

Jane, from Refugees International Japan, and I watched in admiration- couldn’t believe how they’ve managed to pull all this together – they’ve still got to go to school!!!

Gallery

Hi I’m Divya and I help people draw again. Been a while? Believe you can’t? The biggest renewable resource available to us, is one that doesn’t get given enough attention at school. From using doubts to find solutions, idea sparking to stress relief, team building to highlighting important issues, discovering purpose, motivation and daily joy – creativity is the one thing that no one can take from you and the one thing that only increases the more the you use it.

Pick up a pencil. Start and see. I’ll show you how. Registration open for classes & workshops 2017. Email: info@divyamariekato.com to book a creativity workshop.

Wanna dip your toe in? Click for my beginners guide here

Wanna join us for classes or retreats? Head here You’re invited! Having our 2016 class exhibition on 11/30! If you’re interested in classes come meet the students and see the work!

Can’t find what you’re after? Get in touch with me right here: info@divyamariekato.com

Best way to keep in touch with latest news is here on Instagram:

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divyamariekato

When There Are No Words (aka my 2 favourite things)

18th November 2016 By divyamariekato

This week has dished up a fair few treats! Kindnesses and unkindnesses, ups and downs and all arounds, some things didn’t work out as planned – from the little, to the spectacular! – and others are taking off beyond wildest dreams. On the phone with my mama last night, we talked it all through and she had this advice: “stay close to the trees, close to what lights you up and you’ll stay close to yourself.” We both love trees and walking and, despite being so far away from each other, often walk along the same paths of thought – I had written this post earlier:

When there are no words, stay close to your craft. There’s a magic in mastery that’ll always keep you safe.

When there are no words, stay close to nature. There’s deep power in an unplugged mind and a connected soul.

Hug your dreams. Talk to trees. There’s a greater picture in the slow unfolding of time.

I had written it as I reflected on a conversation shared with a friend about comparisonitis. (aka looking around and feeling like you’re behind syndrome and yes, it’s a thing and yes supposed to sound like a disease) The only antidote? Inspirationitis. (aka rolling up your sleeves and getting back to the drawing board – see what I did there??) Keeping close to your craft means daily practice, commitment and delicious devotion. It’s what no one can take away from you. Whatever may be said or done, it’s the deep work that speaks for itself and, in turn, allows you to look around without the weight or pressure of dreaded comparisonitis. And boy, is it contagious.

“Let nature teach you stillness.”

Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle

Nature too is what so many of us turn to for inspiration, relaxation and relief from the demands of a world on the go. I’ve never been good at sitting still. Itchy feet and shiny things and perhaps, as was pointed out to me the other day, something to do with being born in the year of the dog. The whole world is full of exciting things to explore and lovely people to meet and I dive headlong into it all. But I’m finding as I get older (which I’m LOVING – the whole process it seems is giving less and less of a s*** about what others may think and allowing yourself to be more and more who you are) I’m really enjoying alone time. Maybe it’s a little known fact that I can happily spend days and days alone. And nature, without a doubt, is who I hang out with most. When the thinking mind starts to spiral, I sit down, open up a blank page and find the thoughts get lost in the looking. Whatever I’m drawing, flowers mostly, don’t ask me to be anything or do anything, I can just be myself. Conversations with roses are so luxuriously free of expectations.

So there they are. My two favourite things: craft and nature. The two things that always help me come back to myself and keep me inspired, motivated and moving forward. What are the things that help you?

DMK x

Artist in Tokyo helping people with untouched sketchbooks at home.

Wanna dip your toe in? Download my beautiful 22 page free beginner guide here and let me know where you’d like to go next

Wanna dive in? Drawing Classes in person or online details here

Creativity at home. Creativity at work. Workshops. Classes. Retreats. Full listings here

Next speaking event: Tokyo American Club December 7th 2016.

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A Sketch A Day

5th November 2016 By divyamariekato

A sketch a day helps you yay.

Yup, yay. (highly technical term)

Halloween may be over, but scary things are ever present. ESPECIALLY as we get into the last months of 2016. The real stuff of fear and doubt. The stuff that goes on up there in the head.

That’s why making sure we take regular breaks from the left brain, and get into the right, is the best idea since sliced bread. It works WONDERS.

Not only in terms of presence, observation, reflection and expression – enough already right?? – but the simple act of drawing is one of the fastest, most portable and accessible (just need pencil and paper) ways to connect to your creativity, spark new ideas and get back into flow.

Plus, you can continue doing it into old age!

AND it helps with business.

Here’s what champion of drawing, Betty Edwards, Author of Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, has to say:

“Drawing is probably the best way to train perceptual skills—meaning how to see—and the act of seeing is undoubtedly involved in creative problem‐solving and in just about everything humans do.

Eyesight and seeing are surely among the most critical functions for human beings, but seeing is hardly trained at all. The reason seems to be that we all see pretty well and think that we don’t need training in how to see—that it would not be useful.

In fact, human beings do not see very well. The brain itself makes assumptions about what it is seeing, and can actually can change perceptions to fit its assumptions. Your listeners may be familiar with the so‐called “constancies,” perceptual constancy, form constancy, and concept constancy. This means that the brain, which is always looking for easy ways to do things, makes quick assumptions about perceptions based on its previous knowledge. And often these assumptions are wrong.

Learning to draw can help to make one’s perceptions fit more closely with reality. First of all, drawing teaches accurate perception—how to see what is really “out there.” Second, perceptual skills learned through drawing can transfer usefully to other fields. For example, learning to accurately see negative spaces is useful in business problem‐solving. In business, there is a term called “white spaces.”

Writers of business books recommend that business problem‐solvers look at the ‘white spaces,’ the spaces around the problem, rather than looking solely at the actual data of the problem.

Now, this is a difficult concept for someone who hasn’t learned to draw. Once you’ve learned to draw, negative spaces become real—something you can mentally grab onto. And the other basic perceptual skills of drawing have equal value in terms of thinking and problem‐solving, in business or in other fields. For example, the concept of edges—the perception of edges—which is one of the five component skills, carries profound meaning: where does one thing end and another thing begin? To return to business problem‐solving, it is important, for example, to be able to accurately perceive the edge between the client’s interest and the seller’s interest. Where is that edge located? Is it movable? Is it solid or permeable?”

A sketch a day.

Not for good or bad.

Not for masterpieces or for others. (although sometimes it’s nice to give someone something you’ve made)

For you.

With tea.

Soul soothing stuff.

Happy weekend ahead friends. Big love, Ever draws, DMK x

Hi, I’m Divya and I’m an artist in Tokyo.