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?
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
divyamariekato
