Envisioning hope

There are people who ponder things so deeply, who are so reflective in their considerations, that their philosophies become their contribution to the world. Then there are the doers, those folks who, upon hearing a great idea from a thinker, are out the door in a heartbeat to turn those ideas into action. In artist, farmer and activist Mayumi Oda, the world has both.

Oda was an artist in Japan in the early 1990s when her country turned a critical eye toward its nuclear energy policy. At that point, she said, "I was pushed out of the art world by plutonium. I used my creativity doing activist work."

Unfortunately, her efforts to keep nuclear energy out of Japan were unsuccessful, and Oda decided to leave her homeland.

"I knew it was dangerous in a country with a lot of earthquake faults. I felt something terrible would happen," she said.

But Oda has never been simply about protesting bad ideas. She has her own vision for creating a new reality. To implement her plan of action and distance herself from the threat, she relocated to Kealakekua on Hawaii island, where she purchased land to grow food sustainably and created the permaculture Ginger Hill Farm and Retreat Center.

"I felt it was not enough just to think. I had to do, too. So I’ve been teaching young people, mostly from Japan, how to take care of the land," she said.

All the while, Oda continued producing art, and she exhibited her paintings in Nara, Japan, a few years ago. When the show was over, she took those paintings to Shawn Eichman, curator of Asian art at the Hono­lulu Museum of Art. The result of their meeting is "Mayumi Oda: A Prayer for the New Birth of Japan," running through Jan. 13.

This show, however, goes far beyond the works she displayed in Nara.

To prepare for the Hono­lulu exhibit, Oda traveled to Nara last spring to have her paintings mounted on traditional silk scrolls. She was en route with a scroll to visit the mounter on March 11 when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan; the temblor, paired with the devastating tsunami that it triggered, inflicted heavy damage on the Fuku­shima Dai­ichi nuclear power plant and caused high levels of radiation leaks.

"I thought, ‘Whoa! This is just what I painted about on the scroll.’ It was just too much," she recalled. "I thought, I really have to keep working. If I’m a painter, that allows me to tell the story more than by being an activist. Painting is something I can do probably best."

As a result, Oda ended up creating new works for the museum show, with 25 paintings in all.

"Some of the paintings are so new, Mayumi had to come in and sign them last week," said Eichman, who calls the works — traditional Japa­nese paintings created with traditional materials and focusing on traditional subjects — contemporary nonetheless.

"The work is informed by traditional techniques, but she updates the style in a decidedly contemporary way," he said, pointing out Oda’s use of vibrant color and contemporary composition. "Her brushwork is free and expressive."

Oda said that was her intention "because we ARE contemporary."

She went through great pains to create the works, traditionally called "Nara-e" or "Yamato-e." Nara-e is executed using ink pigment sticks made in Nara. The ink is mixed with water and painted on rice paper with special brushes; both materials are also made in Nara. The finished works are then mounted on silk scrolls and screens.

Today, the traditions for creating many of these materials and implements are dying. Oda hopes works like hers will highlight these traditions and help keep them alive.

The subjects of her works are also rooted in tradition, Eichman said.

One of the larger pieces, "Vegetable Nirvana," is a parody of a traditional Buddhist artwork depicting the death of the Buddha.

"It was common in Japan to do parodies with figures as vegetables," he said. "In Mayumi’s painting the Buddha is a daikon surrounded by his vegetable and animal disciples. Mayumi is very informed by Buddhist and Shinto ideas. But this piece also has special significance for Mayumi because she spent 10 years developing her vegetable garden on the Big Island."

The work also responds to current events, such as the Fuku­shima disaster, that imperil the planet.

The painting, mounted on a scroll, will be flanked on either side by smaller vegetable paintings on scrolls "as sort of an altar, in attendance to ‘Vegetable Nirvana,’" he said. "It is the large works that define the concepts for the whole show. When put together, the paintings tell a very specific story."

Another piece, a hand scroll titled "Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty," articulates well Oda’s philosophy of a new birth of Japan. This work also plays off a famous traditional Japa­nese painting called "Frolicking Animals."

The piece has animals performing human functions that respond to current events in Japan. Accompanying narratives tell of how the Japa­nese can lead the way to create a new and better world.

Oda says her art is more than just hopeful. It conveys a vision.

"Unless we have a vision, we won’t go into hope — there is no hope. Something’s got to happen," she said. "I’m not just anti-nuclear; I’m a pro-new energy and renewable-energy person.

"I’ve been learning from hula and Hawaiian chant how people here lived with aloha for people and the land. (In ancient times) islanders in both Japan and Hawaii had to live sustainably … with the land, with the wind, with farming. Whatever I learned, I’ve tried to paint."