In 2016, I was accepted into the Shiro Oni Studio Artist in Residency Program in Onishi, Fujoka-shi, Gunma, Japan. “American artist Kjell Hahn founded the residency in 2013. In 12 years the residency has hosted over 250 artists from 30 countries and has been featured in publications such as Vogue magazine, Soto Koto magazine, NHK television and Asahi, Jomo and Yomiuri newspapers. In 2021, he received an award for his international cultural exchange efforts from the governor of Gunma Prefecture. The town of Onishi (population 4,900) was once an important collection point along the silk road. The sericulture (silk) farmers from the surrounding mountains would come to the valley town and sell their raw silk to merchants (https://shirooni.com/?v=0b3b97fa6688)”. Each year, the residency draws full-time artists, graduate students, and college professors from around the world, hosting four 6-week sessions of 9 artists.

The opportunity allowed me to paint full time, engage with other professional artists, and immerse myself in the local culture and history. The compression of space utilization in the town was of great interest to me – a family might have a traditional, elegant house with immaculately manicured landscaping and a business recycling yard adjacent to the house. The textures and colors combined in small spaces to cause visual vertical stacking of elements. I began oil paintings by adhering regional newspapers to linen canvas and using the right-to-left reading blocks and strong vertical rectangles to influence and guide the painting’s composition. During the residency, I became friends with local townspeople, enjoyed regional cuisine specialties, participated in workshops and fieldtrips (e.g., making sandals from rice stalks, meditating at a Buddhist temple, visiting a traditional Japanese cabinetmaker, singing karaoke, preparing sushi with a master chef, and participating in the community music festival). Shiro Oni had a group art exhibition of residency members that was well attended by art patrons and reported in the newspapers.

Shiro Oni has a gallery in a former Saki Brewery. Visiting artists had an exhibition that was well attended by the regional community and press. Each painting was hung as a scroll with a plant/container companion piece.

At the end of the stay, community members and remaining artists would gather at the bus stop to say farewell to departing artists until there was only one (i.e., not unlike the goodnight sequence in the Sound of Music film).