Ikebana Exhibition 2011_ Shoso Shimbo & His Students

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Flower Meditation

Making Ikebana works is a daily ritual for me. I used kagaroo-paws from my garden. They are growing well this year thanks to a lot of rain.

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Exhibition Opening

Lesley Kehoe Galleries asked me to create a display for an opening of Maio Motoko's exhibition. The artist's request was not to use any living materials! I took many different types of materials such as bamboos, found objects and coloured branches, but they were all rejected by the artist. Using only two types of dry branches, I managed to make this Ikebana work in time.

This is another wonderful show at the gallery. Highly recommended.

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Newspaper Article:A floral passion - People - News - Stonnington Leader

Shoso was featured in a newspaper in Melbourne.

A floral passion - People - News - Stonnington Leader
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Recent Work: Toyota Sculpture Exhibition

Shoso Shimbo's Ikebana work was featured in Sculpture 2011, Flourish, the Toyota Sculpture Exhibition.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rG6Y2_itQGjyGlDwQo6krnX3o-GHS-jcjVFLEoEQgnA/edit?hl=en_US

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About Ikebana Exhibition

It is fortunate that we have had annual Ikebana exhibitions the last seven years. But there are so few Ikebana exhibitions, despite the fact that there are so many Ikebana teachers in Australia. 


Although some Ikebana schools make it compulsory for each branch to have annual Ikebana exhibition, some branches have ignored such requests. That is understandable considering there are so many difficulties in having an exhibition. Actually there are too many reasons or excuses for not having exhibitions. However, we believe that there are great benefits in having exhibitions.

a. Positive effects for students' learning: Students tend to achieve their personal best at an exhibition. Showing their works to public gives them confidence and motivation to learn more.


b. Professionalism: Exhibiting works is a challenging and demanding process from preparation to deinstallation. Experiencing that would better prepare students for future opportunities for professional works that include teaching, displays and competitions.


c. Career: One of my advanced students was preparing an application for a floral competition some time ago and told me that she had nothing to write about her artist career apart from her qualification as an Ikebana teacher. Although she had excellent academic and professional career in other fields, what matters for artists are exhibition history and awards. 


Unfortunately, there are very few opportunities for Ikebana students in Australia to gain these. That's why we have tried to have annual exhibitions that all of our students including beginners can participate. We are aiming to have an exhibition in a prestigious gallery in the near future. 


Also for the same reason, we have set up Ikebana Gallery Australia Award. We believe this will contribute lots for the future of Ikebana in Australia. http://ikebanaaustralia.blogspot.com/  


d. Promoting Ikebana. There are almost always some people who join the class after seeing our exhibition.


From Ikebana Newsletter Melbourne, December 2011.To subscribe our free newsletter, go to the News page in the following website.
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The Ten Virtues of Ikebana: 7a

The seventh of the ten virtues of Ikebana is departing from any harmful thoughts.

We may sometimes have evil or negative thoughts. When we face flowers, however, these thoughts disappear instantly. Ikebana can help keep our minds calm – a real bonus in today’s world!

The seventh virtues is similar to the second virtues, selfless mind. They both means in essence that Ikebana helps release stress. While the the former focuses on cleansing the mind, the latter focus on nourishing the mind. Although the ten virtues of Ikebana was proposed about three centuries ago, the author was really aware of  and analytical of psychological effects of Ikebana. 

You may agree with me so far, but I wonder if you would still agree with me if I said this: there is a hidden secret of Ikebana in these virtues. Selfless mind and cleansing mind are almost the same thing. Then, why didn’t the author say simply Ikebana helps get rid of stress? 

But actually there is a very small difference between them. Focusing on the small difference the hidden essence of Ikebana would be revealed. Now I’m about to talk about  a new theory about Ikebana but I don’t have enough space for that this time. I’ll write about a new insight on Ikebana next time. 

I made another simple and cool Ikebana this month. Using stapler, I made a few rings of doracena leaves. Meditate on their relationship each other and with the container. When you are happy, add a stem of oncidium. Stick the stem to the leaves to fix.

There are a couple of exhibitions I participate in November 2011. 

The Toyota Sculpture Exhibition opens on 9 November at Toyota HQ in Port Melbourne and an Ikebana Exhibition opens from 12 to 18 November at Kings Arcade in Armadale. Please come and see my works.

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