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Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
A morning with Takako Yamaguchi, the L.A. artist we should've already known
'Time is the most important thing right now,' says Takako Yamaguchi. The artist, who at 72 is having her first institutional show with MOCA, suggests she has a limited number of active, working years. But this realization doesn't bring her down; instead, she's been having the most fun she's ever had. Her mind is clearer than when she was in her 20s, and she is eager to paint every day, all day, in a white-walled room, on the second floor of a gray-blue apartment building in Santa Monica. Minutes into sitting in our wheely chairs beside her drafting table, it becomes clear that Yamaguchi's preoccupation with time points back to her parents — her mother is going to be 96, and her father just turned 100. She is prepared to take a plane to Okayama, Japan, where they live and where she was born, at a moment's notice. Over the last few years, she's been gradually bringing objects from her parents' home to Los Angeles, like ceramics, and has most recently been debating what to do with her mother's collection of kimonos. Yamaguchi's apartment, which is just across the hallway from her studio, is minimally furnished. In the living space, there are just three artworks on the walls: two paintings by L.A. icons William Leavitt and Lari Pittman (she traded artworks with the latter), and hanging over Yamaguchi's white couch is one of her own paintings of a naked torso, a breast pressed against the neon-yellow plexiglass. She tells me that for a long time, she was hesitant to acquire things. She was moving around frequently, almost every two years. Settling in L.A. was unplanned, unexpected. She has now been here for the better part of 47 years. For our conversation, I've asked Yamaguchi to share an object with me that is meaningful to her. She's picked a pair of wooden dolls, a girl and boy, that her father gave her when she was around 5. She remembers she was sick when he gifted them. It was a true treat — at the time, in postwar years, they had little money and few special possessions. Yamaguchi shows me a black-and-white photo of her as a child, clutching the dolls on her lap in the sunlight. The dolls, Yamaguchi says, don't relate to her work as an artist, as she doesn't draw on her childhood. I point out the lovely kimono patterns on their round bodies, patterns that you also see in the artist's painted landscapes. I think, but don't say, that this is an artifact of a time before she left home, before she acquired another language and country. Yamaguchi moved to the U.S. for college. It was a hopeful time of possibility, and she describes her parents as encouraging of her decision. She got a scholarship to Bates College in Maine, and while her parents expected her to return home, she sensed she would stay. At school, she tried studying political science or journalism but was daunted by the number of papers she'd have to write, especially as she was still learning English. She took an art class, just out of curiosity, and discovered it was much more enjoyable than writing papers. Becoming an artist, she says, was a total 'accident.' She committed to the craft partly as a means to stay in the country — she needed a visa, so she applied to UC Santa Barbara, where she got her master's in fine arts in 1978. Los Angeles, too, was an accident. Yamaguchi thought it would be a stopover on her way back to the East Coast, where 'serious' artists moved. 'In L.A., you are free to do whatever you want to do, no one cares — it's scary. It didn't seem to have that much structure. So it was fascinating in that way. But because of that, I thought, 'You can't stay.'' And yet she did. At one point, she started dating a man who lived in Paris, and she found herself split among France, the U.S. and Japan. She recalls a friend telling her: 'Takako, you need to pick two countries.' She heeded his advice and dumped the boyfriend, choosing the U.S. and Japan. The friend later said he was surprised by her choice — he was suggesting keeping the boyfriend and losing Los Angeles. But she couldn't give up this city because, she realized, 'L.A. was my identity as an artist.' In Los Angeles, Yamaguchi can do her own thing. She is 'happy to be left alone.' There is less information overload than a place like New York City. L.A. has the appeal of not being at the center of things; it has allowed her to do things at her own pace. Because even as time is a limited resource, Yamaguchi savors working slowly, gradually. Sometimes her husband, the gallerist Tom Jimmerson, will come home at the end of the day and be puzzled — the canvas Yamaguchi was working on that morning doesn't appear all that different. But she sees a transformed picture in the smallest of adjustments, like the deeper tint of a shadow. Yamaguchi speaks of her slowness as something almost naughty. In an interview with Leah Ollman this summer, she described 'wasting' time as 'a perverse pleasure.' It's her rebellion against capitalism and the expectation to produce at a high pace. No other series embodies this more than her close-up self-portraits of her bust, waist and torso, as she painted each white stitch on a crochet top, each blue wrinkle in the pleats of a skirt — which, like many things she owns, including the black button-down jumper she's sporting for our interview, is a hand-me-down that she wears to this day. She painted these just a decade ago, but, she tells me, 'I wouldn't be able to do the garment pieces now.' They'd probably take too much out of her. Yamaguchi is now focusing on making paintings that already feel familiar to her, using forms she's repeatedly traced and painted over her career: braids, cones, columns, mounds, loopy waves. Together these shapes make what she calls 'abstractions in reverse' — abstract pictures that engender natural landscapes of their own. She references Wallace Stevens, who wrote in his journal: 'All of our ideas come from the natural world: trees equal umbrellas.' But what if umbrellas, instead, equaled trees? The world of color and shapes — of art — is just as real and lived. At MOCA, Yamaguchi has 10 whimsical seascapes on view: oceans with golden curtains for skies and purple waves for waters; oceans that look like they could be the backdrops to the Ballets Russes, bands of red and white shooting up from the horizon. A month before, I had seen a different body of work from the late '80s at her gallery, Ortuzar, in lower Manhattan: five large paintings featuring allegorical women drawn from the Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, each cast in a Yamaguchi landscape of dizzying swirls and gold leaf. When I ask Yamaguchi what she thinks ties her works together, she says, 'They're incredibly time-consuming and exacting,' and, she adds with a smile, 'they have a contrarian streak.' Her work has often been off trend — always of the future or the past, but never of the present, she says. 'What could be more fuddy duddy and out of step than the seascape?' Anna Katz, the curator of the MOCA show, rhetorically asked at the opening. Yamaguchi delights in her difference and defiance. She is inspired by the Romantics from the late 18th century who painted seascapes, but she's 'not romantic.' She admires spontaneous, expressionistic artists, but she has more of 'a cool side.' She tries to 'avoid' emotion — 'keep it away, out.' When I ask her why, she says maybe she feels 'self-conscious,' 'kind of inadequate.' She prefers to be in control. But what stays with me after our hours together in her Santa Monica apartment is a softer side, a side that thinks of the passing of time and has held on to her childhood dolls — a side that she keeps private and presumably separate from her work, though even she knows this distinction isn't realistic. 'Emotion has a way of sneaking back in.' After our interview, I stick around Yamaguchi's apartment while photographer Jennelle Fong takes the artist's portrait. She asks Jennelle to make sure she looks good, but she is already beautiful: elegant in her understated Gap jeans, round black eyeglasses and neatly trimmed bangs. Jennelle, who has overheard much of our conversation, wonders what Yamaguchi does to relax, given how intensely time-consuming and focused her work sounds. 'Baths. And stare at Japanese TV. And wine!' Any cheap wine, she clarifies. I wander back toward her studio and examine a board pinned with various bits of paper and pictures. There is a news clipping of Yamaguchi when she was younger, posing with a cigarette in front of her painting of a smoking woman. There is a photo of a winding road, and several photos of seascapes. When I ask her about these, she says her husband cuts them out from newspapers whenever he sees them and gives them to her. I think of three paintings from the MOCA show that appear to have smooth, paved roads in the middle of their oceans — oceans to be traversed, traveled. I think of how the only thing separating Los Angeles from Japan, Yamaguchi from her parents, is a long stretch of Pacific Ocean, and how she's been journeying it most her life. When I ask her if living between two places and languages has impacted her art, Yamaguchi says, 'I felt like wherever I was, I was an outsider and wasn't able to fully integrate. And even in my own country, I felt very foreign too.' She adds, 'It must have affected something in my work.' When I think of what ties Yamaguchi's work together, I think of being suspended in time and space, of being nowhere in particular, but of also being pressed up close to the moment. I think of being pulled into focus: before a human body or the patterns of an otherworldly ocean. I think of the embrace of colors and textures and shapes. I think of how accommodating her work is, how she doesn't stick to a single aesthetic or mode of expression. There is no one way to be. I tell Yamaguchi that next time she needs a bigger show, one that has all her works side by side, to showcase her multiplicity. The MOCA show is just one room. It is part of the museum's 'Focus' series, exhibitions reserved for showcasing emerging artists. '72 and emerging,' Yamaguchi wryly says. Of course, she's been here — it's the institutions that are catching up. As we say goodbye, Yamaguchi says how nice it was to spend time with 'young people.' I thank her for sacrificing the hours from her precious workday. As we walk down the staircase, she waves and calls from the railing: 'Enjoy your long lives!' A reminder of the gift of time.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Four Maine college presidents sign national letter decrying Trump education 'overreach'
Apr. 22—Four Maine higher education leaders have signed on to a letter accusing the Trump administration of "unprecedented government overreach and political interference." Safa Zaki of Bowdoin College, Garry Jenkins of Bates College, David Greene of Colby College and James Herbert of the University of New England all added their names to the letter, published Tuesday by the American Association of Colleges and Universities. More than 230 presidents of colleges, universities and scholarly societies throughout the country have signed so far. "We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight," the letter reads. "However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding." Though the letter primarily represents private institutions, leaders from a handful of state colleges and universities signed on, including University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes and Eastern Connecticut State University President Karim Ismaili. A spokesperson for the University of Maine system declined to comment. In recent months, the Trump administration has pulled or threatened to pull federal funding from higher education institutions that don't comply with his agenda on student protesters, admissions practices and transgender athlete policies. The administration has also revoked the visas of hundreds of international students. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine filed a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies behind the visa revocations, asking that a judge restore the visas of any New England students who have had them wrongfully removed, and protecting future students from the same actions. In Tuesday's letter, the colleges argue they should be places of open inquiry where faculty, staff and students can exchange ideas and share different viewpoints, "without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation." The letter ends with a call for an end to the current federal interference. "The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society," it reads. "On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic." Greene, president of Colby, said that although national attention has focused on a handful of high-profile institutions targeted by the administration, the threat of sanctions carries massive consequences for nearly all the country's colleges and universities. "Great harm could come to colleges and universities small and large, urban and rural, in red states and blue, if the government moves away from being a vital partner in supporting access to higher education and the groundbreaking research that fuels America's innovation economy," Greene said in a written statement. "Like Democracy itself, America's universities are imperfect, yet no system of higher education in the world comes close to matching the intellectual richness and contributions of the one which we enjoy in this country." In an email Tuesday afternoon, Doug Cook, Bowdoin's director of communications, said, "President Zaki is going to let the letter speak for itself." A UNE spokesperson said Herbert also "believes the letter speaks for itself, and he has nothing further to add at this time." A Bates spokesperson referred questions to a statement on the college's website, which acknowledged Jenkins signing on but did not provide additional details. The letter comes as the Trump administration has targeted the funding of a number of colleges and universities, demanding policy changes to bring campuses in line with the federal government's agenda. Harvard University on Monday sued the Trump administration for attempting to withhold more than $2 billion in grants after the school refused to agree to changes proposed in a letter the administration sent April 11. Those demands included suspending certain student organizations and sweeping changes to admissions policies. Weeks earlier, Columbia University faced sharp criticism for acquiescing to policy changes that included adopting a new definition of antisemitism and pursuing with the administration calls "intellectual diversity" on campus. Both Harvard and Columbia's presidents signed the letter Tuesday. New signatures were continuously added to the letter throughout Tuesday evening. Other signatories represent colleges from California to Kalamazoo, including all but one member of the Ivy League as of 6 p.m. This story will be updated. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Atlantic Hires Jenna Johnson and Dan Zak as Senior Editors, and Tyler Austin Harper as Staff Writer
Today The Atlantic is announcing three new staff members: Tyler Austin Harper, who was previously a contributing writer, will become a staff writer, and Jenna Johnson and Dan Zak will both be senior editors. Tyler has written for The Atlantic since 2023; before joining the magazine on staff, he was an associate professor at Bates College. Jenna and Dan both come to The Atlantic from The Washington Post, where they have worked for almost two decades. Below is the announcement about these hires from The Atlantic's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg: First, Tyler. As a contributing writer for us, he has published an impressive number of articles on an even more impressive range of topics: extreme fishing off Montauk, gun ownership in America, ChatGPT on college campuses, and many, many others. I speak for so many of us when I say that the more Tyler we have, the better. He'll be joining us from Bates College, where he has been an assistant professor of environmental studies. Now, Dan. Dan Zak is a gifted journalist with a talent for teasing out clear, compelling narratives, and for bringing complicated profiles to life. He brings to us a deep love for magazines and the craft of writing. (Don't get him started on the Caitlin Flanagan lede. Or, actually, do.) At The Post, he wrote for the Style section for nearly twenty years before becoming an editor in 2023. Dan is also the author of Almighty, a book about anti-nuclear activists, and he was nominated for a National Magazine Award this year in the feature writing category. From Jeffrey, announcing Jenna's hire last week: I'm very happy to report to you that Jenna Johnson is joining The Atlantic as a senior editor. Jenna is a supremely talented journalist with deep expertise in all things Trump. She comes to us after 18 years at The Washington Post, where she most recently served as immigration editor. Before that role, she served as the deputy editor for democracy coverage. Jenna is beloved by her reporters, who tell us she guided them to the best work of their careers. She's creative, bold, and unfailingly prepared for whatever the news may bring. She also leads with empathy and is generous with advice for the dozens of young journalists she has mentored over the course of her career. Before becoming an editor, Jenna was best known for her distinctive coverage of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. She was The Post's lead reporter on his 2016 presidential campaign and, through interviews with his supporters, produced memorable dispatches from rallies across the country. Jenna examined the types of communities where Trump held his events and documented how he made suspicion of Muslims, immigrants and other groups a centerpiece of his pitch to voters. As a White House reporter during his first administration, she documented America's deepening divisions. The Atlantic has announced a number of new hires since the start of the year, including managing editor Griff Witte; staff writers Isaac Stanley-Becker, Nick Miroff, Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Caity Weaver; and contributing writers Jonathan Lemire and Alex Reisner. Please reach out with any questions or requests. Press Contact: Sammi Sontag, The Atlantic | press@ Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Atlantic
Hires Jenna Johnson and Dan Zak as Senior Editors, and Tyler Austin Harper as Staff Writer
Today The Atlantic is announcing three new staff members: Tyler Austin Harper, who was previously a contributing writer, will become a staff writer, and Jenna Johnson and Dan Zak will both be senior editors. Tyler has written for The Atlantic since 2023; before joining the magazine on staff, he was an associate professor at Bates College. Jenna and Dan both come to The Atlantic from The Washington Post, where they have worked for almost two decades. Below is the announcement about these hires from The Atlantic 's editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg: First, Tyler. As a contributing writer for us, he has published an impressive number of articles on an even more impressive range of topics: extreme fishing off Montauk, gun ownership in America, ChatGPT on college campuses, and many, many others. I speak for so many of us when I say that the more Tyler we have, the better. He'll be joining us from Bates College, where he has been an assistant professor of environmental studies. Now, Dan. Dan Zak is a gifted journalist with a talent for teasing out clear, compelling narratives, and for bringing complicated profiles to life. He brings to us a deep love for magazines and the craft of writing. (Don't get him started on the Caitlin Flanagan lede. Or, actually, do.) At The Post, he wrote for the Style section for nearly twenty years before becoming an editor in 2023. Dan is also the author of Almighty, a book about anti-nuclear activists, and he was nominated for a National Magazine Award this year in the feature writing category. From Jeffrey, announcing Jenna's hire last week: I'm very happy to report to you that Jenna Johnson is joining The Atlantic as a senior editor. Jenna is a supremely talented journalist with deep expertise in all things Trump. She comes to us after 18 years at The Washington Post, where she most recently served as immigration editor. Before that role, she served as the deputy editor for democracy coverage. Jenna is beloved by her reporters, who tell us she guided them to the best work of their careers. She's creative, bold, and unfailingly prepared for whatever the news may bring. She also leads with empathy and is generous with advice for the dozens of young journalists she has mentored over the course of her career. Before becoming an editor, Jenna was best known for her distinctive coverage of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. She was The Post 's lead reporter on his 2016 presidential campaign and, through interviews with his supporters, produced memorable dispatches from rallies across the country. Jenna examined the types of communities where Trump held his events and documented how he made suspicion of Muslims, immigrants and other groups a centerpiece of his pitch to voters. As a White House reporter during his first administration, she documented America's deepening divisions. The Atlantic has announced a number of new hires since the start of the year, including managing editor Griff Witte; staff writers Isaac Stanley-Becker, Nick Miroff, Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, and Caity Weaver; and contributing writers Jonathan Lemire and Alex Reisner. Please reach out with any questions or requests.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Waterville 'Tesla Takedown' protest targets Elon Musk, Trump
Mar. 29—WATERVILLE — They held signs that read "Cut Waste, Cut Fraud, Cut Musk," "Musk Must Go!" and "Deport Musk, Fire Dastardly Oligarchs Grifting Everything." More than 60 men and women from around central Maine stood Saturday in 30-degree temperatures and about 3 inches of snow that had fallen overnight at the Tesla charging station off Main Street. They greeted motorists at the busy intersection who honked horns and gave the protesters a thumbs up. At least one man, driving a pickup truck, gave them the finger and yelled. The demonstration was one of hundreds held worldwide Saturday as part of "Tesla Takedown," a planned, peaceful event organizers say is intended to highlight President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk's gutting of democracy. The protesters criticized Musk's firing of thousands of federal workers, decimating departments, eliminating agencies and his public demonstration of what he called a fascist salute. "I feel like I can't sit around at home and watch it all happening," said Richard Smith, 77, of Belgrade Lakes. "You have to do something, and this is something." Standing next to Smith on Saturday was Waterville native Eric Hooglund, 81, now a resident of Belgrade Lakes. He held a sign that said, "Swasticar, The Facist Thing on Four Wheels," which depicted a red Tesla pickup truck with a swastika on the door. "This feels a lot like 1933 Germany because that's when Hitler came to power," Hooglund said. A former U.S. foreign policy and Middle East politics instructor at Bates College in Lewiston, Hooglund said he is in shock about what is happening. "It's illegal to just abolish government and fire people," he said. Hooglund said his son-in-law works for the U.S. State Department and got a letter saying he and others were being let go. They were removed from their positions, but learned after a few days that they could return. They live with the uncertainty that it could happen again. Hooglund himself works with the senior college at the University of Maine at Farmington, and was going to organize a trip in June to Frances Perkins' home, a national monument in Newcastle, but was told he couldn't do so because of federal cuts. "This is happening all over the country," he said. The site of Saturday's protest, the Tesla charging station, was where the first known Tesla-related protest was held Feb. 5. Elizabeth Leonard, author, historian and professor emeritus of history at Colby College in Waterville, organized that event, which went viral on both social media and in the news after the Morning Sentinel published a story about it. After the protest, demonstrations were held at Tesla dealerships all over the country and world and Leonard was interviewed by several news organizations. Leonard also helped with Saturday's event, which was hosted by Mid Maine Indivisible, a group organized by former Waterville Mayor Karen Heck. Mid Maine officials said they believe the Waterville protest was the only one held in Maine that was connected with the worldwide Tesla event. "This is a good turnout and it shows to me that the revulsion is building and building and building all over the country, even in little towns like Waterville, Maine," Leonard, 68, said. "You don't have to go to the big cities to see how upset people are about this unelected, super-rich person tearing down the government, when he was not elected to do so." Leonard said Tesla is the underpinning of Musk's wealth and reputation and a huge part of why he has money to buy a presidency. "It also represents the illusion of his great business sense," she said. "If he was to run the country like a business, beware, because he's running his business into the ground." Heck held a sign bearing a likeness of Musk that said, "I am Stealing from You." "I think it's important for those of us who love the U.S. to stand up and say so and not let the bullies destroy our democracy," Heck said, when asked why she was there Saturday. Waving a small American flag, Heck, 72, said millions of people in the U.S need the government services that are being cut, and they will understand that when it is all gone. "I'm so full of anger and frustration and fear," she said. "I don't see our Maine delegation, other than Rep. Chellie Pingree, conducting town halls. I've asked Sen. Angus King's office many times. I've talked to staff to have him speak to us in a town hall. I don't even care if it's on Zoom. Why aren't they speaking to us, telling us the truth, because conservative media and social media is surrounding us. There is no liberal bias in the press." Heck said what makes her crazy is that Congress knew what was going to happen in advance with the Project 2025 document, yet members continue to pretend its business as usual in governing. "They've given up their power," she said. Wearing all black, Joanna Linden, 67, of Waterville, said she was dressed in mourning. "Elon Musk donated millions to the Trump campaign," she said, "and he's been set free inside the government to wreck everything that provides services to regular people, and we're losing our democracy because of him." Retired educator Linda Woods, 73 and also from Waterville, held a sign that read, "This Musk Stop." "Our forefathers set up this whole separation of powers system with checks and balances, thoroughly outlined," Woods said. "He's trampling all over it as if it doesn't exist. I don't understand why someone is not doing something to stop him." Copy the Story Link
