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2O2 4 – 2O2 5 GU I D E to Y E L LOW S P R I NG S 51 ‘Okay, this is what I’m drawn to,’” Orimo said. “Also, in the 1970s when I was in Tokyo, becoming a teenager, college student, it was kind of a burst- ing time for Japanese design, the fashion and photography and design. Of course, being in the middle of Tokyo, you are exposed to all of that the minute that it comes out, so, I saw a lot of that energy, and also a very avant-garde theater movement.” In listening to Orimo describe her work, an interest- ing narrative — that of family lineage carried just under the surface — emerge. Her par - ents’ creative endeavors — the visual language of art com- bined with the literary, fabric and verbal language — are deftly utilized in her works of art, which combine her differ - ent interests. “Rather than being an expert who knows everything about certain things, I really appreci- ate that art allows me to take BRANDEBERRY WINERY is a family-owned boutique winery 3 miles north of Yellow Springs in a country setting with a beautiful Tuscan tasting room and a spacious outdoor patio. We offer wine tasting, wine slushies, appetizers, a gift shop and live music on weekends year-round. 5118 Jackson Rd., Enon 937-767-9103 www.brandeberrywinery.com Find us on Facebook! studio in Tokyo. “She didn’t have an image of herself being an artist,” Orimo said. “She didn’t have any sort of a process of documentation like an artist does, but she was making a bird cage [hat] on the top of a head, stitched insect skin to make a pill box, sort of like [Jacqueline] Kennedy’s. The pill box had all kinds of weird material — so in a way, she was making sculptures.” Orimo said her parents made friends with writers and artists, who were part of the fabric of her family life growing up. She was encour- aged to join in conversations with her parents and their friends — conversations that sometimes supplemented her grade school education, and sometimes replaced it. “Even in elementary grade school, if I were part of a conversation of grownups and stayed up too late … if the conversation was important enough for me to hear, they all said, ‘Go ahead and stay, and then you don’t have to go to school tomorrow,’” Orimo said. From an early age, Orimo said her parents nurtured her inquisi- tive spirit. She was encouraged, she said, to learn by observation and experimentation. “My parents, especially my mom, consciously pointed things out when we were in the subway. ‘Look at that yellow that person is wear- ing, or somebody’s holding. What is it, what is it about the yellow?’” she said. “Rather than teaching how to do it, she let me sit next to her [making] ribbons and using materials and stuff like that. I did a lot of creative work not in a formal way.” With those sorts of creative and curious foundations laid, Orimo said there wasn’t an exact moment when she knew she wanted to be an artist. Instead, she said, the inspira- tion came from a spiritual level. “There are a lot of little moments that you’re like, Gallery in downtown Colum- bus. The curators of the show nominated five artists from the exhibition to be consid - ered for the show, “National Women to Watch” in the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., and Orimo was one of the artists chosen to repre - sent Ohio. The work selected for the show is an installa- tion of women’s writing from different parts of the globe, translated into Morse code. And for viewers engaging with the work, it involves using the senses beyond sight and touch. “Dashes and dots and knots. These are women’s writing — women who were against difficult environments — like Afghan women, a Syrian blog- ger who was detained, Chi- nese activists whose husbands were in prison,” Orimo said. “They’re available in an English translation from their native language. Then I encoded that into Morse code and then I stitched them. It’s not legible, in a sense — Morse code has never been a readable thing anyway; you have to hear it.” Orimo has the recorded sound of the coded writings, and has proposed that a small speaker be placed underneath the work so viewers can also hear the beat of the code. An artist’s origins Orimo was born the daugh- ter of an artist and writer in Tokyo, Japan in the 1950s. She described her young self as being “very much an only child with artistic temperament in a bohemian household.” She credited her upbringing for guiding her toward a love of art. Her father was a writer, whom she described as “not a very typical Japanese salary man.” Her mother had an artis - tic bent and had wanted to pursue a life as a painter, but as a woman, she was discour- aged from doing so. Instead, Orimo said her mother went into hat-making and design and sold her hats from her State ID # 27702 ServiceCompany How well do you know your LOCAL PLUMBING & HEATING COMPANY? 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