I have a lot to be thankful for,
but I confess I don't like formal holidays.
In Japan I grew so comfortable loosely following them-
But I do hope to see my son, it has been a while...
Had a day in Fort Pierce
checking out a new marketplace.
I was expecting a green grocer
sort of thing,
instead it was every kind of thing
you would find at the beginning of the month
market, outside near the beach...
The building was built in 1919,
the floor tile work still exists.
The rest rooms have that space and quality
that once existed in that era.
The markets had no fresh produce at all...
But there was a guy there on keyboards
playing a Dave Frishberg tune,
so I enjoyed that...
The links above detail the history part of this painting,
but the memory is what I've never talked about.
My late husband Akio was with me,
and our (at that time) young son, Michio.
We decided to take a walk in the cool
October night, all three of us...
That was rare, as I often had singing gigs at night,
and Akio was mostly away teaching his music students.
I remember how Halloween was only an inkling
of a notion in Tokyo, then.
The wide-open rice field held recently
harvested and neatly arranged and hung bundles-
I still remember the earth-y scent of it.
In time that would be replaced with apartment buildings, etc...
But that night in late October, 1995,
we 3 walked and laughed together,
and that as well as
the moon and beautiful scenery,
is what inspired me to paint this,
the next day, from memory-
To capture that wondrous night and time together,
as a family, through this work.
Photo: Michio Yves Ueda
