The Japan Years

Jim Hay arrives in 1990 and works in sumi-e (black ink with brush on paper), drawing in the countryside. He next adds colored ink and brings more of his own artistic personality to the work. He has many exhibitions and the opportunity to illustrate a monthly publication.
      Hay finds that his ideas are drawn into high focus by living in a different culture. Concepts vary strongly within cultures: individuality, conformity, dating, sexuality, happiness, sadness, freedom, frustration, even myth. He cuts up hundreds of his drawings and reassembles them into assemblage, adding found objects, photo copies, washi paper, sensor-controlled light and sound.