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A Wedding & Burning Man

August 2017, Don & Era go to a wedding in Seattle then stir up the dust at Burning Man

Dear friends and family,

Please forgive me if you don't get a reply from me. Now in India and the internet is very spotty so far. Not everything gets through.



Quick stop in NY. We packed in many meetings in a couple days. Lucky us, we got to stay at Chuck’s NY apartment. (Chuck had already given me permission previously to take pictures of his place).



Visit and drinks with Ann Hatch & Paul Discoe’s beyond gorgeous Japanese temple-looking apartment, which they call the dojo. Paul built this inside a building across from Cooper Union.  L to R, Paul Discoe, Don, Ann Hatch and Henry Drewell. Not shown is the lovely Sarah.

The meeting of the two genius couples (Ann Hatch and Paul Discoe meet Sarah Khan and Henry Drewell).



Don photographing Lyle Ashton Harris in front of Lyle's collage which may turn into a tapestry.



Then on the plane for the long trek: NY to London (never left Heathrow), then London to Delhi. Jet-Lagged, but happy. It all went very smoothly, except for clearing Security at Heathrow. Flying on Xmas and they were in high alert because of some threat. My bag, among many bags, was pulled off for closer inspection. Took a half hour; fortunately, we had enough time. It turns out you can’t place your iPad in your bag in England. US allows it.


Then landing in Delhi at 1:00 in the morning, long wait to get our e-tourist visas stamped, and then find our driver who had been patiently waiting for us, for hours.

Thick, acrid smog outside, which made the airport's interior a little hazy. That combined with our jet lag contributed to the dream sequence. (Don: we wandered out the main door to find Raj, our driver, not finding him we turned back to re-enter the airport but the armed guards would not let us in - I tried reasoning with one and found myself inadvertently looking down the barrel of his assault rifle. He wasn't intentionally pointing it at me.)

We’re in a different world now.

Checked into our hotel at around 2:30 am, December 26, or very late Xmas night. Nap. And then off to our cooking class.


They weren't quite ready for us at the cooking class, so we walked around the neighborhood. Women wear their gorgeous saris out to shop, walk the dusty streets, help with construction work, clean hotel rooms. They look absolutely gorgeous.


 Street scenes


The chrysanthemum garlands are everywhere.


Aloo tiki vendor, it smelled and looked delicious.



And it was; Era with Raj, our driver.


Love from Era and Don in India



Dear friends and family,
We had a fabulous time at the opening for the Inside Magnolia Editions - Innovation and Collaboration exhibition at the Art Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, California. So many of our artist and other friends showed up, current staff and staff from decades past. The exhibition is still up, running through February 6, 2016.



 Artists in the exhibition and Magnolia Editions staff, past and present
(Kneeling) David Best, Guy Diehl, (Standing front) Diane Evans (Museum Director), Bob Nugent, Deborah Oropallo, Mildred Howard, Hung Liu, Era Hamaji Farnsworth, Inez Storer, Randy Rosenberg (Curator), Mary Hull Webster, William Wiley, Robert Hudson; (Back and Middle Rows, L to R) Brian Caraway, Mel Ramos, Rick Dula, Rupert Garcia, Andy Diaz-Hope, Guillermo Galindo, Laurel Roth Hope, Donald Farnsworth, Tallulah Terryll, Andrew Romanoff, Richard Wagener, Nicholas Price, Maya Bush, Heather Peters - - 
photo credit: Marisha Farnsworth

 Sande Schlumberger (Art Museum of Sonoma County board member), Roxane Schlumberger-Hume (former Magnolia Editions staff), Nicholas Price (Magnolia Editions Master Printer), Alyssa Erickson, Tallulah Terryll (Magnolia Editions Master Printer), David McKay in front of Don and Era Farnsworth’s Shadow (Cinderella). Photo: Don Farnsworth





Four Art Guys: Don Farnsworth, Bob Nugent, Rupert Garcia and Jeff Kelley
Photo credit: Hung Liu


Temra Costa, baby Quin and Marisha Farnsworth


Artists Hung Liu and Mel Ramos with Diane Evans (Museum Director) 
in front of Deborah Oropallo's The Lion Tamer


Alice Au-Yeung Caraway, Brian Caraway (artist and former staff of many years) and Owen in front of Reclining Youth by Leon Golub



Ben Blackwell with Phil on Awagami handmade Bizan paper by Chuck Close

Craig Nagasawa, John Moore and Era Farnsworth
photo credit: Mavis Jukes

Sabrina Schlumberger, sister of Roxane, daughter of Sande, and cousin of Lea Seydoux, actress and the new Bond girl (Spectre) with whom she shares a strong family resemblance when in her more serious moments. Lea's character hardly cracked a smile in Spectre.


Etosha Terryll with sister and Magnolia Editions’ Master Printer, Tallulah Terryll in front of Aziz + Cucher’s Some People.



Felix Fein in front of Andy Diaz-Hope and Laurel Roth-Hope's 
Allegory of the Monoceros

Photos not credited most likely taken by Donald Farnsworth

There are some cool little stop-action videos at the Magnolia blog site: http://blog.magnoliaeditions.com, done by our very talented intern, Ezequiel Narcisi

We have just started a trip to India, so will try to write and post from there.

Love from Era and Don

Dear Friends and Family,

Seems that many people enjoyed those Miyajima posts. Miyajima is considered to be one of the 3 most scenic sights /sites in Japan. Certainly, it was one of our visual highlights. We loved it. A little like time travel / other dimensional travel. I referred in my last blog to some of the temples on Mt. Misen being hundreds of years old. Sacred Sites web page says: Long before Buddhism came to Japan in the 5th century AD, Shinto sages lived as hermits in the mountain's forested hills. So that's over 1500 years ago.

As mentioned, we are back. Pretty jet-lagged; slept from 8 pm to 11 pm, then up until around 5:00 am, then another sleep until around 9 am. A full day of work, playing catch up, and here we are. 

Thought I would add here some responses from some of our readers. One is a lovely poem, or part of his poem, from our friend, sculptor (amongst other talents) Mark Wholey, and the other are further comments and some corrections about Hokusai from Kaoru, our guide at the Edo-Tokyo Museum. As you will see, she is very well-informed and her English is very good. As so many of you are artists and interested in the arts, I thought you would find it engaging. Also, I am jet-lagged and don't really have that much to say about Kurashiki, which was lovely, but was a little too touristic, reminded us of a Japanese Carmel.




Kurashiki, the old part of the city has older buildings, formerly owned by merchants, fronting canals

I am the setting sun. Glass of sunset in hand. Walking with you two down Miyajima, fresh colors out of a crayon box.

Getting to look around half a world away. Feel the temperature in autumn. Taste the air from the sea. Sense the crunch under foot. The serene beauty of pagodas and shrines along the way. Torii blessing on you: Farnsie and Era. And us by proxy. Thank you. 


Excerpted from an email written by Mark Wholey.

Mark's a good friend and forgiving, so I wrote this before specifically getting his permission. We did get it this morning. Also got an okay from Kaoru.


Hello Era and Don,

I had a real fun time with you in the museum.
Reading your blog, I thought I should add a little comment.
But I didn't know very well how to put my comment on your blog.
So I am e-mailing you.
The number of Hokusai's house-moving was more than 90...accurate number was 93.
Maybe my pronunciation was bad.

Don, as an artist, you may be interested in what Hokusai said when he was 75 years old.

"My pieces before 70 were all awful. I will reach the pinnacle of my art by the age of 90,
 and they will be superhuman feats by the age of 100,
 furthermore when I become 110, every dot I draw will move as if it were alive."

He died at the age of 88.
He expressed his dying wishes like this ,
"If I could have lived 10 years longer, no at least 5 years,
 I could have created a masterpiece!"

By the way he completed thirty-six views of Mt.Fuji including Big Wave at the age of 72.


I enjoy reading your blog.
I hope you two have a great time and enjoy Japan more!
                                                                                                            Kaoru

Well, we certainly had the best time ever in Japan. I don't see how we could have enjoyed it more. Thank you, Kaoru.

Uh-oh, the trouble two Westerners can create. Took a train to Kurashiki, which involved departing from Hiroshima, transferring at Okayama, and continuing along a smaller line to Kurashiki. We were given a series of 3 tickets which we were supposed to put into the machine all at once, but we didn't realize that and Don put his tickets in sequentially. Somehow, the ticket machine malfunctioned (probably unheard of) and Don's tickets were not returned to him. 



At first the ticket booth officials found it a little hard to believe; I think the machine rarely if ever malfunctions. Finally, they took the machine apart and with no little effort eventually did find Don's tickets. The whole spectacle was pretty amusing, was probably embarrassing for the officials (Don loved seeing the inside of the machine) and took maybe 5 minutes. Good thing, as we had another train to catch.

We staggered on our way. We were still almost crippled after our walk down Miyajima, especially when we had to go down stairs or a downward slope. The guidebook I had (The Rough Guide) described it as a pleasant walk over Mt. Misen. Maybe for a young Shinto sage. I think The Rough Guide does cater to the mostly younger set. Or maybe they never actually walked the walk themselves.


A train food cart attendant. Pleasant, attentive, polite, unfailingly courteous, always...How do they do dat? 

She bows when she enters the train compartment and bows when she exits, and bows when she is done with the transaction, along with many "Arigato Gozaimas". All Don purchased was a coffee.

Kurashiki, where people like to dress up in their kimonos and stroll around.


It was fun seeing this newly wed couple





























I guess it's customary for wedding guests to wear black.

Sumo wrestler dolls

They have a very cool toy museum, which Craig (Awagami) told us about when he heard we were going to Kurashiki.



Kurashiki also had the beautiful autumn colors. I like the stray strand of green willow. Looks great against the pink.

And I got a couple very cool hats there. Don says I look like I'm wearing a temple on my head.

Altogether, very tame and very safe.

Love from a position hovering somewhere over the Pacific,

Era and Don






Dear friends and family,

More Miyajima; it was a very full day. 


Era in purple. Don finds it difficult to pick me out of crowds here. I may possibly be the only woman in Japan wearing Dansko clogs. These women are worshipping at statues of Jizo, the Buddha who protects and guides the spirits of babies and young children who have died.



 The outside of Daisho-in temple.


Easier to pick Don out of a crowd. Walking to the overhead lifts which will take us to the top of Mt. Mizen


The cable and small overhead trams can be seen in the upper right. We had to take a series of 2 of these to get up the mountain.


This is not our photo, but something from a tourist agency. It's the only one so far in these Japanese emails which isn't from our camera and iPhones. The color is certainly beefed up. I have no idea how they managed to take it. It gives you a sense of how high up the trams are.






At the top, incredible views of the Seto Inland Sea. 



Temples at the top of the mountain also, and some have been there for hundreds of years. What an effort.



Don captured on his iPhone map the location of where we are, at the top of Mt. Mizen.


So now we're up around 5000 steep feet (4,900) around 3:00 in the afternoon, and we decide we want to walk down, not take the tram down, like the hundreds of others at the very top of the mountain.







Magnificent scenery, isolated, and very, very steep. By the time we got to the bottom, 1.9 miles of downhill (actually before) we had muscle failure and barely had control of our legs. I only fell once. Freaked Don out, but I was okay. 





Cute trail markers; there are a variety of them.


Not possible! This color is real. Psychedelic pink. The sunlight penetrates the translucent leaves, making them glow.



Temple about halfway down the mountain. Looking carefully through the doorway, you may spy some young hikers going up the mountain, some of the very few people we encountered. We felt as if we were in medieval Japan.


Little shrine to Jizo



Imagine laying all these stone stairs. This is one of three paths down the mountain. We also saw signage to different parks.



We came to an area where there had been a rock slide


A little temple and we are almost at the end. We can see buildings in sight. We should probably give thanks for not breaking a leg. We were also worried about getting to the bottom before the sun set. I think a reasonably-fit person need not fear that they would break their leg on this path, but it is a workout (for the average American, anyway).


We came down the back side of Daisho-in. We were looking for this trail up the mountain earlier. I'm glad we didn't find it. I don't think we would have made it; certainly not up and back.

Staggered past here, the land is flattening out, and through the little village.

The tide is starting to come in again.



A jolly fellow saw us struggling to take a selfie with the Torii in the background and took this photo of us.


Love from Japan,

Era and Don




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About Me

Donald and Era Farnsworth
Donald and Era Farnsworth are collaborators in art and life. Married over 30 years, they co-direct Magnolia Editions and The Magnolia Tapestry Project, based in Oakland, California. Both artists are products of the SF Bay Area. Shortly after receiving his M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977, Donald Farnsworth met Era Hamaji. They married and immediately set out for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania where Donald designed and helped build a handmade paper mill while Era worked with artisans, teaching and developing new craft products lines. In 1980 the Farnsworths returned to California and were founders of the art projects studio Magnolia Editions, known for its innovative techniques and innumerable collaborative projects with artists.
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  • Tokyo, mostly pictures
    Hi Friends, It's been said a million times, I'm sure, but Tokyo is a city of great contrasts. We're going to tell this story mos...
  • Japan Email #9 Hokusai and Kurashiki
    Dear Friends and Family, Seems that many people enjoyed those Miyajima posts. Miyajima is considered to be one of the 3 most scenic sights /...
  • Jodhpur Part 2
    Dear friends and family, Before we leave Mehrangarh Fort, I always love seeing the maintenance, the installation, the repair, the work going...
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