James Ong

Name: James Ong
Website: ongdesignsart.com

What do you do?
I am a product designer creating art that moves (mobiles, marble rolls/runs) and moves people to play using their senses (OBO, now - sculptural blocks). I also move paint around on canvas.

Where can we find your work?
ongdesignsart.com 

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
I have things to say that cannot be said in words. Only through shapes, color, texture, and movement can I express my inner thoughts and feelings. Sometimes when things get tough I cannot create art. If I try the art is dark, reflecting my inner state. By taking a break from creating art and looking at the work of others I get inspired to start creating art.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process? 
Process is more important. Focusing on the process requires our undivided attention and presence. The end product will be revealed in time. This does not mean that I don’t care about the final result. Only by living in the present and paying attention to what we are doing can our intention, imagination flow onto the canvas without the anxiety of how things will turn out.

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
Isamu Noguchi, Maya Lin, Alexander Calder, Bruno Munari, Paul Klee

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Doc Savage because he is everything I am not.

When do you get your best ideas?
When I’m alone with my imagination. Also, when I’m walking around and before waking up in the morning when I’m still drowsy.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
Preliminary work: Sketchbook, pen, pencil - I do a lot of sketches 

Tools: X-acto knife, scissors, cutting mat, ruler, compass, screw-punch, pen, pencil brushes

Materials: Wood, paper, canvas, tape, thread, reed, paint

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
Both. I was an ex-engineer who went back to art school (Academy of Art University) to get a MFA in Product Design focusing on Toy Design. I have also taken a number of art workshop/classes like weaving on a loom, printmaking and abstract painting, 

Art school really helped me to open up, to see the world in a new way. It gave me the freedom and the desire to want to create things from my imagination. I am open to new ideas and ways of doing in creating my designs and artwork. I approach art making like a child at play, open to experimenting with the materials and letting my curiosity take over.

Being self-taught (books, magazines, videos, experimentation) and formally educated has increase the scope of my art/design work. I can choose among a number of art/design mediums and methods to create my works.

What would your creative work taste like?
Subtle, sweet, memorable with a wonderful lingering aftertaste.

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
Read action/mystery books, watch movies, browse in bookstores, visit art/design museums and galleries, dream about playing table tennis again.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
I was an unhappy engineer. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life. Everything changed when I entered art school and found my calling. I learned to see and feel in colors, shapes, forms, and texture.

In art school there was so much creative vibe and energy that I was motivated to create stuff no one else had done before. I learned by observing, questioning (What if?), experimenting, failing, and just trying different things. 

After art school I showed my work and portfolio to other artists, designers, and educators and received very favorable feedback on my creativity, imagination, and work. This really gave me the confidence to put my work out there. It is still a struggle for me to show my work since I’m an introverted introvert. I would rather create art/design than talk about it.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
Read, ask questions, stay curious. Be present and maintain a beginner’s mind in whatever you do. Be open to new ideas. Experiment. Believe in what you are doing. If you don’t have the skills either take workshop/classes or learn from a book or from other artists/designers. Join an art/design group. Don’t try to do it by yourself. Support from others is really important. Don’t overthink. Just start doing. Dream Big, Take Action.

Ken Matsumoto

Name: Ken Matsumoto

Website: www.artobjectgallery.com/kenspage.html

What do you do?
I do several things. As an artist/sculptor I make objects that reference nature and man or that reference nothing at all except things that appeal to me visually. These objects generally have no specific message.

I also operate an art gallery. This involves curating/installing exhibits and promoting the shows, maintaining the space, talking with artists and looking at their work, and talking with visitors about the work.

Where can we find your work?
Locally, you will find work at the ArtObjectGallery, Iwasawa Gallery, Los Gatos. Robert Allen Fine Arts, San Francisco. I also have public work placed at various locations in Santa Clara Valley (CPA @ Park and Almaden Aves, Japantown on Fifth street and numerous other site), Sacramento, CA (two locations), ASU Tempe, Arizona, UNC Pembroke, NC.

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
Making things is what I do whether it be an object, a space, or an exhibit. In each case I am driven by my curiosity and vision. There are a couple of reasons I have chosen to do these things. 1. I have always been able to draw attention to myself and gain some amount of respect for what I do. 2. In the case of the gallery operation there is a sense of giving of oneself, of doing good for others that I find is good for the spirit. 

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process? 
I have for some time considered the phrase “what you do and how you do it” as describing my philosophy on what makes a work “work.”  

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
Jimi Yamaichi has been involved in laying the groundwork for the continuation of Japantown San Jose’s cultural and historical education for the next generation. He has fought discrimination and racism both as an individual and as a member of the Japanese American community.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
The main character in the movie “Brazil” but I’m afraid that I am more like Don Quixote.

When do you get your best ideas?
Usually when I’m awake but I have found ideas in my dreams.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
Mostly stone and tools associated with cutting stone. I have devised machinery dedicated to the purpose of making/cutting stone in a particular fashion. I am also interested in flat glass, bronze, concrete,

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
I have a mfa in sculpture from sjsu (1983). It took years for me to leave school. It was there that I learned the importance of showing one’s work. Not for the need of selling or self-aggrandizement (altho that’s important as well) but for the information and response that may be available from the audience. This will either encourage or discourage; give courage for you to continue or not. At school there is an audience built in and people see your work and you feel like an artist but that's not really true because you are instead a student of the arts. Being an artist carries with it responsibilities that a student should be free of.

What would your creative work taste like?
Beets

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
Movies, hiking, bird watching, petting dogs, reading.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?

The nuns in the catholic schools I attended took the work I did seriously. I gained confidence.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
Look at stuff, build a stable base of classic technique in drawing, focus, be fearless.