My Amazing Friend Corinne Okada Takara

Yesterday I drove up to San Francisco to celebrate the amazing success of my friend Corinne Okada Takara. I had blogged about her upcoming show "Rhythms in Space" which is part of the Artists in Residence program at the de Young museum up in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

I think I met Corinne around 8 years ago when a colleague in the wedding industry who knew my love of working with beads and wire, introduced us because Corinne was creating sculptures out of wire and recycled papers. We met once and almost immediately became like sisters.

Here her friend Sue Kwon spoke about both the style and origin of Corinne's work along with listing some of her well deserved accolades and accomplishments including the news that recently one of her pieces was selected to be part of the US State Department's Art in Embassies program. It will be in the "Plurality" show in the Brussel's U.S. NATO embassy. She is also the first Asian American contemporary artist to be featured in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

A taleted duo... Corinne and couturier Colleen Quen. The models for the evening were wearing Corinne's imaginative hats and Colleen's gorgeous gowns.

Here Armando Sarabia from Get Your DO Up! preps the models with their second set of hats they modeled that evening. In total they did 4 sets showing off 20 of Corinne's hats.

Ready and waiting.

And the show began.

LOL and because I was her hat model for the postcards my face was everywhere. On the sign at the entrance to the gallery... The post cards sent out by the museum... On the museum website...

And on the clear glass projection screens that ran various videos and slideshows during the show.

And this is me, wearing my own hat by Corinne that even lights up, being caught in the act of capturing images for this blog post by artist Lily Dong! I hadn't seen Lily for years since she closed her custom couture bridal gown studio to pursue a new career in fine art. She has now moved on to both jewelry design and canvas art. It was a really nice surprise and treat to see her there :D

Over the years I have watched the most amazing metamorphosis of my incredibly talented friend. Not only is she an accomplished and sought after artist, she is also a great mom. It would be easy for Corinne to become overwhelmed or unbalanced but she is always spending time with her kids and always nurturing their creativity. That is an amazing thing for any child to receive from a parent. My own mom was constantly at the craft shop when I was a kid finding projects to try out. I loved it and fell into each project with eager anticipation. When one was mastered, she would find another.

Corinne even created and began teaching a claymation class at her son's school. One of their projects, made by two first graders and one second grader, went on to win the Claymation Situation, Excellence in Media, International Student Media Festival 2008, Orlando, FL. Independent animation production and the Claymation Situation, Best Animation, CEEF ePIC Film Festival, 2008, Cupertino, CA. CLICK HERE to view the video.



And for you footwear fashionistas... Even Corinne's shoes were special that night. She and the models wore shoes by Kailia Footwear an eco-friendly shoe company. Designed by Nancy Dong and produced in Italy, the stylish shoes use water-based glues and the soles are made of chrome free recycled leather.