Whenever I'm sad or kind of reflective of things I go back to the pictures I took in Japan, Japan is like the Miyazaki movies, beautiful elegant and small, with some terrifying underlying cultural tensions and history and stories, and some terrifying cultural realities. But on the other hand very cute and very safe.
Here are some links to my Japanese photographs. I'm very grateful to George Lucas who used to pay me a lot of money so I used them wisely to visit Japan again.
https://www.mirenarhee.art/portfolio/some-kind-of-japan-part-5/
https://www.mirenarhee.art/project-type/japan/
Because I spent some of the best and most beautiful parts of my life in Japan I decided that when I die I want to be buried Japanese style, My body cremated and my ashes spread over Central Park near Strawberry Fields.
I also want all my arts and articles sold and and a school be established for kids to learn at the intersection of art technology and science, where kids will be able to spend time creatively away from abusive family members.
I personally suffered tremendous abuse as a child and I feel it's my responsibility to make sure child suffering is reduced in the future and kids spend more time being creative. That means being separate from their abusers.
I remember the terror my mom inflicted on me as a child, I think she was not really well but that's not really an excuse, maybe it was a failure of the state or maybe it was the failure of the entire community who knows. I remember years later she would scream abuses after I found out that she was telling people that I'm a prostitute in the UK and such. I'm not really sure if I should laugh or cry. Remember being told by a family member also that I'm crazy that's why I don't have kids. I know that these people can never hurt me anymore because I only see them every few years or so, who knows it's possible we will never see each other again. I forgive you.
For me leaving my abusers behind was the best decision I ever made in my life as a grown-up. I simply left. I created a big ocean of distance between us and they could never hurt me anymore. Once I remember I tried to reconcile with my abusers and that was the biggest mistake I ever made. So I made it kind of a point at least to myself to know - never make deals with your abusers.
When I was teaching I had many kids who were suffering at the hands of abusive people around them and had many encounters with tremendous suffering from the children.
I found that kids could completely immerse themselves in creating art on the computer as a way to cope with abuse to forget the terrible situations around them.
I believe art is a gift, in addition to art I believe science and technology can also be helpful in empowering the creative side of people. And the third aspect is the indispensable part of nature, the beauty of nature which has always been the way Japanese people make art.
In Japan art is created in harmony with nature. They call it man-made nature. It is a harmonious extension of creativity that comes from contemplating the beauty of very simple things like a flower or a leaf or a waterfall.