Have you ever seen this work ? I just came across it on the blog Art Found Out, here. It is a body of work done by Kouzaki Hiromu, an elderly Japanese man, in the last 15 years of his life. He started at age 80 to make envelopes out of paper he found around the house. They were not thought of by him as art. They were something to keep his hands busy. And he made thousands of them. His granddaughter, Fujii Sakaka published a book in 2007 of selected envelopes. A large number of the envelopes were shown for the first time outside of Japan, in Dublin in 2011 at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, here. These photos came from there and can be enlarged for better viewing on that site. Also, Sri Threads, here, had an article about the show back in 2011. I'm going to see if I can find more images elsewhere. I am always so fascinated and excited by projects like these that grow out of a simple need and become a deep exploration. To me this is the very essence of art-making. I imagine the process to be very meditative and engrossing. I would love to get my hands on the book!
