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arts & culture
HOROSCOPES
WHAT'S YOUR
SIGN?
KANSAN.COM | THURSDAY, SEPT. 8, 2016
Aries
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Get out and be free. Slip the bonds of your favorite chair and taste something new.
Avoid emotional spending.
Draw strength from your roots. Find beauty and drink
Taurus
Gemini
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
(April 20-May 20) Put up provisions for the future. Harvest and bank away summer growth for winter. Work together with a partner and share the proceeds. It's more fun, too.
(MAY 21-JUNE 20)
Listen to another view.
Negotiate your way through some minor adjustments with your partner. Tune up your own personal space.
Cultivate peace and it rubs off on someone else.
Cancer
(June 21-July 22)
Work demands more attention today and tomorrow.
Keep your healthy routines, despite temptation to blow them off. Recharge batteries after a long day with exercise, good food and rest.
Leo
(July 23-Aug.22)
(July 23-Aug. 22) Practice your arts, sports and enthusiasts. Get into the flow. Strengthen your infrastructure. Use the best tools you can afford. Mental and physical discipline pay
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Home and family take center stage now. Finish a delicate job before going out. An elder comes up with a perfect answer. Experience is the
Virgo
best teacher.
Libra
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Express passion, whether in words, notes or brushstrokes. Push up against a creative wall. Discipline allows for advancement. Flow like water, in the direction of resistance
least resistance
(Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Make deals and fulfill them.
Don't stir up jealousy or lose what you've got to get more. Scrutinize nebulous aspects. Check facts before posting. Wait for better
Scorpio Oct 23-Nov 21
Sagittarius
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You're especially strong and creative. Notice the
emotional mood of the situation. Empathy and compassion provide peace. Take practical actions and have patience with the rest. Less interference is better
interference is better.
Capricorn
(Dec. 22-Jan.19)
Make plans for upcoming events and trips. Keep your budget. Study your destinations. Consider where you've been and where you're going. Rely on another's experience and strength.
Aquarius
(Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Networking with your friends and community creates new opportunities.
Share resources and information. Gather with people you admire. Passions may run high. Maintain optimism Remember what's really
important.
Pisces
(Feb. 19-March 20) New information threatens old assumptions. Get reassurance from a partner. Prepare for an upcoming test with discipline to win. Get team support if necessary. Bond through the experience.
Samantha Sexton/KANSAN
Fuko Ito, a graduate printmaking student, illustrates fantasies and the pain of coming back to reality.
Fuko Ito reflects on life through her art
▶ SAMANTHA SEXTON @Sambiscuit
SAMANTHA SEXTON
over 6,000 miles from home, Fuko Ito, a second-year graduate student from Kobe, Japan, has found a new family through her print work at the University.
Growing up in a dual-income household, Ito found herself in an English-speaking international daycare simply because it was close to her parents. This quickly led to confusion as Ito found that she could speak English better than her native Japanese.
"It must have been so weird for my parents," Ito said. "I would be talking in my sleep or to my teachers and they had no idea what I was saying."
Ito's proficiency in English helped broaden her choices in life and she eventually found herself in Lawrence studying printmaking. It so said that, initially, her work focused on feelings of confusion and not belonging. Now, however, Ito said that the Lawrence and University communities have become a second family.
Lawrence has such a robust printmaking community and KU has great faculty that have made me feel really welcome."
Fuko Ito Graduate student
"Lawrence has such a robust printmaking community and KU has great faculty that have made me feel really welcome," Ito said. "Plus I really prefer the openness of the community."
Ito's art, for example, questions what might be beyond her own experiences. She pulls images from her romanticized and fanciful imaginings of tropical islands and far-off places.
"Printmaking is very democratic as a medium." Ito said. "You can distribute your images; that's the whole point behind its invention. There's far more room to question and debate within the medium than in Japan."
Ito said the Japanese printmaking community is interested in discussing technique and classic styles rather than the personal connection between the artist, the art and the community, which is something she said frustrated her.
"It's almost pitiful to exaggerate what you can't attain," Ito said. "We always over emphasize different cultures and different places but that's just because it's something new."
She said being somewhat superficial brings more meaning to her work, as it shows the reality of not being able to live out one's fantasies.
"It's a pathetic, crushing feeling to be fantasizing and lost in my imagination to suddenly be pulled back to reality," Ito said. "I also like to exotify geography just because of my experience describing Japan to Americans who've never been."
Leigh Kaulbach, a fellow second-year graduate student in the printmaking program, said that Ito has an impressive, almost eerie, talent at giving human characteristics to anything, which serves to really hit that pitiful feeling.
"She can draw a sock and you can feel anything from inspiration to sorrow just depending on how she drew it," Kaulbach said. "There's
quiet, but real, emotion in everything she makes."
Kaulbach said that Ito is the first person that other students come to with questions or for advice.
"She has such a wealth of knowledge but also real intuition when it comes to printmaking," Kaulbach said. "She's so comfortable with the medium, it's easy to see how she's able to change her subject and textures so seamlessly."
Ito expects to graduate in 2018 and after that, she hopes to remain in the United States and teach.
"I've discovered that you can create a family and community anywhere with the right mindset so I'm not worried about leaving Kansas or staying out of Japan," Ito said. "I'm really excited to see what comes next."
Edited by Missy
Minear
Samples of Ito's work
Samantha Sexton/KANSAN
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