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“Where is there a place for me?” Where should I be? What should surround me? A question I had carried for a long time met four photographs and became an artist’s book. An island standing alone. Cats side by side. People facing one another. Silver grass, shining together in a cluster. Feelings of many kinds linger beside me, then fade, then return. As they do, my own place seems to shift a little each day. I would like to share this question with those who open JARI. Where are you now? Is your heart at ease there? Each time JARI unfolds, another place comes into view. Open it, and see where your heart comes to rest.

“Perhaps the people who love my photographs feel the world much as I do.” Fifteen years have passed since I began taking photographs. One day, I wanted to look again at the pictures that had quietly accumulated on an external hard drive. To make them into a book I could hold, and open whenever I felt drawn to them. We Were Born with Busy Minds, Weren’t We? brings together a selection of those photographs and the thoughts that came to me as I took them. Would you like to know which scenes made me stop, and what I was feeling then? I wonder what kinds of scenery draw you in. If, as you turn the pages, you find a feeling that resembles your own that day, I would be glad if you stayed with it for a while. On days when you want only to rest, I hope this book can sit quietly beside you.

The ways of seeing and the words gathered in [We Were Born with Busy Minds, Weren’t We?] take a new form here. The form I had imagined stayed with me, even after it proved impossible to produce at the print shop. So I made it by hand. Words lie on translucent paper, with photographs showing through from behind. Separate, then together, the words and images overlap and draw apart. Each photograph is printed on DURIX photo paper and torn out by hand, leaving the edges rough and free. Even when they hold the same photographs, each copy takes a slightly different shape beneath my fingers. Each GYEOLPYEON title is made in a limited edition of fifty copies, every one with a character of its own. Take a moment to notice the texture of the copy that reaches your hands. I hope you will feel the space between the photographs and the words, too. The GYEOLPYEON series will continue with other photographs, in other sizes.

The ways of seeing and the words gathered in [We Were Born with Busy Minds, Weren’t We?] take a new form here. The form I had imagined stayed with me, even after it proved impossible to produce at the print shop. So I made it by hand. Words lie on translucent paper, with photographs showing through from behind. Separate, then together, the words and images overlap and draw apart. Each photograph is printed on DURIX photo paper and torn out by hand, leaving the edges rough and free. Even when they hold the same photographs, each copy takes a slightly different shape beneath my fingers. Each GYEOLPYEON title is made in a limited edition of fifty copies, every one with a character of its own. Take a moment to notice the texture of the copy that reaches your hands. I hope you will feel the space between the photographs and the words, too. The GYEOLPYEON series will continue with other photographs, in other sizes.

“Should I really buy a sewing machine when I’m still this much of a beginner?” “Wouldn’t having one help me get better?” I went back and forth between a beginner’s doubts and the wish for a better machine. Before long, my head was so full of sewing machines that I made a book. How do our thoughts grow more solid as we make things with our hands? Thoughts Made by Hand follows the gradual deepening of my interest in sewing, from starting with a domestic machine to bringing home an industrial one. Rather than teaching sewing techniques, it looks into the questions and uncertainties that anyone beginning to sew might encounter. It gathers the knowledge and practical tips I picked up while looking for answers. This book is for those wondering whether to begin sewing, and for those curious about the excitement, mistakes, and discoveries that come with giving yourself to something you love. If there’s something you’ve been wanting to try, I’m cheering you on.