She is 9 months old now. She sheds so much and her shedding is all over our living room.

I went to New York to receive my silver medal from the Society of Illustrators a few weeks ago. It has been almost 20 years since my last visit. I heard NYC has gotten much safer, and was surprised to find that SOHO has changed a lot since then. I saw many design furniture stores as well as fashion brand stores like UNIQLO, Camper, etc. It was just like Aoyama in Tokyo. Apple stores had always been handy when I need to use wifi on my iPhone in Manhattan during the stay.

Anyhow, it was great to meet all the illustrators I admire at the show opening. I am especially grateful to Yuko Shimizu and Josh Cochran for inviting me to their studio. I also had a chance to meet with my rep Sally for the first time after we have been working together for 10 years. Here is a set of photos we shot in NY.

The above image is my illustration for The New York Times Travel section. I picked up the copy when I was in Manhattan. I happened to be staying at Westin Times Square, so it was just a couple of minutes walk to visit Rodrigo (Art Director).

She was about two months old when she came to our home.

This is my favorite shot. Amazing!

Here is our dog, Chai, 3 months old. She came to our home at the end of last year, and has become a member of my family since then. She is a Shiba inu, a Japanese dog breed. Even thought the fact that this is the second time for me to live with a Shiba inu, she has been just amazing, full of wonder.

You can view more photos of Chai below.
www.flickr.com/photos/_mieko/sets/72157622798797245/
The pages will be updated often.

Here I was getting ready for the presentaiton. I showed my work on screen and talked about them. It was a three hour lecture.

So I went to do the 167th Choice last month. There were approx. 1900 pieces from 600 entrants, and I had to choose ten winners and six associate winners. It was very exciting experience.

It is called biokite but actually just a kite made into a shape of bird. There are a variety of biokites available, such as condor, falcon (hayabusa), seagull, or even butterflies. I tried flying the kite today, but it was very frustrating as the wind stopped so often. On the contrary, when the wind was too strong, the kite flipped upside down and hit the ground. Thought it was quite difficult to handle. I also felt the string was super thin and hard to find when I had to rewind it.

www.biokite.com/