JEEPNEY PRESS Lala Lopez De Leon

Walk with me: Hiroo / Shibuya and Discovering Freyja no Sekai

By Lala Lopez de Leon

It’s the first day of the long weekend towards the one-year delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and the perfect time to catch up with friends, for another “just us” outing! No boyfriends or husbands – their lunch and dinners prepared in advance, so no complaints expected.

First stop was the Courtyard Hiroo, a truly chic property that houses an art gallery, a café, a yoga studio, and Freyja No Heya art and English classroom, and the venue for Milena’s artist friend Freyja Dean’s SACHI Solo Exhibition 2021 (July 2nd – 24th).

The first time I saw Freyja’s paintings, I gasped…Fantastic! Today was a reconfirmation of how fantastic her works really are, as well as the stories they tell. For the rest of us non-artists, these stories serve to guide us into Freyja’s world and help us see and feel the works as she created and intended them to be. Rowena said the Lung Ta painting seems to pull her in and up onto the clouds.

Freyja has amazing stories to tell, and this Demeter and Persephone painting was a subject of one such story; which is apparently very personal to her. I may be partial to this one, though, for a childish reason - my fascination for dragon flies.

But I have to admit, this one is my favorite piece in her Sachi collection. The Rich Old Chestnut Forest painting has drawn me into it with all of my senses. I see no green in this canvas, but the sense of the forest was just as strong. And, these lines that Freyja chose to caption this particular work affected me even more.

“To be poor and to have trees is to be completely rich in ways that money can never buy.” From The Faithful Gardener by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

It was time to move on to the next a air of the day, but these fantastic works got us pausing and stalling to no end.

I forgot to mention, Freyja studied BA Scientific and Natural History Illustration, and Forensic Facial Reconstruction. More gasps! www.freyjadean.com

I have avoided Shibuya for too long, and I think everyone could guess why. For most of this little circle of friends, Shibuya was a witness to the many beginnings in our life in Japan; so, you simply cannot go on ignoring it.

Well, I got the surprise of my life! Getting o the bus from Hiroo, I felt like a provincial girl stepping on to the big city for the first time! It’s not the Shibuya that I knew! Obviously, it’s still Tokyu Corporation territory - but what a difference a year makes!