Collaboration with Pilot Pen featuring their Enso Creative Tools with an interview in SixtySix Magazine.
It was a great pleasure to speak with Chicago-based magazine SixtySix about process and my personal journey through art. My hope is to inspire others and connect us with nuances of the human condition. Read the full interview on their website.
鯉の滝登り二 - Koi no Takinobori (Koi Climbing up the Waterfall). My work is Mixed Media Illustration but the main inspiration behind this piece was Iroshizuku Sumi (ink) in Asa-gao (Morning Glory) and Kon-Peki (Deep Cerulean Blue). These colors being so loose really reinforced the concept of Enso and free-flowing like water.
物の哀れ - Mono no Aware (Bitter-sweetness of Fading Beauty). Each piece is definitely inspired by colors in the Iroshizuku Sumi (ink) selection, particularly Chiku-Rin (Bamboo Forrest), Fuyu-Syogun (Old Man Winter), and Take-Sumi (Bamboo Charcoal). They are individual inks but together I imagined a majestic scenery of traditional sumi painting depicting landscape/nature with a female whose beauty, much like our natural world is fading in such short time, making it bitter sweet.
猫かぶり - Nekokaburi - Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing. This girl was inspired by those blue hue’s in the Iroshizuku Sumi (ink) selection but further informed by the silky smoothness of the Enso Creoroll Oil Pastel’s. Again visiting this mystical element that traditional Japanese ink paintings give with effortless brushstrokes, I depict this shroud of foreboding in the clouds just behind the figure. Nekokaburi literally translates to one wearing a cat on one’s head. Cat’s can be deceiving where one minute you look at there is a bottle on the edge of a table, the next it is on the ground. The cat is the culprit but would never flinch or let on that she is responsible. The subtle nuances in translating idiom’s can prove misunderstood so the best Western example is “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
Working in the studio. Photocredit: Toni Smailagic of Cre8Jax.
花吹雪 - Hanafubuki - Cherry Blossom Blizzard. The Enso Watercolor Brush Pens provide so much control when I think about traditional calligraphy elements. This lent itself well to the stems of the Cherry Blossom tree coupled with those smooth colors from the Creoroll Oil Pastels. A girl facing new beginnings with the cherry blossom petals flurrying about, signifying Spring is upon us.
Pilot Pen Enso Watercolor Brush Pens - Photocredit: Toni Smailagic of Cre8Jax.
顔は心の鏡也 - Kao wa Kokoro no Kagami Nari (The Face Becomes a Mirror to the Soul). This piece was totally inspired by the Enso Iroshizuku Sumi (ink) color Momiji (Autumn Leaves). Our lives can be cyclical, typified by the seasons in which we experience. I believe that sometimes, what we feel is often reflected in our expressions.
Studio views. Photocredit: Toni Smailagic of Cre8Jax.
疑心暗鬼 - Gishin Anki (A Doubtful Mind Creates Devil’s in the Dark). She was inspired by the Enso Iroshizuku Sumi (ink) color Yu-Yake 夕焼け which is generally considered the color of sunset, but more specifically, evening glow. With the setting sun behind her and the impending nightfall, her heart is filled with suspicion and creates these devil’s in the dark. The hair and outline of each of these girls was created by the Enso black liner pens. The precision I am able to get in creating texture in the hair is so fulfilling. Behind her, I collaged 1970’s womens’ magazine advertisements. I wanted to make a statement about women’s expectations in society at large. We see advertisements for cooking, cleaning, raising children, creams for anti-aging and aches and pains. In comparison to today’s female targeted ad’s in magazines, not much has changed, if at all. I think the line is becoming more blurred as gender identity and fluidity become more and more apparent.
Photocredit: Toni Smailagic of Cre8Jax.