The illustration of Hiromi Sato resembles the cutest scrapbook you’ve ever seen. Full of textiles, buttons and wool, Sato layers patterns to create collage-like images with fairy tale themes. I love the sweet mori girl aesthetic of her work. Enjoy.
Nudes and Kimono: Sumptuous Textiles by Evan Wilson
Evan Wilson is a painter specializing in realistic paintings with the same kind of natural lighting techniques used by the Old Masters of the 17th century. Much like the Old Masters, Wilson uses rich textiles in his work, contrasting the sheen of silk and embroidery with the luminescence of skin. The result are rich, seductive works. Enjoy.
Mod Pop Punk: Contemporary Kimono by Modern Antenna
Modern Antenna creates amazing contemporary kimono designs. Their simple and bold graphic prints are incredibly versatile, and can be styled in fashions ranging from chic to cute. J-pop group SCANDAL rocked these Brit-punk inspired co-ordinates for their album SCANDAL SHOW.
Check out the official Modern Antenna site here (all Japanese unfortunately).
SCANDAL pics via Comtrya Sugoi.
Kimono-clad Women: The Work of Manami Koike
While there’s not a lot of information about these paintings by Manami Koike, the work speaks for itself. Delicately painted as if in soft focus, these works reflect on the place of the Japanese woman within the Western imagination, and the mysterious allure the kimono-clad woman, whether she’s an oiran, geisha or even a virginal bride.
Textile Landscapes: The Kimono of Itchiku Kubota
Itchiku Kubota is an artist recognised for his unique contributions to the art of kimono. A master of traditional decorative techniques, he attempted to recreate the lost tradition of tsujigahana. After decades of experimentation Kubota eventually merged modern innovations with ancient tradition to create his own unique decorative technique. Kubota’s planned masterpiece was a series of eighty kimono called the Symphony of Light, in which vast panoramas, flowed between kimono. While Kubota was unable to finish this work before his death, his son and daughter continue their father’s work today.
Creepy Cute: Paintings by Ciou
This is part two of my previous post featuring Ciou‘s creepy cute work. While my previous post focussed on her black and white ink drawings, this post features the same crazy work in full color. So expect more doll-like heroines and assorted anthropomorphised animals, as well as a cascade of morbid symbolism and cute motifs.
Enjoy.
Tattoo Flash: Drawings by Ciou
Ciou‘s spiky-lined ink drawings seem perfect for tattoo flash. Girls with over-sized eyes and serpentine hair are paired with Disney animals on crack. Ciou combines these sweet/scary characters with Dios De Los Muertos inspired symbolism; flowers with coffins for petals, an upside-down cross on a party hat, and fingers grow into the branches of a tree.
Expect to see another post dedicated to color works by this talented artist.
Bubblegum Tokyo: The Work of Karasumaru Yumi
Karasumaru Yumi‘s work combines images of Japan’s past and present. The recurring image of the atomic bomb collides against images of the fashion-conscious youths of Harajuku. And yet Karasumaru’s distinctive candy-coloured palette seems to somehow reduce these images to the same thing; yet another image in a media saturated culture. Indeed Japanese popular culture is saturated by references to the bomb in everything from anime like Akira, to Godzilla movies.
As the generation that experienced the war is dying off, so Japan’s influential history is becoming increasingly difficult for young people to imagine. And yet the photographic image represents history, something as real as the images of contemporary Tokyo. It is this contradiction which lies at the heart of Karasumaru’s work.
Doll Portraits: The Work of Emma Mount
Emma Mount‘s portraits of Blythe and Pullip dolls, walk the line between cute and scary. With bobble heads and big eyes, these dolls are definitely a matter of love or hate. Although plenty of enthusiasts have come to love their exaggerated proportions and quirky expressions.
A large part of these dolls’ appeal is their almost infinite customizability. Creator go to extraordinary lengths; re-rooting the hair, re-painting the lips, replacing the eyechips, repainting the skin, and sand-matting or spray finish matting the faces. The result are dolls that are truly unique, and serve as a form of self-expression for their owners. In this way Emma Mount’s works are not only a portrait of the dolls themselves, but a reflection of their creators.
Sweet Skits by Naoshi
The works of Naoshi are like one-scene skits; surreal plays with a deadpan cast of anthropomorphized animals, foods and everyday objects. Naoshi’s distinctive visual style is based on a large part on his use of sunae, shiny and colorful sand which gives his works their bright color palette and soft texture. Naoshi uses sunae to create a beautiful and sparkling world, filled with surreal characters living their everyday lives. Enjoy.
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