Friday, June 6, 2008

Super Awesome Fun Island Time

This is the place where I'm calling my home. It's in the Kuka section of the town and island called Oshima. The bottom floor is a shop where things like seaweed, small dried fish, dried octopus and other sea prodcuts are sold. This shop sells the 7th best small dried fish in Japan!



This was drawn when the sun was just coming up and I saw the neighbor putting out food for the birds... among other things... Has anyone seen the site Neighborhole?



My project for the summer is to draw people from the island of Ukashima, just off of the cost of the island, Oshima, where I'm staying. The population is roughly 260 people and I want to draw as many people as possible. They're incredibly busy and sometimes just giving me a half hour of their time is a feat in itself. This woman is the kind woman who let's me stay at her house and occasionally draw her.



When I wasn't around I was told all sort of things that explain quite a lot about the nature of the island. This woman is roughly 73 years old, so she was born into a completely different world. Many of the women on this island were absolutely afraid to death of having their portraits drawn because many of them were told that they were not attractive and would never get husbands. This woman was told that her family would buy her a house and teach her to sew so she could attract a husband.

While drawing Shinmura-san on the left, a seriously, seriously, srlsy, 2 inch bee appeared and scard the shit out of me. The first thing they told me to do was not to run and of course I ran. Ya Oba-cahn, in the middle, is the sister of the woman above here and just showed up for breakfast at my house and I drew her with bonnet and all. I caught Takoya Oji-chan just as he was getting out of the shower and drew him in his natural environment of sake and cigarettes. He was a complete pleasure to draw and it hurt me to say that I wouldn't be able to drink with him that night.



This is the grandfather of the Homura family who's house I'm living at. I've never met any of my grandfathers, which seems to be a typical pattern everywhere. When I asked the widowed grandmother if I could draw his picture she smiled and said that he'd be happy to see the drawing.



After returning to Oshima for what was going to be a breif break from drawing at Ukashima, I was told that things were too busy on the island and they're like to have some more time before I'd come back. I've been taking up other projects as well in the meantime and hopefully will be able to return either tomorrow or the day after. In order to keep my self from getting out of art shape I did a portrait of Mako as she was just about to fall asleep.

2 comments:

jenny. said...

i love the grandfather drawing! so glad to see you're doing well (+ making beautiful work) in japan!

Anna said...

Oh wow Sean! Everything there looks so wonderful and beautiful and all your artwork looks amazing! I'd love to see more of those small drawings of the city youre living in!
Keep it up!!