‘Shibboleth.’ In an effort to dabble in real media again, I picked up a little watercolor set and tried to finalize a self-portrait that had been sitting in my sketchbook for a while. I inked it the way I always used to ink (4+ years ago) with some Copic pens. I don’t really like the result, though. I remembered why I stopped inking… the final drawing lost whatever movement and feeling I liked about the original sketch. Maybe I’ll try switching over to brushes for inking, or I’ll just go back to… not inking! I dunno. (The speech bubble says “Atama ga masshiro,” which literally means “my head is completely white” but is actually the equivalent of the English “My mind’s gone blank.”From Wikipedia: ‘A shibboleth is a word, sound, or custom that a person unfamiliar with its significance may not pronounce or perform correctly relative to those who are familiar with it. It is used to identify foreigners or those who do not belong to a particular class or group of people. It also refers to features of language, and particularly to a word or phrase whose pronunciation identifies a speaker as belonging to a particular group.’)
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‘Shibboleth.’

In an effort to dabble in real media again, I picked up a little watercolor set and tried to finalize a self-portrait that had been sitting in my sketchbook for a while. I inked it the way I always used to ink (4+ years ago) with some Copic pens. I don’t really like the result, though. I remembered why I stopped inking… the final drawing lost whatever movement and feeling I liked about the original sketch. Maybe I’ll try switching over to brushes for inking, or I’ll just go back to… not inking! I dunno. 

(The speech bubble says “Atama ga masshiro,” which literally means “my head is completely white” but is actually the equivalent of the English “My mind’s gone blank.”

From Wikipedia: ‘A shibboleth is a word, sound, or custom that a person unfamiliar with its significance may not pronounce or perform correctly relative to those who are familiar with it. It is used to identify foreigners or those who do not belong to a particular class or group of people. It also refers to features of language, and particularly to a word or phrase whose pronunciation identifies a speaker as belonging to a particular group.’)

Surface Buy prints here! My artist’s statement from the show: For the theme of “The Other Side of the Surface,” I wanted to try and portray an emotion that most people try to hide. The emotion I chose is anxiety. “There are butterflies in my stomach” is a common English idiom used to describe that nervous feeling in your gut. I always thought it was a cute phrase, but after teaching it to some Japanese friends I realized what a gross image it really is. I think the gross image is even more appropriate for the emotion. “表面の裏側”のテーマで、人間の隠れた感情を表現しました。私が選んだ感情は“不安”です。英語に“お腹にチョウチョがいる”という表現があります。意味は不安や心配事がある時の体の状態です。私は今までかわいい表現だと思っていましたが、日本人にこの表現を教えていくなかで、なんて気持ち悪いイメージだろうと気付きました。しかし、その気持ち悪いイメージこそ人間の不安な感情を現していると思います。
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Surface

Buy prints here!

My artist’s statement from the show:

For the theme of “The Other Side of the Surface,” I wanted to try and portray an emotion that most people try to hide. The emotion I chose is anxiety. “There are butterflies in my stomach” is a common English idiom used to describe that nervous feeling in your gut. I always thought it was a cute phrase, but after teaching it to some Japanese friends I realized what a gross image it really is. I think the gross image is even more appropriate for the emotion.

“表面の裏側”のテーマで、人間の隠れた感情を表現しました。私が選んだ感情は“不安”です。英語に“お腹にチョウチョがいる”という表現があります。意味は不安や心配事がある時の体の状態です。私は今までかわいい表現だと思っていましたが、日本人にこの表現を教えていくなかで、なんて気持ち悪いイメージだろうと気付きました。しかし、その気持ち悪いイメージこそ人間の不安な感情を現していると思います。