Vanitas 31 "The Call"

The piece I finished earlier this year (before I finished "Spring") but did not have a chance to share online. I had to wait until the show with this piece being part of was officially advertised on social media. It is "Vanitas 31" and subtitled "The Call". I came up with the concept and produced this drawing after receiving an invitation from Beautiful Bizarre Magazine to exhibit my work in their upcoming group show called "Halcyon Days". The show is going to take place in November 2022 at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, California. The theme of the exhibition is longing for long-gone happier and more peaceful days. I intended this piece to talk about a kind of call to action, hence the title "The Call". The action it is suggesting is not a violent upheaval but rather a personal imaginative kind. My model is about to release her paper plane. She doesn't know where it is going, but wishes it will reach its right destination, a happier place, past or future. The color of the plane reflects the blue of the skies in the happier times.

Looking back, I think I was subconsciously influenced by the January 6th insurrection last year and what happened afterwards. Watching those right wing extremists storming the Capital building and seeing people getting beat up and killed on the screen disturbed me tremendously and I was also infuriated when some people even sympathized with those behaviors.

I was listening to Mal Waldron's "The Call" when I was working on this drawing coincidentally. It is a dark brooding tune and reflected my emotional state at the time. And I thought the title perfectly fit the theme of the piece.

Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Finalist

For the 3rd time my work was chosen to be one of the finalists for the 50 RAYMAR Traditional Art Award Finalists of the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize! I feel so honored and humbled to be included in this group of crazy talented artists. The quality of the submitted art works has been consistently getting higher and the competition getting stiffer every year. That makes being selected even more special.

Arcadia Contemporary Five And Under Exhibition

I was fortunate enough to be part of this annual exhibition at Arcadia Contemporary in New York City again this year. I contributed one new piece I recently finished: "Vanitas 32 (Spring)". I couldn't be there in person for the opening but my artist friend Leigh Brooklyn was there and she was so kind to photograph my pieces and send them to me. Thanks Leigh!!!

ModPortrait 2021 at MEAM

Here is a little video of the show ModPortrait 2021 currently happening at MEAM Museum in Barcelona, Spain. I am very honored and humbled that My Vanitas 30 is included in this show. 

Here is a short introductory video on Youtube.

Update on Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 05:12PM by Hiroshi Hayakawa

Snapshots of the wall my work is hanging on. A fellow artist and super gifted Sara Gallagher was so kind that she sent me these photos she took at the opening. Her self portrait and mine are displayed on the same wall.

New drawing "Spring" ("Vanitas 32")

I just finished a new drawing entitled "Spring". It is actually a part of my Vanitas series and "Spring" is a sort of its subtitle. I used Mitsubishi Hi-Uni pencils for the most part except for the bottom 1/3 where you see a poppy in the black background. That was all Faber-Castell Pitt matt graphite pencils. So this drawing has 2 different surface finishes: gloss and matte.

The concept is that the textured background symbolizes a state of decay, erosion and the white poppy symbolizes peaceful death. But this flower also brings up an idea of new life/rebirth in spring. My model is suspended in between those 2 opposite ends of the spectrum, living in both of those dimensions simultaneously. She is affected by the decay of life but her body language and gaze express a sense of longing for spiritual rebirth.

This is my very first round drawing and I had a special frame custom made. I think the drawing looks good in this frame. This is going to be shown at Arcadia Contemporary in New York this summer for their Five And Under show.