BATS' LUNAR PLAYGROUND
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
FALL 2021
ACRYLICS ON CEDAR W/RED OAK FRAME
FALL 2021
It’s funny how several unrelated chance encounters can lead to the creation of a painting. Case in point—Halloween was about to happen, and I started having indirect encounters with bats. First, as I was reading Japanese Art and Design: The Toshiba Gallery (edited by Joe Earle and ©1986), I saw an image of an ukiyo-e print by Utagawa Kunisada showing a woman whose kosode had a design of three bats encircling a crescent moon (Earle, Joe (ed.), ©1986, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, page 140). This inspired me to begin thinking about doing a similar painting of bats. Next, our daughter Jessie’s cat The Fella caught a bat, and she sent a picture of the poor victim. And finally, while scrolling through Instagram, I saw a Late Edo to Showa Period bronze hire fire container for sale by a Japanese & Oriental Arts & Antiques shop out of Toyama, Japan (kobijutsu.matsuyama). The bowl had ten bats along its rim. All of these occurrences, along with upcoming Halloween, played a large part in influencing the design of my painting. In addition, I was inspired by both the Hilton of Cadbol Stone and a Japanese saya-gata textile pattern in designing my crescent moon. The simplified design for the bats was influenced by both Northwest Coast Native and Celtic art traditions. I made the frame out of red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction methods. I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.
DIMENSIONS: HEIGHT: 18 ¼ inches
WIDTH: 15 inches
PRICE $475
DIMENSIONS: HEIGHT: 18 ¼ inches
WIDTH: 15 inches
PRICE $475
Gary Giovane
La Conner, WA
gioart13@yahoo.com
La Conner, WA
gioart13@yahoo.com