Art on the Run

This week I did one of my routine visits to the permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno. I try to go at least every few months to keep up with any changes to the main gallery. This time around they had moved things quite a bit, unfortunately keeping one of my favorites in storage, Joaquín Sorolla's  The Drinking Jug , but rightly bringing out a Vermeer and Tiepolo I hadn't seen before.  <-- Family of Darius Saint Praxedis --> Before I share my analysis, this is just an anecdote, but... Sometimes I get funny reactions while drawing at museums.  Maybe its because I was too tired that day to conceal I was drawing, or maybe it was just the character of the tour groups, moving through the gallery at break-neck speed. At one point I held up my pencil in an admittedly stereotypical 'artist taking a measurement' pose, and someone snapped like 3 photos of me. Shutter sound and all! I had to suppress my laughter! What's the deal with that?! We...

Last year I obtained my Japanese drivers license. Leading up to the test day I scoured the internet for as many resources as possible in preparation. Unfortunately, most of what I found online was highly outdated, only available in Japanese, or otherwise difficult to use. I post this here now in the hopes it will be useful to others who are looking for resources to prepare for their own test. (This is literally just a guide on taking the test. It doesn't have anything to do with art- sorry!) What's the test? If you live in Japan for a long time, chances are you want to convert your driving license to a Japanese one. Depending on the country you may need to take a test- this one! How this works depends on your country. In the case of United States licenses, whether you need to take a practical test in addition to the written test or not depends on the state. A friend of mine had theirs from Hawaii, so they only had to take a written test. My license was from California which me...

There is a song in Japan called “Osakana-Tengoku” (おさかな天国).  “Sakana” means fish, and “tengoku” means heaven/paradise.  So, Fish-Heaven.  Predictably, it’s a song about fish. Here it is on Youtube. “Fish fish fish If you eat fish Your mind, mind, mind You’ll be smart! Fish fish fish If you eat fish Your body, body, body You’ll be healthy! Now, let’s all eat fish! The fish are waiting for us!” Everything that isn’t the chorus is just fish puns.  Osakana-Tengoku is was originally created in 1991.  It was commissioned by the National Federation of Fisheries Cooperative Associations' Seafood Center to increase fish consumption among kids.  They distributed cassette tapes to stores and supermarkets across Japan as a marketing campaign and it quickly became a staple, even achieving success as a single in the box office. Cute, right? Maybe. Maybe not. For one, it's common for this song to have it’s own dedicated boombox in the fish section.  That might n...

The Tokyo Western Museum of Art (minus the 1000 people lined up outside) Today I went to the Monet exhibition at the Tokyo Western Museum of art. There was a special exhibition on display with a focus on his paintings of water lilies. I had meant to simply visit the main galleries that day, but who can say no to Monet? I coincidentally arrived just as the museum was opening and hopped in line. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect going in. Monet is perhaps one of the most famous artists of all time. Maybe I'm just a hipster, but whenever it comes to popular artists I always fight a moment of doubt. Is the acclaim really worth it? Time and time again, my bias is disproved when I actually see the works in person; however, I'd like to talk about that bias for a minute, because I don't think it's just me. I first came face to face with this bias when I had the opportunity to see Van Gogh's Sunflowers in person for the first time several years ago. Of course,...