japanese girl

1999
watercolor on arches cold press
11" x 23.5"

this piece was a bit of a rebellious act against traditional standards of painting...or something like that. they say that you should always try to fill up the negative space, and i obviously made no attempt at doing that. but putting scenery in the background would just have taken away from the intricacy of the japanese girl and her outfit. since then i've obviously been a bit more rebellious with my gaudy abstract korean egg tempera paintings, which i see as evidence of my growth as an artist.

i'd definitely have prefered a korean girl, but unfortunately a photo of a japanese one was all i could find. if you're unfamiliar with the history between koreans and japanese people, the japs raped and pillaged korea from 1910–1945 and forced it into submission.