Hakone Dream Child

This interpretation and influence of Japanese culture was drawn out from the stain of watercolor splashed across paper. The imagery is built by drawing upon the natural markings left by the movement and drying of the pigments and based on my memory of visiting Hakone, Japan, and the international sculpture gardens at Chokoku-no-Mori . This process uses pareidolia, that is perceiving recognizable pattern in chaotic information such as finding shapes in clouds, to define objects. The excitement and uncertainty of visiting a new country shifts perception as it stirs the sub conscience. In dreams there is an attempt to order this new information. I used traditional Japanese colors - indigo and vermillion - and identifiable Japanese symbolism and pattern making to ground the disruptive effect of being in an unfamiliar cultural environment. This artwork was part of my Japanizi exhibition held in 2019 at the Macleay Valley Community Art Gallery, Gladstone, NSW, Australia.